Kallow Simon, Mertens Arne, Janssens Steven B, Vandelook Filip, Dickie John, Swennen Rony, Panis Bart
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Millennium Seed Bank Ardingly UK.
Department of Biosystems Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven Belgium.
Food Energy Secur. 2022 Feb;11(1):e345. doi: 10.1002/fes3.345. Epub 2021 Nov 15.
Storing seed collections of crop wild relatives, wild plant taxa genetically related to crops, is an essential component in global food security. Seed banking protects genetic resources from degradation and extinction and provides material for use by breeders. Despite being among the most important crops in the world, banana and plantain crop wild relatives are largely under-represented in genebanks. Nevertheless, banana crop wild relative seed collections are in fact held in different countries, but these have not previously been part of reporting or analysis. To fill this gap, we firstly collated banana seed accession data from 13 institutions in 10 countries. These included 537 accessions containing an estimated 430,000 seeds of 56 species. We reviewed their taxonomic coverage and seed storage conditions including viability estimates. We found that seed accessions have low viability (25% mean) representing problems in seed storage and processing. Secondly, we surveyed 22 institutions involved in banana genetic resource conservation regarding the key constraints and knowledge gaps that institutions face related to banana seed conservation. Major constraints were identified including finding suitable material and populations to collect seeds from, lack of knowledge regarding optimal storage conditions and germination conditions. Thirdly, we carried out a conservation prioritization and gap analysis of Musaceae taxa, using established methods, to index representativeness. Overall, our conservation assessment showed that despite this extended data set banana crop wild relatives are inadequately conserved, with 51% of taxa not represented in seed collections at all; the average conservation assessment showing high priority for conservation according to the index. Finally, we provide recommendations for future collecting, research, and management, to conserve banana and plantain crop wild relatives in seed banks for future generations.
储存作物野生近缘种（与作物存在遗传关联的野生植物类群）的种子库是全球粮食安全的重要组成部分。种子库保护遗传资源不致退化和灭绝，并为育种者提供可用材料。尽管香蕉和大蕉是世界上最重要的作物之一，但其野生近缘种在基因库中的代表性却严重不足。然而，香蕉作物野生近缘种的种子库实际上分布在不同国家，但此前这些并未纳入报告或分析范围。为填补这一空白，我们首先整理了来自10个国家13个机构的香蕉种子登记数据。这些数据包括537份登记样本，包含56个物种的约430,000粒种子。我们审查了它们的分类覆盖范围以及种子储存条件，包括活力评估。我们发现种子登记样本的活力较低（平均为25%），这表明种子储存和处理存在问题。其次，我们对22个参与香蕉遗传资源保护的机构进行了调查，了解这些机构在香蕉种子保护方面面临的主要限制因素和知识空白。确定的主要限制因素包括难以找到合适的材料和种群来采集种子、缺乏关于最佳储存条件和发芽条件的知识。第三，我们采用既定方法对芭蕉科类群进行了保护优先级排序和差距分析，以衡量代表性。总体而言，我们的保护评估表明，尽管有了这个扩展数据集，香蕉作物野生近缘种的保护仍不充分，51%的类群在种子收集中完全没有代表性；根据该指数，平均保护评估显示这些类群具有很高的保护优先级。最后，我们为未来的采集、研究和管理提供了建议，以便在种子库中保护香蕉和大蕉作物野生近缘种，造福子孙后代。
