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An inventory of crop wild relatives of the Maltese Islands

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Abstract

Crop wild relatives are sources of genetic diversity valuable for crop improvement to address the challenges faced by agriculture in withstanding stressors and providing high quality primary commodities to a growing world population. The present study establishes a prioritized inventory of crop wild relatives occurring in Malta, through the application of the Gene Pool and Taxon Group concepts for crop wild relatives’ identification, evaluating the taxa for their potential use in crop improvement, socioeconomic value and conservation threat status. Malta, albeit a small Mediterranean island country hosts a comparatively large density of crop wild relatives, 56% of which are Malta indigenous. The inventory presented in this study identifies in total 378 taxa (= 104 genera) of crop wild relatives occurring in the Maltese islands, 44 taxa (= 10 genera) of which have the highest potential for utilization in crop improvement or may risk extinction and should merit conservation and research priority. Amongst the socioeconomically important wild relatives, 7 taxa are either endemic or sub-endemic to Malta.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

source: NSO (2021)

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Abbreviations

CWR:

Crop wild relatives

ERA:

Environment and Resources Authority

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organization

GDP:

Gross domestic product

TNRS:

Taxonomic name resolution service

IUCN:

International Union for Conservation of Nature

NSO:

National Statistics Office

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Acknowledgements

The National Statistics Office (Malta), provided the economic data required for this study. Dr Edwin Lanfranco provided the floristic data for Malta, including relative abundances, and endemic and native statuses for each taxon. Dr Edwin Lanfranco and Dr Everaldo Attard proofread the early drafts of this manuscript and provided suggestions for improvement. Dr Nigel Maxted, Dr Joana Magos Brehm, Dr Elena Torres and Dr Blanca Leon assisted in elucidating theoretical aspects related to the formulation of the inventory of crop wild relatives presented in this manuscript.

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This research did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Balzan, Malta

    Louis Fresta

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  1. Louis Fresta
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LF planned this study, collated and analysed the data, and wrote this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Louis Fresta.

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Fresta, L. An inventory of crop wild relatives of the Maltese Islands. Genet Resour Crop Evol 69, 2861–2874 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-022-01407-5

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