Development of a national crop wild relative conservation strategy for Cyprus

Jade Phillips, Angelos Kyratzis, Charalambos Christoudoulou, Shelagh Kell, Nigel Maxted*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Growing research interest in crop wild relatives (CWR) has highlighted their value for crop improvement, particularly to mitigate the impact of climate change and contribute to global food security. As most conservation activities are implemented at national level there is a requirement for each country to develop and implement a national CWR conservation strategy. This will contribute to regional and global CWR conservation actions and so help achieve CBD Aichi Targets 13 of improved genetic conservation of socio-economically important taxa. Cyprus has historically lacked systematic CWR conservation but is rich in CWR diversity being located in the eastern Mediterranean Vavilov centre and abutting the Fertile Crescent. Therefore a more coherent approach to CWR conservation is desirable. From an initial checklist of 1,722 Cypriot CWR taxa, 178 CWR were prioritized and eco geographic data was collated and analysed using GIS techniques. The Troodos and Pafos mountains are CWR hotspots and ten priority sites containing the genetic diversity of 74.7 % of priority CWR taxa were identified. These will form the basis of a national network of in situ genetic reserves and 78 priority CWR taxa that have no accessions in the national Cyprus gene bank are highlighted for collection and ex situ storage.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)817-827
Number of pages11
JournalGenetic Resources and Crop Evolution
Volume61
Issue number4
Early online date22 Jan 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2014

Keywords

  • Conservation
  • Crop wild relative
  • Cyprus
  • ex situ
  • GIS
  • in situ
  • Prioritization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Agronomy and Crop Science
  • Genetics
  • Plant Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Development of a national crop wild relative conservation strategy for Cyprus'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this