- Early Neolithic (ca. 5850-4500 cal BC) agricultural diffusion in the Western Mediterranean: An update of archaeobotanical data in SW France. Agriculture came to southern France from southern Italy around 5700 BC, initially focusing on hulled wheats, then transitioned to naked cereals as it moved inland.
- Improved feeding and forages at a crossroads: Farming systems approaches for sustainable livestock development in East Africa. Adoption of tropical forages at scale can make a big difference to livelihoods in East Africa, but will need careful consideration of agroecological and socioeconomic settings. My mother-in-law unavailable for comment.
- Comprehensive 3D phenotyping reveals continuous morphological variation across genetically diverse sorghum inflorescences. Fancy gadgets and maths show that botanical sorghum races overlap more in morphology than genetics.
- Using clear plastic CD cases as low‐cost mini‐rhizotrons to phenotype root traits. Now do roots.
- A 1000-year-old mystery solved: Unlocking the molecular structure for the medieval blue from Chrozophora tinctoria, also known as folium. 6′-hydroxy-4,4′-dimethoxy-1,1′-dimethyl-5′-{[3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl]oxy}-[3,3′-bipyridine]-2,2′,5,6(1H,1′H)-tetraone, if you must know.
- Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset. The most amazing thing about this is that there are only 6 types of tillage.
- The global cropland-sparing potential of high-yield farming. We could give up 40% of current farmland if yields of 16 major crops were higher. Unclear what all those farmers would do. Or what kind of tillage they would use.
- Local food crop production can fulfil demand for less than one-third of the population. Still going to need global supply chains.
- Regional differences in agricultural and socioeconomic factors associated with farmer household dietary diversity in India. And national supply chains for that matter.
- Influences of Ingredients and Bakers on the Bacteria and Fungi in Sourdough Starters and Bread. Bakers are part of bread.
- Strategies for reducing per‐sample costs in target capture sequencing for phylogenomics and population genomics in plants. Down to $22 per sample, if you play your cards right.
- Evolutionary insights into plant breeding. When you’ve played those cards, target selective sweeps for introgression, among other things. Oh, and gene editing. Here, read these tweets from one of the authors.
Brainfood: Parkia rights, African Green Revolution, Fonio genome, Maize double, Soil erosion, Agave fructans, Rice pangenome, Napier evaluation, Flour quality, Diet diversity
- Intersecting and dynamic gender rights to néré, a food tree species in Burkina Faso. Women are not a homogeneous group.
- A bitter pill: smallholder responses to the new green revolution prescriptions in northern Ghana. Not a revolution, and not very green. More context here.
- Fonio millet genome unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a changing climate. Not very domesticated: probably needs a green revolution, eh?
- The relevance of gene flow with wild relatives in understanding the domestication process. Maize domestication took a long time, involved introgression with 2 different wild relatives, and did not take place where it was previously thought.
- Diversity of Maize Landraces in Germplasm Collections from South America. And not a genome in sight.
- Global vulnerability of soil ecosystems to erosion. Soil erosion is increasing, and impacting areas of high soil biodiversity.
- The Sweet Taste of Adapting to the Desert: Fructan Metabolism in Agave Species. Not enough is know to fully exploit this remarkable adaptation.
- A platinum standard pan-genome resource that represents the population structure of Asian rice. Because Nipponbare was the wrong thing to sequence initially. Fonio next?
- Forage Performance and Detection of Marker Trait Associations with Potential for Napier Grass (Cenchrus purpureus) Improvement. Some of the 45 genotypes introduced by ILRI from EMBRAPA, Brazil do well in Ethiopia, and it’s not necessarily the elite material.
- Historical changes in the contents and compositions of fibre components and polar metabolites in white wheat flour. Some went up, some went down.
- Correlation between Agricultural Biodiversity, Dietary Diversity, Household Food Security and Associated Factors of Wasting among 6-59 Months old Children in Ambassel Woreda, North East Ethiopia. Mother’s education and dietary diversity are associated with better children’s health.
Brainfood: Shiny seeds, Mexican maize, Olive plague, Pulse CWR, Climate change & biodiversity, Soybean diversity, Wild tomato, Brassica evaluation, Horizontal gene transfer, Wild Cajanus, Agroforestry benefits, Fishy diets, Symbiosis, Ancient Amazonia, Animal domestication
- Delayed luminescence of seeds: are shining seeds viable? Maybe, but more research needed.
- Explaining the spatial scale of campesino agriculture in Mexico: Implications for the supply and conservation of native maize. Maize is not just for subsistence; never has been.
- Impact of Xylella fastidiosa subspecies pauca in European olives. Fancy maths says olives are doomed. But we knew that, right?
- Potential and limits of exploitation of crop wild relatives for pea, lentil, and chickpea improvement. Amazingly, still more collecting is needed.
- The projected timing of abrupt ecological disruption from climate change. And this is why.
- The climatic association of population divergence and future extinction risk of Solanum pimpinellifolium. Its range may expand in some places, shrink in others. so it’s not like all bad news then? At least you know where to collect it from.
- Early Holocene crop cultivation and landscape modification in Amazonia. REALLY early agriculture in the Llanos de Moxos. Any collecting there, I wonder?
- Exploring the genetic base of the soybean germplasm from Africa, America and Asia as well as mining of beneficial allele for flowering and seed weight. The African material is not very diverse, but is very different
- Novel Source of Biotic Stress Resistance Identified from Brassica Species and its Wild Relatives. From 3000 to about 10 “useful” accessions.
- Horizontal gene transfer of Fhb7 from fungus underlies Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat. Thinopyrum elongatum got head blight resistance from the fungus Epichloë. GMOs unimpressed.
- A Wild Cajanus scarabaeoides (L.), Thouars, IBS 3471, for Improved Insect-Resistance in Cultivated Pigeonpea. It has multiple disease resistance mechanisms against pod borer. And here it is.
- A Planetary Health Perspective on Agroforestry in Sub-Saharan Africa. Trees on farms are good for you. Here come the data.
- Dietary diversity and fish consumption of mothers and their children in fisher households in Komodo District, eastern Indonesia. Infants and young children are not getting enough of all the fish.
- Agriculture and the Disruption of Plant–Microbial Symbiosis. Agronomy, ecology and breeding can screw up microbial symbioses in cultivated plants, and that’s not good. But it is expected.
- Animal domestication in the era of ancient genomics. “By documenting how livestock populations endured both past epidemics and environmental change, ancient genomics can provide invaluable information that can be used to address current and future societal challenges.” Can.
Brainfood: Bushmeat, Mixed livestock, Zoos, NUS, GS, Vavilovia, Ribes, Phenotypes, Silkworms, Yam propagation
- Eating Bushmeat Improves Food Security in a Biodiversity and Infectious Disease “Hotspot”. What could possibly go wrong.
- Potential of multi-species livestock farming to improve the sustainability of livestock farms: A review. Depends on management, in particular stocking rate.
- Genotyping on the ark: A synthesis of genetic resources available for species in zoos. Use genomics to improve conservation.
- Dairy cows: in the age of the genotype, #phenotypeisking. “If I were a dairy or beef farmer, I would genotype all my animals and farm phenotypes for sale.”
- Enhancing African orphan crops with genomics. Use genomics to improve use.
- Strategies for Effective Use of Genomic Information in Crop Breeding Programs Serving Africa and South Asia. Use genomic selection to use genomics to improve use.
- The Vavilov Institute’s (VIR) contribution to the survey and study of Vavilovia formosa (Fabaceae). More seeds needed.
- ‘Gabreta’ saved from the ruins of oblivion. That’s a forgotten red currant from the Sudetenland.
- Genetic and genomic analysis for cocoon yield traits in silkworm. Even the wild species could contribute to higher yields.
- Propagation of lusala (Dioscorea hirtiflora), a wild yam, for in situ and ex situ conservation and potential domestication. Lots of options.
Brainfood: Bull, Durum, W2Px2, Urban hort, Maya ag, Nepal PGR, Bean GWAS, Pig landrace, DSI
- Reconstitution and modernization of lost Holstein male lineages using samples from a gene bank. Because all today’s bulls tracing back to exactly 2 born in the late 1880s is really not a very good thing.
- Comparative population genomic analyses of the reconstructed local breed “Nero di Parma” with other commercial and autochthonous Italian pig breeds. I like the idea of reconstructing a breed, but this one needs some more work or it will end up as the above.
- Durum wheat in the Mediterranean Rim: historical evolution and genetic resources. What have the Romans ever done for us? Well…
- Drinking biodiversity: a choice experiment on Franciacorta sparkling wines. Willingness to pay for biodiversity friendliness of high value products has its limits.
- Benefits of conserving agricultural genetic resources in Finland: Summary of the recent Finnish research and setting it in the international context. Still, there is some willingness to pay.
- The hidden potential of urban horticulture. Yes, even in Sheffield.
- Maize Politics and Maya Farmers’ Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Yucatán, 1450–1600. The sustainability of milpa depends on politics. ‘Twas ever thus.
- Genomics-assisted breeding for pigeonpea improvement. How do you know when you have enough genomics data?
- Agrobiodiversity and its Conservation in Nepal. 25,000 accessions around the world. But are they enough?
- Genetic Associations in Four Decades of Multi-environment Trials Reveal Agronomic Trait Evolution in Common Bean. 2 large genomic regions have been ruthlessly selected in relentless pursuit of the ideotype. Doesn’t sound like enough.
- Implications of biological information digitization: Access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources. “The solution lies in an international institution stepping forward, with a bold vision and strong mandate, capable of resolution.” Good luck with that.