Crop wild relative species in the Rome germoplasm bank. Present state and future perspectives

The first studies on the origin of the cultivated plants was carried out at the beginning of the twentieth century (Vavilov, 1926; Pistorius, 1997; Heywood et al., 2007).The Rome Germplasm Bank (BGR) stores seeds and spores from both spontaneous species of the Latium wild flora and cultivated species (1,590 accessions divided in 137 families, 603 genera and 992 species). In particular, seeds of 41 CWR are stored in BGR following the Crop Wild Relative (CWR) list published by ISPRA (Census 2014), compiled following the FAO guidelines (2001, 2014). Among them, 37 CWR are cultivated species and 5 CWR are spontaneous species growing in the Botanical Garden.