Brazil-UKRI: The recovery of the adaptive capacity of Pre-Columbian tree crops to environmental changes

• Grant number: 25/00468-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Maria Imaculada Zucchi
• Grantee: Maria Imaculada Zucchi
• Host Institution: Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Carlos Augusto Zimpel Neto ; Charles Roland Clement ; David Moreno Mateos ; Doriane Picanço Rodrigues ; Gustavo Maruyama Mori ; Maria Teresa Gomes Lopes ; Santiago Linorio Ferreyra Ramos

Abstract

Multiple large-scale forest restoration strategies are emerging globally to combat ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. However, these strategies often remain insufficient to compensate for the loss caused by anthropogenic development. At least two reasons could explain this incomplete performance: i) we ignore how human disturbance affects the genetic variability of species and their potential to evolve and adapt to ongoing global changes; ii) there is a large gap in knowledge about ecosystem dynamics in the long term (100 years) after human disturbance has ended. In this project, we propose to investigate the potential adaptation of the Brazil nut tree and other Amazonian species associated with Brazil nut areas, after the end of anthropogenic disturbance. We will collect plant tissue, leaves, cambium, roots and soil samples from pre-Columbian archaeological sites, now known as Terra Preta Amazônica (TPA), where descendants of ancient Brazilian chestnut trees still grow today. From selected TPA sites, which have been sequentially abandoned and never reoccupied, we will build a 2,000-year chronosequence.This chronosequence will allow us to understand how Brazil nut trees and associated Amazonian species recovered their adaptive potential over time, after being freed from domestication when pre-Columbian peoples collapsed around the 15th century. Our team, which includes experts in forest restoration, domestication and genomics, will explore the variations in the entire genome of the Brazil nut tree, as well as its associated soil microbiome, along the chronosequence, to initiate a new field of restoration genomics. The results will make it possible to find genomes with greater genetic variability and, therefore, greater adaptive potential. Individuals with greater adaptive potential could be used in the restoration of tropical forests, increasing the resilience and resistance of forests to global change. (AU)