In the face of global pressures of change and biodiversity loss, crop wild relatives (CWR) and wild-utilized species (WUS) urgently require conservation attention. To advance conservation, we assembled a national inventory of CWR and WUS in Canada. To assess current ex situ conservation of these plant species, we gathered a virtual metacollection of accession data from botanical gardens and national genebanks. The inventory includes 779 CWR and WUS taxa (658 distinct species), with 263 (222 distinct species) that are related to food crops of national and global importance such as blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.), apple (Malus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), and saskatoon (Amelanchier spp.). Sixty-one food crop relatives are prioritized for breeding potential, and sixteen due to conservation threats. Although most food crop CWR are represented in ex situ collections (91% of species), representation of within-species diversity is low (median = 5% of Canadian ecogeographic types represented per species). Poor representation of within-species diversity demands an integrative conservation strategy that emphasizes in situ protection, especially focusing on wild populations in Canada's southern ecoregions where diversity is concentrated. While genebank collections represent higher accession counts per species, botanical gardens include living collections of fruit crop relatives and other woody perennials that are well situated to raise broader awareness of CWR and WUS. To promote further conservation action, we present a web application that enables conservation planners and practitioners to identify local CWR and WUS and to identify within-species ecogeographic types that are underrepresented in ex situ conservation systems.

中文翻译：

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加拿大农作物野生近缘种和野生利用植物清单

面对全球变化和生物多样性丧失的压力，作物野生近缘种（CWR）和野生利用物种（WUS）迫切需要保护。为了促进保护，我们在加拿大收集了 CWR 和 WUS 的国家清单。为了评估这些植物物种目前的异地保护，我们收集了来自植物园和国家基因库的登录数据的虚拟元集合。该清单包括 779 个 CWR 和 WUS 分类群（658 个不同的物种），其中 263 个（222 个不同的物种）与国家和全球重要的粮食作物有关，例如蓝莓 ( Vaccinium corymbosum L.)、苹果 ( Malus domestica (Suckow) Borkh .)、向日葵 ( Helianthus annuus L.) 和萨斯卡通 ( Amelanchier种）。61 种粮食作物近缘种因育种潜力而被优先考虑，16 种因受到保护威胁而被优先考虑。尽管大多数粮食作物 CWR 在异地收集中都有代表（91% 的物种），但物种内多样性的代表性很低（中位数 = 每个物种所代表的加拿大生态地理类型的 5%）。种内多样性的代表性不足需要一种综合保护策略，强调就地保护，特别是关注多样性集中的加拿大南部生态区的野生种群。虽然基因库收藏品代表每个物种的收录量更高，但植物园包括水果作物近缘植物和其他木本多年生植物的活体收藏品，它们的位置非常适合提高对 CWR 和 WUS 的更广泛认识。为推动进一步的保育行动，