Abstract Detail

Crops and Wild Relatives

Ford, Tori M. [1], Mabry, Makenzie [2], Soltis, Douglas [3], Soltis, Pamela [4].

The Projected Impact of Climate Change on the Wild Relatives of Eggplant (Solanum melongena).

With global crop production facing enormous threats due to the impacts of climate change, plant biologists are tasked with finding ways to produce resilient crops that can withstand the challenges posed by increasingly stressful environmental conditions. Adding to this daunting task is the need for increased food production not only in the face of climate change, but also in response to a reduction in arable land and an increase in the human population. Crop wild relatives (CWRs) provide a novel source of genetic diversity that can be used to meet these demands. We focus on 12 CWRs of eggplant (Solanum melongena), an underappreciated crop with a global production of around 50 million tons annually, and a net value of more than US$10 billion a year, making it the fifth most economically important Solanaceous crop after potato, tomato, pepper, and tobacco (FAO, 2014). Using plant occurrences downloaded from iDigBio, GBIF, and BISON along with environmental predictors of soil profiles and bioclimatic variables (sourced from SoilGridsV2 and WorldClim) we develop environmental niche models to identify CWRs which 1) have wide niche suitability outside their modeled ranges and 2) may be more tolerant to changing climate conditions. We hope results from this study highlight the importance of CWRs and potential utility in future crop security efforts through neo domestication and genome editing methods.

1 - University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
2 - University Of Florida, Florida Museum Of Natural History, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States
3 - University Of Florida, Dept. of Biology, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
4 - University Of Florida, Florida Museum Of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, 32611.0, United States

Keywords:
Wild relatives
Solanaceae
Ecological niche model.

Presentation Type: Poster
Number: PCW006
Abstract ID:551
Candidate for Awards:None