*Genome editing has revived interest in crop wild relatives as a source of genetic diversity — but are we fully tapping herbaria to find them? Join us next Wednesday 5th of August to learn how digitized biodiversity records and niche modeling are mapping where climate-resilient crop relatives may be found, now and in the future.*
Hello Everyone,
As part of the monthly AgBioData Webinar Series https://www.agbiodata.org/webinars, McKenzie Mabry (iDigBio) of the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida & New York Botanical Garden, will present the talk titled: “*Crop Wild Relatives And The Role Of Herbaria In Future Food Crop Security*”. Full abstract and zoom link below.
We hope you can join us!
Best,
Marcela
-- * Wednesday, August 5th, 1PM ET* | 1P ET | 12P CT | 11A MT | 10A PT | Find your local time here https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=AgBioData+Aug+2026+Webinar+-+McKenzie+Mabry+%28iDigBio%29&iso=20260805T13&p1=3918&ah=1 .
Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82038356125?pwd=YVFMRElMdEpHZmtObXFvZlA4QVFXQT09 Meeting ID: 820 3835 6125 Passcode: 160683 --
Speaker:* McKenzie Mabry* (Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida & New York Botanical Garden; iDigBio)
Title: *Crop Wild Relatives And The Role Of Herbaria In Future Food Crop Security* Abstract: Although Nikolai Vavilov recognized the potential of crop wild relatives (CWR) in the early 1900s, the advent of genome editing technologies such as CRISPR now enables scientists to more fully leverage CWRs as a source of genetic diversity for cultivated crops. As global agriculture faces escalating pressures from climate change, plant biologists are increasingly focused on sustaining crop productivity under shifting environmental conditions while meeting the demands of a growing population. CWRs represent a critical reservoir of genetic variation that can be harnessed to address these challenges. While efforts to expand germplasm collections of CWRs are ongoing, herbaria remain an underutilized resource. At the same time, the growing availability of digitized herbarium data provides new opportunities to address large-scale research questions. In this study, occurrence records for CWRs of several important crop species are obtained from repositories such as iDigBio and Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Following data cleaning, ecological niche modeling is used to estimate global habitat suitability under both current and future climate scenarios. This work highlights the increasingly important role of herbaria and digitized biodiversity data in supporting crop improvement efforts, particularly in the context of ongoing climate change.