Building a feral future: Open questions in crop ferality

Societal Impact StatementGiven the rapidly increasing drought and temperature stresses associated with climate change, innovative approaches for food security are imperative. One understudied opportunity is using feral crops-plants that have escaped and persisted without cultivation-as a source of genetic diversity, which could build resilience in domesticated conspecifics. In some cases, however, feral plants vigorously compete with crops as weeds, challenging food security. By bridging historically siloed ecological, agronomic, and evolutionary lines of inquiry into feral crops, there is the opportunity to improve food security and understand this relatively understudied anthropogenic phenomenon. The phenomenon of feral crops, that is, free-living populations that have established outside cultivation, is understudied. Some researchers focus on the negative consequences of domestication, whereas others assert that feral populations may serve as useful pools of genetic diversity for future crop improvement. Although research on feral crops and the process of feralization has advanced rapidly in the last two decades, generalizable insights have been limited by a lack of comparative research across crop species and other factors. To improve international coordination of research on this topic, we summarize the current state of feralization research and chart a course for future study by consolidating outstanding questions in the field. These questions, which emerged from the colloquium Darwins' reversals: What we now know about Feralization and Crop Wild Relatives at the BOTANY 2021 conference, fall into seven categories that span both basic and applied research: (1) definitions and drivers of ferality, (2) genetic architecture and pathway, (3) evolutionary history and biogeography, (4) agronomy and breeding, (5) fundamental and applied ecology, (6) collecting and conservation, and (7) taxonomy and best practices. These questions serve as a basis for ferality researchers to coordinate research in these areas, potentially resulting in major contributions to food security in the face of climate change.

Automated summary

Given the increasing drought and temperature stresses caused by climate change, it is crucial to develop innovative approaches for food security. One potential opportunity that has been understudied is utilizing feral crops, which have escaped cultivation, as a source of genetic diversity to enhance resilience in domesticated crops. However, feral crops can also compete vigorously with cultivated crops as weeds, posing a challenge to food security. By integrating ecological, agronomic, and evolutionary research on feral crops, we can improve food security and gain a better understanding of this anthropogenic phenomenon.