BACKGROUND Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) contain high levels of phytochemicals such as proanthocyanidins (PACs). These polymeric condensations of flavan-3-ol monomers are associated with health benefits. Our objective was to evaluate phytochemicals in fruit from Hawaiian cranberry relatives, V. reticulatum Sm. and V. calycinum Sm. Normal-phase HPLC coupled with fluorescence and ESI-M...

Risk assessments of new insect-resistant crops will need to estimate the potential for increased weediness of wild crop relatives as a consequence of gene flow. When field experiments are precluded by containment concerns, simulation experiments can identify hazards or measure expected differences between GMOs and parental plants. To measure plant fitness consequences of wild plant protection f...

     Triticum boeoticum wild wheat is a remarkable gene pool to environmental stress resistance. It is one of the most valuable species of the Triticeae tribe for improving wheat cultivars to moisture-stress. This research was carried out to assess the changes and responses of different traits of 10 accessions of Triticum boeoticum under non-stress and imposed moisture stress conditions in 2015...

There is considerable variability in salt tolerance amongst members of the Triticeae, with the tribe even containing a number of halophytes. This is a review of what is known of the differences in salt tolerance of selected species in this tribe of grasses, and the potential to use wild species to improve salt tolerance in wheat. Most investigators have concentrated on differences in ion accumu...

Exotic parents are being used to increase allelic diversity in bread wheat breeding through (i) interspecific hybridization of the ancestral genomes to produce so-called synthetic derived (SYN-DER) wheat, and (ii) crossing with landrace accessions, originating in abiotically stressed environments, that have become isolated from mainstream gene pools. Evaluation of the inherent genetic diversity...

Tomato, ranking 1st in the world for vegetables, accounts for 14% of world vegetable production (over 100 million metric tons/year $ 1.6 billion market; (Food and Agriculture Organisation [FAO] 2010). Tomato is a rich source of micronutrients for human diet. It is also an acknowledged model species for research on fruit development and metabolite accumulation. The major goals of tomato breeders...

Humans require resilient, rapidly renewable and sustainable supplies of food and many other plant-derived supplies. However, the combined effects of climate change and population growth compromise the provision of these supplies particularly in respect to global food security. Crop wild relatives (CWR) contain higher genetic diversity than crops and harbour traits that can improve crop resilien...

Studies of domesticated animals have led to the suggestion that domestication could have significant effects on patterns of molecular evolution. In particular, analyses of mitochondrial genome sequences from domestic dogs and yaks have yielded higher ratios of non-synonymous to synonymous substitutions in the domesticated lineages than in their wild relatives. These results are important becaus...

Gene flow from crop to wild relatives is a common phenomenon which can lead to reduced adaptation of the wild relatives to natural ecosystems and/or increased adaptation to agrosystems (weediness). With global warming, wild relative distributions will likely change, thus modifying the width and/or location of co-occurrence zones where crop-wild hybridization events could occur (sympatry). This ...

Background: Crop wild relatives are wild species that are closely related to crops. They are valuable as potential gene donors for crop improvement and may help to ensure food security for the future. However, they are becoming increasingly threatened in the wild and are inadequately conserved, both in situ and ex situ. Information about the conservation status and utilisation potential of crop...