Wild relatives of crop plants are largely missing from seed banks and plant repositories designed to protect biodiversity.

These relatives have genes that could be used to increase yields of crops or make them more resilient. Nora Castañeda-Álvarez at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Cali, Colombia, and her colleagues looked at 1,076 relatives of 81 crops, and found that only 45 relatives were adequately represented in seed banks. None of the 81 crops had its wild relatives sufficiently represented in such banks.

The authors call for systematic collecting of wild relatives, and highlight cassava, potato and sorghum as among the highest-priority crops.

Nature Plants http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.22 (2016)