Identification of Traits, Genes, and Crops of the Future

Studies on vulnerability and resilience of forest plant communities and crop species have multiplied with the growing realization that societal and scientific response is necessary to adapt to climate change impacts. The DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressure, S

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Identification of Traits, Genes, and Crops of the Future Ciro De Pace, Luigi Ricciardi, Arvind Kumar, Stefano Pavan, Concetta Lotti, Shalabh Dixit, and Chandrakanth Emani

Abstract Studies on vulnerability and resilience of forest plant communities and crop species have multiplied with the growing realization that societal and scientific response is necessary to adapt to climate change impacts. The DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressure, State, Impact, Response) conceptual framework provides one of the simplest structure of indicators required to connect and model the dynamic systems of the causative and correlative components of climate envelopes and the genetic and genomic complexities regulating adaptive plant response to fluctuating environments and climate. Paleoclimate and vegetation type reconstruction from fossil records and species vicariance help in understanding the long-term dynamics of plant features and trait evolution associated with dispersal and climate changes. Comparative genomics demonstrated as alleles for those plant features (i.e., plant morphology and phenophase alteration), and for biotic (response to bacterial and fungal pathogens) and abiotic (i.e., drought, flooding) stress resistance are still part of the standing genetic endowment of the living gene pools of the crop and forest C. De Pace (*) Department of Agriculture, Forests, Nature and Energy, University of Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, 01100 Viterbo, Italy e-mail: [email protected] L. Ricciardi • S. Pavan Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, Genetics and Plant Breeding Unit, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy A. Kumar • S. Dixit Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Division, International Rice Research Institute, DA, PO Box 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines C. Lotti Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Foggia, Via Napoli 25, 71100 Foggia, Italy C. Emani Department of Biology, Western Kentucky University-Owensboro, 4821, New Hartford Road, Owensboro, KY 42303, USA C. Kole (ed.), Genomics and Breeding for Climate-Resilient Crops, Vol. 1, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-37045-8_3, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

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plant species and allied wild relatives. The data gathered so far are beginning to offer important insights into the candidate genes and gene networks for resistance to pests and disease outbreaks favored by the changing climate, and tolerance to the perturbed climatic components such as air temperature. Genomic scans have resulted in some remarkable discoveries, including genes sensing the amount of fall and winter chilling hours affecting the annual plant rhythms such as bud dormancy break in trees, and the master genes for plant adaptation to the changing patterns of the annual distribution and intensity of rainfalls and consequent drought or flood hitting crops. Application of the current genetic discoveries and technological advances in genomics will allow the many long-standing questions about the nature of adaptati