- A gap analysis modelling framework to prioritize collecting for ex situ conservation of crop landraces. Kinda proud it only took me 30 years to get this done. For comparison, this is where we were 15 years ago. Seems like a lifetime. Well, a career.
- Serendipitous In Situ Conservation of Faba Bean Landraces in Tunisia: A Case Study. Comparison between newly collected and genebank materials reveals overlap. The above is thus unnecessary. Life comes at you fast.
- Why Self-fertilizing Plants Still Exist in Wild Populations: Diversity Assurance through Stress-Induced Male Sterility May Promote Selective Outcrossing and Recombination. Stress makes plants incels.
- Roadmap for Accelerated Domestication of an Emerging Perennial Grain Crop. Instead of making wheat perennial, make a perennial wild relative of wheat domesticated.
- An SNP based GWAS analysis of seed longevity in wheat. Could increase seed longevity by just over 10%. Hardly seems worth it.
- Quality Management Practices of Gene Banks for Livestock: A Global Review. 30% of 90 genebanks have a QMS, 15 involving formal certification, but mainly for material entering, not leaving.
- Cryopreservation of fish gametes: A remarkable tool for breeding conservation. No doubt QMS coming soon.
- The wild species genome ancestry of domestic chickens. Not just Red Junglefowl, Charles.
- Genome‐wide sequence information reveals recurrent hybridization among diploid wheat wild relatives. Kinda like chickens? No, not really, but almost.
- Molecular and genetic bases of heat stress responses in crop plants and breeding for increased resilience and productivity. We’re this close. This close to a breakthrough, I tell you.
- A review on the genetic resources, domestication and breeding history of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). Gonna need more wild relatives.
- Mungbean Genetic Resources and Utilization. Gonna need more wild relatives.
- Population genetic variability and distribution of the endangered Greek endemic Cicer graecum under climate change scenarios. Serendipity has its limits.
- Counting on Crossovers: Controlled Recombination for Plant Breeding. Increasing recombination could be especially useful when doing crosses with wild relatives (see above).
- Nature-oriented park use of satoyama ecosystems can enhance biodiversity conservation in urbanized landscapes. Abandoned satoyama can still do some good.
Brainfood: Squash diversity, Cryo, Wild wheat, Maize evolution, Yak genome, Flagships, Nutrient production, Bhutanese quinoa, USDA Sweetpotato, European GIAHS, Pulses, Apulian onions
- Phylogeographic and population genetic analyses of Cucurbita moschata reveal divergence of two mitochondrial lineages linked to an elevational gradient. And nuclear genes show there’s a distinct population in Yucatan.
- Advances in cryopreservation of in vitro-derived propagules: technologies and explant sources. Beyond shoot tips.
- Characterization of two leaf rust-resistant Aegilops tauschii accessions for the synthetic wheat development. Hyper-resistant, no less.
- The Genomic Basis for Short-Term Evolution of Environmental Adaptation in Maize. Adaptation of the phenology of tropical types to temperate conditions can happen quickly. So bring in those exotics, they’ll cope soon enough.
- The sequence and de novo assembly of the wild yak genome. Let the intensive yak production systems proliferate.
- Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum. Focusing on 500-odd charismatic mammals, birds and reptiles can account for 80-90% of the species that can be covered in an optimization not constrained by such flagships. But how many CWR? Or, looking at it from the other side, what if CWR were the flagships? Yeah, right, right?
- Spatiotemporal trends in adequacy of dietary nutrient production and food sources. Global production can provide everyone with all nutrients except vitamin A, but 120 countries are not self-sufficient. Another way we’re all interdependent. But at least we have trade. Right?
- First adaptation of quinoa in the Bhutanese mountain agriculture systems. Someone mention interdependence?
- Phenotypic Variation in Leaf Morphology of the USDA, ARS Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) Germplasm Collection. Everything is Normal.
- Characterization of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in Europe. They’re ok but there could be more.
- Evaluation of pulse crops’ functional diversity supporting food production. Three groups of pulses: producers (biomass and seeds), competitors (against weeds) and fixers (N).
- Assessment of Genetic Diversity of the “Acquaviva Red Onion” (Allium cepa L.) Apulian Landrace. It’s a well-defined variety that is noticeably sweeter than others.
Brainfood: Cropland map, Wild spinach collecting, CC double, Cacao diversity, Oilpalm footprint, Algal genebanks, Potatoes & gas, S African livestock, Silk Road cereals, Pests & CC
- Global synergy cropland map. Yes, another one.
- Acquisition and regeneration of Spinacia turkestanica Iljin and S. tetrandra Steven ex M. Bieb. to improve a spinach gene bank collection. CGN plugs some gaps.
- Recent responses to climate change reveal the drivers of species extinction and survival. Niche shifts more important than dispersal in avoiding extinction.
- Climate change responses benefit from a global food system approach. Well I never.
- Morphological characterisation and evaluation of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in Trinidad to facilitate utilisation of Trinitario cacao globally. Some combine large seeds with high seed numbers.
- The environmental impacts of palm oil and its alternatives. Not as bad as you may think.
- Macroalgal germplasm banking for conservation, food security, and industry. Liquid cultures in dormancy is the way to do it, apparently.
- Simple Sequence Repeat-Based Genetic Diversity and Analysis of Molecular Variance among on-Farm Native Potato Landraces from the Influence Zone of Camisea Gas Project, Northern Ayacucho, Peru. So what will be done about it?
- Livelihood, Food and Nutrition Security in Southern Africa: What Role Do Indigenous Cattle Genetic Resources Play? A big role which in in danger and could in fact be bigger.
- 5,200-year-old cereal grains from the eastern Altai Mountains redate the trans-Eurasian crop exchange. Wheat and barley in the Altai one thousand years before we thought.
- Complex responses of global insect pests to climate warming. 41% of 31 globally important phytophagous insect pests will increase in severity, jury out on what will happen with the others.
Brainfood: Grassland diversity, Perennial crops, Ancient dates, Armenian grapes, Endangered trees, HLB sniffers, Household data, NUS, Phenotyping, Sorghum parasites, Wild Vigna, Ancient foods, Climate frontier
- Economic benefits from plant species diversity in intensively managed grasslands. More species means more milk, more money and less risk.
- Community structure of soil fungi in a novel perennial crop monoculture, annual agriculture, and native prairie reconstruction. Perennial monoculture not unlike native prairie.
- Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm based on genetic analysis of germinated ancient seeds and morphometric studies. Ancient Judean dates may have come from further east.
- Genetic diversity and traditional uses of aboriginal grape (Vitis vinifera L.) varieties from the main viticultural regions of Armenia. 71 genotypes, no less.
- Mapping tree species vulnerability to multiple threats as a guide to restoration and conservation of tropical dry forests. About 50% of the distribution of 50 trees in northwestern Peru and southern Ecuador is vulnerable.
- Canine olfactory detection of a vectored phytobacterial pathogen, Liberibacter asiaticus, and integration with disease control. Dogs can sniff out a nasty citrus disease.
- The Rural Household Multiple Indicator Survey, data from 13,310 farm households in 21 countries. 758 variables, no less.
- Local Solutions for Sustainable Food Systems: The Contribution of Orphan Crops and Wild Edible Species. Increasing dietary diversity, more market opportunities for smallholders, and more attention to biodiversity conservation. Do orphan crops feature among the 758 variables above?
- Breeder friendly phenotyping. Focused, rapid and precise. Much like me, then?
- Genomics of sorghum local adaptation to a parasitic plant. Why we need on-farm conservation.
- Mapping patterns of abiotic and biotic stress resilience uncovers conservation gaps and breeding potential of Vigna wild relatives. Sources of resistance to biotic stresses are more common than to abiotic stresses, in terms of the number of species that have them.
- Archaeobotanical evidence of food plants in Northern Italy during the Roman period. Nice take-homes from Dr Lisa Lodwick on Twitter.
- The environmental consequences of climate-driven agricultural frontiers. Areas newly suitable for one or more crops store a lot of C, cover a lot of important watersheds and are home to a lot of biodiversity.
Brainfood: Ethiopian ABS, Horse double, Grapevine double, Naked barley, Sub clover diversity, Soybean diversity, USDA sorghum, Chicken diversity double, VAM, Oz wild rice
- Against the grain? A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia. Culture, economics and politics.
- Early Pastoral Economies and Herding Transitions in Eastern Eurasia. Everything changed around 1200 BC. Starting in Mongolia.
- Genetic diversity within and between British and Irish breeds: The maternal and paternal history of native ponies. Diversity within breeds being maintained, global haplotypes well represented, but a couple of breeds pretty unique. Long way from Mongolia.
- Diversity buffers winegrowing regions from climate change losses. Gotta change your cultivars.
- Contribution de la biodiversité à l’éco-oenotourisme des vignobles héroïques: atouts et perspectives. You can’t change your cultivars.
- Marker-assisted selection in a global barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare) collection revealed a unique genetic determinant of the naked barley controlled by the nud locus. One genetic variant, from East Asia, makes barley naked.
- Morphological diversity within a core collection of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.): Lessons in pasture adaptation from the wild. The Australian cultivars have similar morphological diversity to the core collection, and several morphological characters are probably adaptive.
- Genome-wide genetic diversity is maintained through decades of soybean breeding in Canada. After an initial decline, though, and there’s more out there.
- Evaluation of genetic diversity, agronomic traits, and anthracnose resistance in the NPGS Sudan Sorghum Core collection. 10% country subset of a 10% core subset of >40,000 accessions contains multiple anthracnose resistance sources, and lots of other diversity.
- Phylogeny and conservation priority assessment of Asian domestic chicken genetic resources. 7 clades, 3 centres of origin, northern Yunnan the highest priority for conservation.
- European and Asian contribution to the genetic diversity of mainland South American chickens. Alas, no evidence of a pre-Columbian Polynesian contribution. Yunnan, that’s another story.
- Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affect the concentration and distribution of nutrients in the grain differently in barley compared with wheat. Differently as in opposite directions.
- Molecular and Morphological Divergence of Australian Wild Rice. Including a putative new taxon.