Ecogeography and utility to plant breeding of the crop wild relatives of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.).
Crop wild relatives (CWR) are a rich source of genetic diversity for crop improvement. Combining ecogeographic and phylogenetic techniques can inform both conservation and breeding. Geographic occurrence, bioclimatic, and biophysical data were used to predict species distributions, range overlap and niche occupancy in 36 taxa closely related to sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). Taxa lacking comprehensive ex situ conservation were identified. The predicted distributions for 36 Helianthus taxa identified substantial range overlap, range asymmetry and niche conservatism. Specific taxa (e.g., Helianthus deblis Nutt., Helianthus anomalus Blake, and Helianthus divaricatus L.) were identified as targets for traits of interest, particularly for abiotic stress tolerance, and adaptation to extreme soil properties. The combination of techniques demonstrates the potential for publicly available ecogeographic and phylogenetic data to facilitate the identification of possible sources of abiotic stress traits for plant breeding programs. Much of the primary genepool (wild H. annuus) occurs in extreme environments indicating that introgression of targeted traits may be relatively straightforward. Sister taxa in Helianthus have greater range overlap than more distantly related taxa within the genus. This adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that in plants (unlike some animal groups), geographic isolation may not be necessary for speciation.
Biodiversity Research Centre and Department of Botany, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada ; Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota St. Paul, MN, USA.
Michael B
MB
Kantar
International Center for Tropical Agriculture Cali, Colombia.
Chrystian C
CC
Sosa
International Center for Tropical Agriculture Cali, Colombia ; Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University Wageningen, Netherlands.
Colin K
CK
Khoury
International Center for Tropical Agriculture Cali, Colombia ; School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK.
Nora P
NP
Castañeda-Álvarez
International Center for Tropical Agriculture Cali, Colombia.
Harold A
HA
Achicanoy
International Center for Tropical Agriculture Cali, Colombia ; Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA.
Vivian
V
Bernau
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, CO, USA.
Nolan C
NC
Kane
Agronomy Department, North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, Iowa State University and United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Ames, IA, USA.
Laura
L
Marek
Northern Crop Science Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Fargo, ND, USA.
Gerald
G
Seiler
Biodiversity Research Centre and Department of Botany, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada ; Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA.
Loren H
LH
Rieseberg
climate change; conservation; crop wild relatives; ecological niche modeling; plant breeding; plant genetic resources; publicly available data sources