Wild About Peanuts – Using Crop Wild Relatives To Improve Today's Crops

Crop breeders release a new variety of a disease-resistant peanut

However you eat your peanuts – shelled, salted, or in a favorite mix – they are a snack item enjoyed by many. The peanut we eat is technically a seed, and they also are a rich source of oils. An obstacle this crop faces, however, is a variety of plant diseases that reduce yields. In the September 22nd Sustainable, Secure Food Blog, crop breeders discover a new variety of peanut that is disease-resistant, with help from crop wild relatives.

Crop wild relatives are the ancient ancestors of today’s cultivated crops. And even today, they live on in various harsh locations – deserts, roadside ditches. Places where they look like “weeds.” But really, these crop wild relatives contain important genetic information for today’s crop breeders. Crop breeders at the University of Georgia recently released a new variety of peanut that is disease-resistant thanks to help from the crop wild relative of peanut. The team looked for ways to make it possible to use the genetic material of the wild relative of peanut to improve disease resistance in modern peanut varieties.

The team used seeds provided by the United States Department of Agriculture to grow small plants and took cuttings. They treated these cuttings with a chemical called “colchicine” – chemicals are often used by breeders for many reasons. The good news? The team was able to breed new peanut varieties that had resistance to common leaf rusts (a fungal disease).

To read more about the research process and its findings, please visit: https://sustainable-secure-food-blog.com/2022/09/22/wild-about-peanuts-using-crop-wild-relatives-to-improve-todays-crops/

About us: This blog is sponsored and written by members of the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America. Members are researchers and trained, certified professionals in the areas of growing the world’s food supply while protecting the environment. Members work at universities, government research facilities, and private businesses across the United States and the world.

Crop Science Society of America celebrates Crop Wild Relatives each year to recognize the importance of preserving and researching this valuable genetic material. To learn more, visit their web page at https://www.crops.org/crop-wild-relative.

This blog was compiled by Susan V. Fisk from researched published in Journal of Plant Registrations.

About The American Society of Agronomy
The American Society of Agronomy is an international scientific and professional society with its headquarters in Madison, WI. Our members are researchers and trained, certified professionals in the areas of growing our world’s food supply, while protecting our environment. We work at universities, government research facilities and private businesses across the United States and the world.