Pangenomics and Crop Genome Adaptation in a Changing Climate

• Published in: Plants (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 15; p. 1949
• Main Authors: Petereit, Jakob, Bayer, Philipp E, Thomas, William J W, Tay Fernandez, Cassandria G, Amas, Junrey, Zhang, Yueqi, Batley, Jacqueline, Edwards, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 27.07.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Adaptation; Agricultural production; Breeding; Climate adaptation; Climate change; climate-resilient crops; Corn; Cotton; Crop production; Crop yield; Crops; Cultivars; Defense; Domestication; Drought; Food production; Genes; Genetic diversity; Genomes; genomic diversity; Genomics; Global warming; Mutation; pangenomes; Plant breeding; Plant species; Productivity; Resilience; Review; Rice; Seeds; Soybeans; Wheat; Wild type; climate-resilient crops; pangenomes; genomic diversity
• ISSN: 2223-7747; 2223-7747
• DOI: 10.3390/plants11151949

During crop domestication and breeding, wild plant species have been shaped into modern high-yield crops and adapted to the main agro-ecological regions. However, climate change will impact crop productivity in these regions, and agriculture needs to adapt to support future food production. On a global scale, crop wild relatives grow in more diverse environments than crop species, and so may host genes that could support the adaptation of crops to new and variable environments. Through identification of individuals with increased climate resilience we may gain a greater understanding of the genomic basis for this resilience and transfer this to crops. Pangenome analysis can help to identify the genes underlying stress responses in individuals harbouring untapped genomic diversity in crop wild relatives. The information gained from the analysis of these pangenomes can then be applied towards breeding climate resilience into existing crops or to re-domesticating crops, combining environmental adaptation traits with crop productivity.