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Roberto Papa
Protecting beans and maize in America
protecting our future
The study of the genetic diversity of crop plants is crucial for the
conservation of agrobiodiversity and for crop improvements, to ensure
present and future food security within the complex context of climate
change, increased food demand, and the need for a reduced impact of
human activities on the environment. But it can also say a lot on the
history of humankind.Our research is focused on evolution, conservation and the use of the genetic diversity of crop plants. We collect plant populations in the fields, and we gather further important information through interviewing the farmers. We use mainly population genetics methods and molecular tools in our analyses.
We have described some crucial aspects of the evolutionary history of the common bean, including the identification of Mexico as the area where the species originated, the characterisation of the effects of domestication on the genetic diversity of this species, and the role of introgression between wild and domesticated varieties (introgression is a long-term process, obtained by backcrossing an interspecific hybrid with one of its parent species, that moves a gene from one species into the gene pool of another).
Studying various crop species such as bean, barley, maize and tomato, we have shown the importance of in-situ conservation of heterogeneous populations (landraces) as a crucial source of genetic variation for crop adaptation.
Between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago, and independently in different parts of the World, humans invented agriculture and started the domestication of crops and animals. After domestication, the crops cultivated were disseminated outside of their centre of origin (e.g. the Middle East). About a century ago, the industrialisation of agriculture and the later development of modern plant breeding all promoted the diffusion of uniform and highly productive crop varieties that progressively substituted the traditional landraces. Today, both in research and agriculture, the great importance for the future of the development of strategies to conserve and use the germplasm of wild and landrace populations is widely accepted.
In Europe, the cultivation of these landraces continues in marginal areas through their specific adaptation, mainly for the preparation of typical products (such as polenta in Italy) and for cultural and religious reasons.
In contrast, in countries that are characterised by subsistence agriculture, the landraces and their diversity are the key components of the agroecosystems. We have shown that in barley landraces from Ethiopia, the crops in each different farmer’s field contain high levels of genetic diversity, and we have been able to demonstrate that these landraces are locally adapted, with selection for adaptation along an altitudinal gradient that varies from 1,500 to 4,000 meters above sea level.
Our research is thus important also for the development of our knowledge towards the identification of milestones in human history, like the invention and subsequent dissemination of agriculture. Among the future aims of our work there is also a better understanding of the causative relationships between molecular and phenotypic variations of crop adaptation, and the development of new varieties for a future of sustainable agriculture.
Roberto
Papa
Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali e delle Produzioni Vegetali
Via Brecce Bianche 60131
Tel: +39-0712204984/4280
r.papa@univpm.it
http://www.univpm.it/roberto.papa
http://publicationslist.org/r.papa
Council for Agricultural Research, Centre for Cereal Research (CRA-CER)
S.S. 16, km 675, 71100 FOGGIA, ITALY
Tel: +39-0881-742972
roberto.papa@entecra.it
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