Sustainable Exploitation of Neglected or Underutilized Phytogenetic Resources: From Wild-Growing Native Plants to New Domesticated Crops

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the fact that industry is always in quest of novel plant species with desirable or useful characteristics and strong potential, the greatest part of the phytogenetic resources of different regions remain neglected and underutilized. Plant diversity has never been mainstreamed by researchers, politicians and stakeholders for sustainable exploitation in economic sectors. The current Special Issue includes a research focus on the documentation, ex situ conservation, domestication, targeted research and sutainable exploitation of wild-growing neglected and underutilized plants (WNUPs), aiming at their incorporation into breeding strategies, effective value chains and sustainable production systems at local scales and beyond. Given that many wild plant species are locally adapted to particular environments and contain significant genetic diversity, they are useful for the development and establishment of novel crops with increased adaptation potential to novel production systems of environmentally sustainable agriculture mitigating the effects of climate change. In this Special Issue, we are aiming to accept a set of reviews, research papers, case studies, or applied research communications documenting and exploring the frontier of wild-growing plants as sources of new crops in the frame of biodiversity sustainable exploitation strategies. Contributions to this Special Issue may focus on, but need not be limited to, the whole range of the domestication process of wild-growing plants of interest to various economic sectors, especially range-restricted and local endemic plants. In particular, we welcome contributions on the following topics:

• De novo domestication of wild plant species (domestication of brand new species with desirable traits)
• Evaluation of wild phytogenetic resources in various economic sectors (agro-alimentary, medicinal-cosmetic, nutraceotical-functional food, horticultural-ornamental or other industrial sectors)
• Reviews, regular articles or multidisciplinary studies related to evaluation of wild Medicinal-Aromatic Plants (MAPs), Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs), dying or fiber plants, wild edible greens, and species with ornamental-horticultural potential
• Local or regional case studies of ex situ conservation, propagation, pilot cultivation and/or agroprecessing of wild phytogenetic resources
• Pilot crops and novel strategies related to the sustainable management of the wild-growing populations of economically or socially valuable native plants
• Domestication of CWRs or MAPs aimed to breeding strategies
• Research on the establishment of value chains related to wild-growing neglected and underutilized plants
• Access and Benefit Sharing examples and policies related to to wild-growing neglected and underutilized plants

Dr. Nikos Krigas
Dr. Georgios Tsoktouridis
Guest Editors

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