- Broad-scale adaptive genetic variation in alpine plants is driven by temperature and precipitation. AFLP variation linked to precipitation and temperature across 13 Alpine species.
- Current state of knowledge on indigenous chicken genetic resources of the tropics: domestication, distribution and documentation of information on the genetic resources. There are three relevant databases on chickens, and yet…
- Genetic diversity and parentage in farmer varieties of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) from Honduras and Nicaragua as revealed by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. 70 SNPs enough to confirm 5 morphological groups, but also pick up the odd synonym.
- Molecular diversity and phylogenetic relationships of Pistacia vera, Pistacia atlantica subsp. mutica and Pistacia khinjuk using SRAP markers. The species are pretty good.
- Biofortified, selenium enriched, fruit and cladode from three Opuntia Cactus pear cultivars grown on agricultural drainage sediment for use in nutraceutical foods. It pays to grow prickly pear on crappy soil.
- Hotspots of diversity of wild Australian soybean relatives and their conservation in situ. Looks like it’s Kimberley.
- Community-based alternative breeding plans for indigenous sheep breeds in four agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia. They’re ok, but you do have to keep good records.
- Diverse genetic basis of field-evolved resistance to Bt cotton in cotton bollworm from China. Gene jockeys need to go back to drawing board. No, wait.
- Bioactive compounds and nutritional significance of virgin argan oil–an edible oil with potential as a functional food. Jolly high in just about everything that’s good for you, more research needed, yada yada yada.
Featured: Genebank payments
Ehsan reminds us of one of the complexities of genebanks charging for accessions:
Often genebanks holds collections arising from other countries from which the accession has been collected. Then, how ethical would it be for a country to request for materials collected from its country and have to pay for it. I think this is another point which should be taken in to consideration.
Lots of other comments, do have a look and add your own.
Nibbles: CWR video, Super barley, Banana fermentation, Cerrado, Indian genebank sell-off farrago, Pistacia, Potato disease
- Al Jazeera discovers wild relatives.
- The Scotsman discovers the laws of heredity.
- Diana uncovers banana beer.
- Rio +20 hacks discover the cerrado.
- Indian genebank discovers the market?
- JSTOR uncovers the pistachio.
- Scottish potato farmers discover new nemesis.
Getting journals to map species
We believe that implementation of a data-archiving policy by biodiversity and conservation journals would drive a large amount of species occurrence data across broad geographic and taxonomic ranges into biodiversity databases.
Uhm, something for the weekend, perhaps. Maybe even in conjunction with this. Or maybe I’ll just watch the football…
Nibbles: ITPGRFA, Samoan coconuts, Ancient Amazon, Moringa
- CGIAR pushes ITPGRFA into Rio +20 limelight. ITPGRFA unavailable for comment.
- Recession or no recession, Samoan women’s group in Body Shop coconut oil deal.
- Pre-Columbian Amazon not densely inhabited after all. Just wake me up when they sort this out.
- Ok, where do I get my hands on some Moringa leaves?