Luigi Guarino

January 14, 2016January 14, 2016

Mapping the Neolithic Revolution

Somehow we missed this great map of the Fertile Crescent from National Geographic. It came out just before Christmas, but we should have caught it, really. I hope they do similar ones for other cradles of agriculture around the world.

The Fertile Crescent was the heartland of the Neolithic Revolution. Map by Fernando G. Baptista, NG Creative.

January 13, 2016

Changes at CGN

Congratulations to Bert Visser (pictured, right, entertaining visitors from the Korean genebank recently) on his retirement from the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands, the Dutch national genebank. And likewise congratulations to Sipke Joost Hiemstra and Theo van Hintum on taking over his responsibilities.

bert

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016

Nibbles: Svalbard, Fish tissue, Homegardens, Mothers’ seeds double, Citrus diversity, Paul Smith, Pulses, Hohokam, Nutrition profiles, Zulu cattle poetry, Cereals & CC, Soil biodiversity

Svalbard on the BBC.
Fish biorepository in Penang.
Kitchen gardens in Kenya.
Mothers transmitting seeds and knowledge to their daughters.
Challenges faced by female farmers in preserving seeds after harvest: leave your suggestions. Maybe they could talk to the above?
Trying to save citrus.
Paul Smith of BGCI wins the Fairchild Medal. Congrats!!!
The Washington Post has its finger on the pulses.
“…a peaceful, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic economic system stretching from New Mexico to California that persisted for 600 years…”
Country Nutrition Profiles: the infographics.
The most beautiful cattle in the world.
Extreme weather has been bad for cereals. Well I never.
Threats to Europe’s soil biodiversity.

January 13, 2016

Virgin with crop wild relative

Went to the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne at the weekend, and what should I find but a 15th century tryptich of the Madonna holding a crop wild relative flower? Apparently it symbolises virginity.

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

Brainfood: In situ & CC, Rare livestock phenotypes, SSR & wheat seeds, Kelp genebank, Recognizing pig landraces, Indian pigs, Benin yams, Colombian Manihot, Enset seed, Okra transgenes

Using in situ management to conserve biodiversity under climate change. It can probably be done, but more empirical evidence of long-term effects is needed.
Rare phenotypes in domestic animals: unique resources for multiple applications. Difficult to conserve, but worth doing, and biotech will help.
Patterns of SSR variation in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds under ex situ genebank storage and accelerated ageing. SSRs don’t help figuring out viability loss.
Germplasm banking of the giant kelp: Our biological insurance in a changing environment. Chileans conserve female and male gametophytes in low light, at 10 °C, in Provasoli media.
Authentication of “mono-breed” pork products: Identification of a coat colour gene marker in Cinta Senese pigs useful to this purpose. This particular pig breed can be easily and accurately identified.
Microsatellite and Mitochondrial Diversity Analysis of Native Pigs of Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. Native Indian pigs closer to Chinese than European.
Yam (Dioscorea spp.) responses to the environmental variability in the Guinea Sudan zone of Benin. Different varieties respond differently to different conditions, at least as regards yield.
Diversity and genetic structure of cassava landraces and their wild relatives (Manihot spp.) in Colombia revealed by simple sequence repeats. Lots of geneflow.
Current availability of seed material of enset (Ensete ventricosum, Musaceae) and its Sub-Saharan wild relatives. Not much.
Monitoring adventitious presence of transgenes in ex situ okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) collections conserved in genebank: a case study. None found.