Parentes silvestres de plantas cultivadas para a alimentação e agricultura nativos ou naturalizados no Pampa

Abstract

The human population continues to expand and ensuring food and nutritional security for everyone is a challenge for the present and the future. The crop wild relatives are part of the crop gene pool. These species can be used to obtain genes for tolerance and/or resistance to adverse abiotic and biotic conditions. Plants cultivated for food and agriculture are crops such as cassava, potato, rice, sweet potato, and tomato, for example. The Pampas extend from southern Brazil through Uruguay and northeastern Argentina. This biome is characterized by the predominance of native grasslands associated with a mosaic of savannas, wetlands, and some forest thickets. Despite the importance of crop wild relatives, the habitat of these species has been reduced worldwide. The present study aims to inventory the crop wild relatives for food and agriculture, native or naturalized in the Pampas, the conservation status, the representativeness in genebanks, the geographic distribution, and verify the gene pool and crops to which they are related. According to the inventory produced, 247 species of crop wild relatives are represented in the Pampa, distributed in 28 genera of 13 families, from which 211 species are native (85.4%) and 36 are naturalized (14.6%). Among the 247 species, only 112 (45.16%) species have one or more accessions conserved in genebanks. In Argentina, there are 194 species, with five quadrats of greater richness (61–77 spp.), two quadrats in the cities of General Alvear and Ituzaingó in the province of Corrientes, one quadrat in the capital and province of Buenos Aires, one quadrat in the city and province of Córdoba and one in the city of Rancul in the province of La Pampa. In Brazil, there are 165 species, with emphasis on four quadrats of greater richness (61–77 spp.) in the surroundings of Montenegro, Santo Antônio da Patrulha, São Borja and Tapes municipalities. In Uruguay there are 121 species, with three quadrats with the highest species richness (43–60 spp.) in the Departments of Canelones, Durazno, and Maldonado. Only 62 species (25%) have information on the closest gene pool and/or taxonomically related crop, considering10 the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Gene Pools and/or Taxonomic Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4. Lastly, only 35 species (56.5%) of these 62 species were assessed concerning their threatened statuses in nature according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) criteria. In this regard, 29 species were considered as “Least Concern”, one as “Near Threatened”, four as “Endangered”, and three with “Insufficient Data”.