Gross Briana L, Kellogg Elizabeth A, Miller Allison J
Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 207 Swenson Science Building, 1035 Kirby Drive, Duluth Minnesota 55812 USA.
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, 975 North Warson Road, St. Louis, Missouri 63132 USA.
Am J Bot. 2014 Oct;101(10):1597-600. doi: 10.3732/ajb.1400409. Epub 2014 Oct 14.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that food production must rise 70% over the next 40 years to meet the demands of a growing population that is expected to reach nine billion by the year 2050. Many facets of basic plant science promoted by the Botanical Society of America are important for agriculture; however, more explicit connections are needed to bridge the gap between basic and applied plant research. This special issue, Speaking of Food: Connecting Basic and Applied Plant Science, was conceived to showcase productive overlaps of basic and applied research to address the challenges posed by feeding billions of people and to stimulate more research, fresh connections, and new paradigms. Contributions to this special issue thus illustrate some interactive areas of study in plant science-historical and modern plant-human interaction, crop and weed origins and evolution, and the effects of natural and artificial selection on crops and their wild relatives. These papers provide examples of how research integrating the basic and applied aspects of plant science benefits the pursuit of knowledge and the translation of that knowledge into actions toward sustainable production of crops and conservation of diversity in a changing climate.
联合国粮食及农业组织（FAO）预测，未来40年粮食产量必须增长70%，以满足不断增长的人口的需求，预计到2050年全球人口将达到90亿。美国植物学会推动的基础植物科学的许多方面对农业都很重要；然而，需要建立更明确的联系来弥合基础植物研究和应用植物研究之间的差距。本期特刊《谈食物：连接基础与应用植物科学》旨在展示基础研究与应用研究的有效重叠，以应对养活数十亿人口所带来的挑战，并激发更多的研究、新的联系和新的范式。因此，本期特刊的稿件阐述了植物科学中一些相互交叉的研究领域——历史上以及现代的植物与人类的相互作用、作物和杂草的起源与进化，以及自然选择和人工选择对作物及其野生近缘种的影响。这些论文提供了实例，说明整合植物科学基础与应用方面的研究如何有助于知识的探索，以及如何将这些知识转化为行动，以实现作物的可持续生产，并在气候变化的背景下保护生物多样性。
