Drought vulnerability of the date palm and its wild relatives

Understanding the mechanisms and evolution of drought tolerance in plants is crucial to support the development of drought-tolerant crops, assess the vulnerability of wild species to climate change, and ensure that drought-tolerant genotypes are included in conservation programmes. Comparative studies including model crop species and their more variable wild relatives show great potential to progress the understanding of complex traits such as drought tolerance.

A good model to perform such studies is the Phoenix genus, which includes the culturally and economically important date palm crop, and thirteen wild species occurring in habitats that vary in aridity. However, the phylogenetic relationships and drought tolerance of Phoenix species have not been elucidated so far. This slows down the development of less water-demanding date palm cultivars, and prevents robust estimations of how wild species may suffer from future aridification.

We will therefore 1) characterize the drought tolerance of Phoenix species, 2) investigate how genetic and morphological characters associated with drought tolerance evolved in the genus, and 3) assess the vulnerability of Phoenix species to climate change. This will inform the development of a resilient and sustainable date palm agriculture, set the stage for further studies of drought tolerance in palms, and support the conservation of wild Phoenix species.