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Crop Landraces: Present Threats and Opportunities for Conservation

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Book cover Rediscovery of Genetic and Genomic Resources for Future Food Security

Abstract

Crop landraces are important source of novel alleles which can be utilized for improvement of desired crops. They have variable phenology and moderate edible yield. Landraces provide traits for more efficient nutrient uptake and utilization, as well as useful genes for adaptation to stressful environments such as water stress, salinity, and high temperatures for development of improved cultivars. However, since last few decades, modern agricultural practices have resulted in decline of diversity in crop landraces. Various environmental factors like genetic erosion and local cultivation practices have threaten the landrace diversity. To overcome these threats, certain conservation methods have been adapted, and these methods have been reported to play critical role in conserving crop landrace diversity. Furthermore, there is a need for proper documentation of the information available on remedial measures to cope up with the stress mediated by gene flow to crop landraces. Overall information generated may provide a framework to initiate different approaches for the crop improvement.

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Abbreviations

CRISPR:

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats

CMT3:

Chromomethylase 3

DCL:

DICER-like enzymes

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

GM:

Genetically modified

GR:

Green Revolution

HYVs:

High-yielding varieties

IBPGR:

International Board for Plant Genetic Resources

LR:

Landraces

NGOs:

Nongovernmental organizations

RNA:

Ribonucleic acid

RNAi:

RNA interference

RISC:

RNA-induced silencing complex

siRNA:

Small interfering RNA

TALENs:

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases

ZNFs:

Zinc finger nucleases

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, BGSB University, Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Rakeeb Ahmad Mir & Arjun Sharma

  2. Division of Plant Biotechnology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Reetika Mahajan

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  1. Rakeeb Ahmad Mir
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  2. Arjun Sharma
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biotechnology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Romesh Kumar Salgotra

  2. Division of Plant Biotechnology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Sajad Majeed Zargar

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Mir, R.A., Sharma, A., Mahajan, R. (2020). Crop Landraces: Present Threats and Opportunities for Conservation. In: Salgotra, R., Zargar, S. (eds) Rediscovery of Genetic and Genomic Resources for Future Food Security. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0156-2_13

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