Crop wild relatives and genetic resources for food security

Challenges to food security in the 21st century:

1. drastic population growth requiring higher yields
2. environmental stresses testing the resilience of crops
3. homogenisation of domesticated crops limiting their gene pool and adaptability.

Novel genetic resources to tackle these challenges are found in crop wild relatives (CWR) - wild plants withing the same genus as a crop by broad definition.- These comprise about 21% of the world flora.

Objective: Developing a digital twin prototype to unlock CWR resources and investigate their roles in supporting food security.

Modelling tools

• Modelling the Distribution of Germplasm of Interest (MoDGP)
• Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS)

The poster was first presented at the BioDT Annual Meeting 2023, 13-14 June in Leiden, Netherlands.

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