Dear colleagues,

Climate change constitutes/represents a pressing problem at present. Its main impact on agriculture will probably be felt through changes in the amount and spatial distribution of rainfall patterns, increased rates of evapotranspiration, higher temperatures, both minima and maxima, increased intensity and frequency of extreme events, such as floods and droughts, and patterns of crop pest and disease agents.

To cope with these situations, farmers will need crops with high yield and low risk of failure. In other words, crops that are able to respond to the peculiar situations present in one or more places. To achieve this there is an urgent need for a better understanding of the crop plant genetic diversity present in the cultivated material and its wild relatives.

Research on crop genetic diversity has generated considerable knowledge about the content and nature of genetic diversity present in germplasm. However, genetic assessments, including those carried out using molecular markers, have revealed that estimates may be inconsistent with the perception that modern breeding reduces crop genetic diversity via intensive selection programs and a narrow range of genetic resources. Some authors ascribe this discrepancy to the fact that breeding objectives, strategies, and methods have changed overtime, allowing the existence of an overall genetic diversity in crop plants. In contrast, others argue that analyses give a general estimation of variation and do not compare the variation in the new varieties to that present in their parental material. Some work has indicated that crop genetic diversity has been improperly and insufficiently investigated and, thus, is poorly understood. These authors contend that, although many assessments describe the overall amount and nature of variation in the analyzed material, few studies have assessed the amount and nature of variation of specific traits, and even less have work linking amounts and nature to whether and how quickly a trait can respond to selection.

In contrast to models suggesting that traits with simple genetic architecture respond more quickly and severely to selection than those with complex architecture, a number of studies indicate that performance may improve rapidly despite a complex architecture involving quantitative trait loci (QTL) on multiple chromosomes. Some authors suggest that an organism's ability to respond to selection is influenced by its evolutionary history. This means that materials deriving from predecessors evolved in variable environments and/or having experienced expansions and contractions may be more variable and may retain more adaptive potential. If the retention of unused allelic diversity is responsible for the rapid response to selection, then the causal genetic variation was in place long before the selection started. Most genetic variation assessments were carried out by analyses of genetic components without much consideration for the complexity of the cultivation environment, i.e., the interaction between plants and their environment. This latter includes not only physical components but also considers wild species and/or insect pests and disease agents. Experimental data support the theory that, in wild plants, there should be a shift from traits that confer yield to those that confer tolerance to stress. Breeding in favorable environments and under good cultivation conditions should promote traits augmenting the plant's ability to acquire resources under those circumstances, but could cultivation in poor environments produce viable yields under marginal conditions?

It seems that there is a need for a better understanding of crop genetic diversity and adaptability.

Here, we are asked plant scientists to volunteer to carry out a careful assessment of and promote ideas for better assessment of "Crop Genetic Adaptation to Changing Climate Conditions". The contributions will be published in a Special Issue of the journal Agronomy.

Prof. Dr. Enrico Porceddu
Guest Editor

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• climate change
• sustainable agriculture
• adaptability
• breeding impact on genetic variation
• adaptation mechanisms
• genetic architecture
• genotype-phenotype relationships
• stress tolerance
• disease and pest resistance