Developing a natural variation platform for pest-resistant cassava breeding

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Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the third most important source of calories in the tropics and a key staple for millions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Predictions of rising temperatures linked to climate change favour the productivity of cassava, a crop that performs well under stressful growing conditions linked to drought and high temperatures. However, cassava is susceptible to a number of pests and diseases, and projections of movement of cassava pests linked to climate change predict substantial yield losses. As such, cassava breeders are prioritising traits linked to pest and disease resistance within their breeding programmes. Within Latin America, the largest pest and disease threats to cassava production are whitefly, cassava frogskin disease and bacterial blight. Bacterial blight is also prevalent throughout cassava growing regions in Africa and Asia. These can cause yield losses of 76-92%. We can explore cassava's wild relatives to introduce novel disease resistance traits through conventional or molecular breeding techniques. Crop wild relatives have been used in wheat, rice, tomato, potato, sunflower and other crops to provide sources of novel resistance to pests and diseases. The Genetic Resources Program (GRP, genebank) at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia currently houses ~4,900 accessions of cassava and its wild relatives. The mission of genebanks includes the conservation of materials, but also aims to make the material available for use. However having limited information for the vast majority of accessions makes it difficult for users, or even genebank managers, to select materials that may contain useful properties for breeding. Through sequencing the genomes of cassava wild relatives we will reveal the genetic diversity of their resistance genes. In addition we will check the performance of these species against whitefly, cassava frogskin disease and bacterial blight. We will also develop novel tools to explore these datasets, making it easier for breeders to choose which wild materials to include in their programs. All the information generated through this project will be made publicly available for breeders and researchers to access via the GRP portal.Breeders tend to be cautious about including wild materials into their breeding programs as wild species bring a mixture of desirable and undesirable characteristics into the offspring. Breeding is a slow process, and removing the undesirable traits can take many generations. Therefore, having more information about the physical and genetic characteristics of these wild species will help breeders to make the most appropriate choices of plants to use and encourage the inclusion of wild relatives to provide novel sources of pest and disease resistance into cassava.CIAT has centres in Colombia and Vietnam, with researchers working in 53 countries worldwide. Having novel sources of pest resistance will benefit cassava breeders and growers in many countries, however we will target breeders in Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic. Through the reduction of losses due to pests and diseases, this project will contribute to sustainable agriculture and increasing the resilience of food systems to climatic variability.