Luigi Guarino

January 26, 2016

Documenting geographical origins of Indian products

Ever realised that the famous, red hot Naga Mirchi (a special variety of chilli from Nagaland) doesn’t have a Wikipedia page?

Well, no, as it happens, but in any case that’s apparently about to change. According to an article in The Hindu, there’s something called an edit-a-thon going on right now that will provide wikipedia pages for Indian products which have been registered for geographical indication (GI). Quite a few other agricultural products are slated for inclusion apart from that notorious Nagaland pepper. Navara rice from Kerala caught my eye. There’s a specimen at IRRI labelled with that name. Also Bhalia wheat from Gujarat. Which unfortunately, in contrast to Navara rice, Genesys drew a blank on. An earlier article in The Hindu gives an alternative appellation, Daudkhani. That name is associated with an accession in the CIMMYT genebank. But that’s from Pakistan.

January 26, 2016January 26, 2016

Nibbles: Value edition

Peru to give value to its biodiversity.
Germany already has, 500 years ago.
Cavendish bananas have a lot of value, but that won’t save them.
The UK’s vegetables genebank is very valuable.
But you can always add more value to genebank collections if you evaluate them, like IRRI’s going to do in an expensive new building.
I’m not sure what the value of Gold Rush-era heritage trees might be, but I think it’s really cool that someone’s looking for them.
The value of genetic engineering for drought tolerance is just around the corner.

January 25, 2016January 25, 2016

Brainfood: Lima bean cyanide, Hybrid powdery mildew, Amaranth core, Cotton core, Tibetan sheep, Water buffalo history

Herbivore damage induces a transgenerational increase of cyanogenesis in wild lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus). Lamarck lives.
Hybridization of powdery mildew strains gives rise to pathogens on novel agricultural crop species. Hybrid crop gives rise to hybrid pathogen.
Trait-specific Amaranth Germplasm—Potentialities to Combat Climate Change. From 5,804 accessions to 623 really useful ones.
Genetic diversity of the two commercial tetraploid cotton species in the Gossypium Diversity Reference Set. 100 SSRs on 2000 accessions yield really confusing results.
Genetic diversity estimates point to immediate efforts for conserving the endangered Tibetan sheep of India. Only 250 individuals, but still some genetic diversity. But for how long?
Water Buffalo Genomic Diversity and Post-Domestication Migration Routes. Two domestications, and some unexpected migration routes.

January 25, 2016February 24, 2017

Featured: Grasspea

There’s a lively conversation about grasspea going on.

With a better understanding of the population genetics of grasspea toxin metabolism in combination with adequate supplies of dietary sulfur amino acids, low toxin varieties may become obsolete as a breeding objective, so that breeders can focus more on yield.

Do join in.

January 23, 2016January 25, 2016

Ban or breed?

I’m not sure I was aware of the fact that grasspea (khesari dal, or Lathyrus sativus) was actually banned in parts of India due to its toxicity. Devinder Sharma, a food and trade policy analyst, thinks the ban should not be lifted, International Year of Pulses notwithstanding. Instead, alternative crops should be promoted, such as pigeonpea (arhar, or Cajanus cajan). It’s interesting that there’s no Indian grasspea in the genebanks that Genesys knows about (red), ¹ in stark comparison to pigeonpea (blue).

dal

Lathyrism is a problem in situations where grasspea is pretty much the only thing you have to eat. In former times, when famines were more frequent, the ban probably made sense. But is this still the case? And in any case there’s also lots of research going on low-neurotoxin varieties. A ban is hardly likely to provide much of an incentive for such breeding work.