Genetic Resources in Wild Relatives of Crops1

Abstract

Currently, the extent of use of wild relatives in breeding programs depends on 1) how wild the crop is, 2) how desperate the situation is, 3) the pressures to turn out new cultivars, 4) the availability of materials, 5) the difficulty of use, and 6) the character of the plant breeder and of the institution in which he works. Wild rdatives have been used as sources of disease, insect, and nematode resistance, to widen adaptation, to provide alternate cytoplasms and develop cytoplasmic sterility systems, to improve quality, alter modes of reproduction, induce short stature, increase crossability between species, improve resistance to stress, and increase yield. Some crops could not mainain commercial status without genetic support of their wild relatives. The principal bottleneck to the use of wild relatives at present is the paucity of materials in our collections. In the future, the need for genetic variability and sources of resistance shall drive us to a much fuller exploitation of all the genetic resources we can assemble.