Crop domestication involves artificial selection of certain desirable traits found in wild plant populations. By understanding the basic body plan of plants, one can more easily understand the morphological relationship between a crop plant and its wild relatives.
learning outcome
You should be able to:
Discuss reasons why wild plant genomes should be preserved.
Why are the seeds from wild relatives of crop plants valuable?
Seeds of wild relatives of crop plants have genes that may have been selected against during plant domestication. These genes might encode phenotypes that adapt the plants to their wild environment but were not valuable to farmers at the time of domestication. But the environment can change, and the genes that were selected against can again become valuable. An example might be a changing climate where roots that grow deep would be advantageous. The cultivated crop may lack genes for this phenotype, but genes for root growth might still be present in a wild relative.