Perth Voice Interactive

RESEARCH by Murdoch Uni scientists to map a plant’s ‘superfamily tree’ will help crop adaptability in the face of climate change. 

Mapping a crop species’ family tree helps uncover wild relatives who have become accustomed to harsh conditions, and may have some tricks that their cultivated cousins could acquire. 

The Murdoch scientists offered an example: that if a wild relative of a crop has adapted to conserve water, this can be incorporated into crops in “drought-prone” regions. 

Murdoch Centre for Crop and Food Innovation lecturer Vanika Garg worked on the super-pangenome research and says mapping the wild relatives of crops is akin to creating a “superfamily album” which can give researchers a “much broader perspective” about crops vital to human survival. 

“When farmers or scientists are faced with challenges, like a new disease affecting crops or changing weather patterns due to climate change, they can look to these wild relatives for solutions,” Dr Garg said. 

“In simple terms, crop wild relatives are like the tough and resourceful distant cousins in a family who can teach our regular crops a few survival tricks.” 

Dr Garg says the identification of a crop’s wild relatives provides “crucial extra context” about a plant’s traits which can be crossbred with their domesticated relatives, making them “stronger and more adaptable”. 

A computational biologist, Dr Garg is currently looking at the genomics of horticultural, chickpea, and wheat crops, the latter of which is the third-most consumed crop globally. 

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER