Towards an action plan for characterizing food plant diversity

Pironon, S., Cantwell-Jones, A., Forest, F., Ball, J., Diazgranados, M., Douglas, R., Hawkins, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9048-8016, Howes, M.-J. R., Ulian, T., Vaitla, B. and Collar, D. (2022) Towards an action plan for characterizing food plant diversity. Nature Plants, 9. pp. 34-35. ISSN 2055-0278 doi: 10.1038/s41477-022-01300-0

Abstract/Summary

Molina-Venegas et al. 1 reassessed part of the analyses presented in Cantwell-Jones et al. 2 and drew attention to the uncertainty in the predictions of B-vitamin content of many angiosperm food species. We appreciate the feedback from the authors and agree that there are challenges in identifying B-vitamin sources using phylogenetic information and available nutritional data for species. We call for more integrative and proactive research that would streamline uncertainty assessments in trait predictions and improve predictive capacity. We also reiterate the value of our original paper to call for action to better understand and preserve the nutritional potential of food plant diversity, which would ultimately contribute to tackling both hunger and biodiversity loss. Our study 2 aimed to (1) enhance our understanding of the distribution of B-vitamin concentrations across the edible angiosperm tree of life;(2) provide a first …