- Assessment of genetic diversity among alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) genotypes by morphometry, seed storage proteins and RAPD analysis. Morphology fits with geography, the others don’t.
- Insights into the historical biogeography of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) using geometric morphometry of modern and ancient seeds. Analysis of seed outlines using fancy maths identifies centres of diversity and migration routes.
- Loss of genetic diversity as a signature of apricot domestication and diffusion into the Mediterranean Basin. Or you could use microsatellites. Result: an Irano-Caucasian centre of domestication and two migration routes, N and S of the Mediterranean.
- Big hitting collectors make massive and disproportionate contribution to the discovery of plant species. Therefore, fund a small number of expert collectors in the right places. Luigi stands ready.
- Success Rates for Reintroductions of Eight Perennial Plant Species after 15 Years. Are pretty pathetic. Makes you wonder if all that collecting is worth it.
- Conservation of endemic insular plants: the genus Ribes L. (Grossulariaceae) in Sardinia. Seems rather a fuss for 1 species and 1 subspecies, crop wild relatives or not.
- Indicator-based agri-environmental payments: A payment-by-result model for public goods with a Swedish application. Hang on a minute, why is crop diversity not there?
Nibbles: Urban cows, Nutrition conference, Island conservation, Chaffey, Uganda rice collecting, Heirloom prize tomato, Metrics, Investing
- Breeding cows for cities. What about the ones that are already there? Oh and happy birthday, Susan!
- Nutritionists meet. Will they discuss diversity?
- Conservation on islands: Bermuda and Malta.
- Plant Cuttings. Rejoice.
- Rice collected in Uganda to be in the ITPGRFA’s Multilateral System. Was there ever a doubt?
- ‘Amish Destor’ tomato wins big.
- Metrics for Biodiversity is not about what you imagine it ought to be about. (So why link to it? To keep ’em honest.)
- Investing in natural alternatives offers excellent returns … and for agriculture?
Nibbles: Data visualization, Soil, Heirlooms, Organic, Bugs, Veggies, Rome, AnGR, Meat, Mexico, Date palm pollination
- Cool infographics on food, trade and, well, a particular sort of trade. And how to make your own.
- Soil would be a cool place to start.
- The bananas of your grandchildren and the carrots of your grandparents. Plus a funny peculiar idea about how to keep seed of such stuff for 50 years.
- Which you don’t need to do anyway because “[r]eplacing traditional seeds with commercial varieties is not an official government policy,” at least in South Africa. Unlike in the EU, I guess. Oooooh, did I just say that? Such a naughty muppet.
- Ok, let me make up for that with some thoughts on breeding for the sorts of places where those traditional seeds might be found, in Africa and in Europe.
- Of course, in such places, you have to know your aphids. Before they go and eat a bacteria and change their DNA. Tricky to breed for resistance to that, I would guess.
- Oh, but here are also the views of someone in Europe who would rather not have anything to do with traditional seeds and their accompanying aphids at all. Why can’t we just get along?
- Why, for example, can we all not get to love mboga za watu wa Pwani. You heard me. And no, residing far from the Swahili Coast is no excuse. Jeremy unavailable for comment.
- He did, however, point out that “[t]he value of male prostitutes exceeds that of farmlands.” Yep, Robigalia time again.
- Meanwhile, not far from the Swahili Coast, some people are thinking that man does not live by mboga alone… No, he must have nyama too.
- And speaking of which: giving sausages a name. On this, I am with Bismarck. No such porky nonsense from the French.
- “Nine thousand years of Mexican agriculture” online. And five hundred on the stove.
- Pollinating date palms just got a whole lot easier. And no, this doesn’t have anything to do with any of the other nibbles, but I thought it was cool.
BGI picking off CG Centres one by one
ICRISAT is the latest CGIAR Centre to get into bed with the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), following IRRI and CIAT. One does wonder whether if the Centres had approached BGI as a group rather than singly, in the context of the much-vaunted restructuring of the CG system, they might not have extracted a better deal from the shrewd gene-jockeys of Beijing.
LATER: Or is the real news, as a message we have received hints, that some CG Centres have NOT succumbed to the blandishments of BGI, because of worries over intellectual property issues? But again, if that is indeed a problem, would not a joint approach have been able to drive a harder bargain on IPR as well as cost? I don’t know. I’m just asking.
Featured: Models
Marleen Cobben gives more details on her fascinating model:
The results from our model suggest that the spatial process of range shifting under climate change can have a big impact on the genetic composition of new populations. This is because the individuals arriving first in a new climatically suitable natural area, have a competitive advantage (in numbers) over individuals arriving later. So even if these latter individuals are better adapted to the local conditions, adaptation of the population takes a while because there’s initially so little to select for. No news thus far I’d say. The problem is, that this ‘while’ is fairly long compared to the predicted rate of temperature increase.
And there’s a lot more, all of it interesting. Have a look.