- What has agrobiodiversity ever done for us? Kent Nnadozie of the Plant Treaty lays it out.
- Michael Frei of the HealthyDiets4Africa project doesn’t need it laid out.
- Neither do the people who awarded a prize to Charlotte Allender of the UK Vegetable Genebank.
- What has the US National Plant Germplasm System ever done for anyone? The Guardian, the NY Times and NPR News lay it out. I guess someone in D.C. needs it laid out, but will it make any difference?
- Everyone: Potatoes in Florida! Breeders: No problem. NPGS: You called?
- Here’s The Guardian again, but this time thinking it is making the case for not putting seeds in the fridge, whereas in fact it’s making the case for the complementarity of ex situ and on-farm conservation.
- Speaking of on-farm conservation, here’s a couple of pieces on community seed banks in Guatemala.
- Speaking of on-farm conservation, here’s the heart-warming story of Welsh organic farmer Gerald Miles.
- Meanwhile, the World Vegetable Centre opens a new genebank.
- And Türkiye hosts an international, no less, olive genebank.
- And genebanks can be so beautiful, like works of art. Former Tate Modern director Vicente Todolí lays out his citrus samples. I wonder what he could do with olives.
- Botanic gardens are beautiful and often act a little bit like crop genebanks. Here’s an example from Portugal I stumbled onto recently, I forget how.
- You know what I’d like to see? An international pepper genebank, that’s what. No, not the kind that might be in those Guatemalan community seedbanks or the WorldVeg genebank. This sort of pepper. Piper pepper.
- I bet the ancient Egyptians had pepper. Egyptian archaeologist Mennat-Allah El Dorry lays out what else they had.
- Maybe you could lay out world history using pepper. You can definitely do so using cacao and chocolate.
- No, not using ancient DNA, but actually…
Brainfood: QMS, Seed viability, Genotyping, Taxonomy, FAIR data, Evaluation data, Lentil data, Indian cryobank, Home genebank, Dry chain, Botanical gardens, Environmental monitoring, Bending the curve
- Quality management in a genebank environment: Principles and experiences at the Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands (CGN). Do we need a certification system for genebanks? We do have the means to put one together.
- A pragmatic protocol for seed viability monitoring in ex situ plant genebanks. But will genebank certification allow much-needed flexibility?
- Genotyping Genebank Collections: Strategic Approaches and Considerations for Optimal Collection Management. Or will it make everyone genotype everything?
- Assigning Species Names to Ambiguous Populations in the US Potato Genebank. Oh, you want an example of why everyone should genotype everything?
- The FLAIR-GG federated network of FAIR germplasm data resources. For sure it should require data to be FAIR.
- The EURISCO-EVA Information System, an innovative approach to the data management of multi-site crop evaluation data. Even evaluation data, though? That usually comes from genebank partners, not the genebanks themselves. Wouldn’t that be a problem?
- A case study on lentil to demonstrate the value of using historic data stored in genebanks to guide the selection of resources for research and development projects. Oh, you want an example why evaluation data should be included in (or linked to) genebank documentation systems?
- Indian cryogenebank conserving diverse plant genetic resources for the last three decades: Achievements and way forward. Is it certified, though?
- Share a Tiny Space of Your Freezer to Preserve Seed Diversity. Meanwhile, at the other end of the technology continuum…
- Applications of dry chain technology to maintain high seed viability in tropical climates. If your freezer is in the tropics, think about handling your seeds this way. And maybe you’ll get certified :)
- Insights from a century of data reveal global trends in ex situ living plant collections. Maybe botanic gardens should be certified too, presumably. Would it have made a difference? Actually, now I think of it, does this mean the system as a whole needs to be certified? Anyway, good thing the data were FAIRish.
- A framework for long-term environmental monitoring using living plant collections in botanic gardens: A global review and case study from Trinity College Botanic Garden. Another example of the benefits of FAIR evaluation data. And of botanical gardens.
- Sustainable high-yield farming is essential for bending the curve of biodiversity loss. And genebanks (and maybe botanical gardens too, why not?) are essential for sustainable high-yield farming. Certify that.
Brainfood: Heraclitus, Cocoyam, Pollen, Dry chain, DSI, Global Biodiversity Framework
- Will a plant germplasm accession conserved in a genebank change genetically over time? Sure, change is inevitable, but it can be minimized, and some can be accepted.
- Cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.) Schott) genetic resources and breeding: a review of 50 years of research efforts. Conventional breeding, based on inducing flowering, is possible, but will require more international exchange of germplasm. I hope someone is saving the seeds.
- Pollen banking is a critical need for conserving plant diversity. Even if it changes genetically over time.
- Applications of dry chain technology to maintain high seed viability in tropical climates. You’ve got to dry your seeds fast and hard. Probably your pollen too, come to that.
- Harmonize rules for digital sequence information benefit-sharing across UN frameworks. The big question is, should there be a single trigger point for monetary benefits, or separate ones for each treaty? At least the sequences do not change over time. But what about if the accessions from which they are derived do?
- Involving citizens in monitoring the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Yes, let’s get citizens to help us monitor all that change.
Nibbles: IUCN report, Land Institute, Climate smart beer, BioLeft seeds, Cryo coral
- Big IUCN report says that biodiversity and agriculture are in conflict, they don’t really need to be, but it’s really complicated for them not to be. So that’s us all told.
- If only annual crops were perennial, for example, eh?
- If only we incorporated more sustainable agriculture in education, for example, eh? Apart from anything else we could still have beer. No word on the role of perennial barley though.
- If only improved seeds were open source, for example, eh?
- If only we could cryopreserve coral, for example, eh? Wait, what?
Brainfood: Beverage edition
- Crop-to-wild gene flow in wild coffee species: the case of Coffea canephora in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. DNA bits diagnostic of domesticated coffee are finding their way into wild rainforest populations, but not all that much.
- The genome and population genomics of allopolyploid Coffea arabica reveal the diversification history of modern coffee cultivars. Diversity was already pretty low in pre-domestication wild arabica, and continued going downhill after that. Time to re-synthesize the crop, I say.
- Beyond the Orthodoxy: An Overview of the Potential of ‘Other’ Coffee Species for Crop Use and their Associated Challenges. All well and good, but don’t forget there’s more to coffee than just arabica and robusta.
- Advancing Coffee Genetic Resource Conservation and Exchange: Global Perspectives and Strategies from the ICC 2024 Satellite Workshop. Time to properly secure all coffee diversity in genebanks, and that includes sorting out ABS.
- Expanding the cacao group: three new species of Theobroma sect. Herrania (Malvaceae: Byttnerioideae) from the Western Amazon Basin. Plenty of “other” cacao species too, and more coming.
- Seed morphometrics unravels the evolutionary history of grapevine in France. There was wild-domesticate geneflow in early grapevines in France as well as in robusta coffee in the DRC, and you don’t need to trace bits of DNA to prove it.
- Characterization and analysis of a Commiphora species germinated from an ancient seed suggests a possible connection to a species mentioned in the Bible. Thousand-year-old seed is a distinct and possibly long-lost species of myrrh. Which ok is not a beverage but still vaguely liquid, at least initially.
- Sesame, an Underutilized Oil Seed Crop: Breeding Achievements and Future Challenges. Ok, since we’re doing liquid-producing crops, let’s include this review of sesame improvement. Lots of wild species to use. No word on wild-domesticate geneflow though.