- Sustainable diet from the urban Brazilian consumer perspective. Healthiness, basically.
- Comparison of the Relative Potential for Epigenetic and Genetic Variation To Contribute to Trait Stability. Genetic >> epigenetic.
- Global mismatch of policy and research on drivers of biodiversity loss. Except for climate change.
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels this century will alter the protein, micronutrients, and vitamin content of rice grains with potential health consequences for the poorest rice-dependent countries. And not in a good way. But some variation among varieties = breeding opportunity?
- Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy. Among Austronesian-speaking societies, no evidence that agricultural intensification drives social complexity; if anything, it’s the other way around.
- Plant behaviour from human imprints and the cultivation of wild cereals in Holocene Sahara. Weediness has been good to humans in the past.
- Gene Flow in Genetically Modified Wheat. Would probably only be a problem within fields.
- How much of the world’s food do smallholders produce? FAO: 70%. New paper: 30-34%.
- Pervasive introgression facilitated domestication and adaptation in the Bos species complex. Miscegenation has been rampant.
Brainfood: Cassava domestication, Phylogenomics review, Flavour breeding, Anticolonialism, Arid beet, Arid Vigna, Arid maize, ABS double, Trout stem cells
- Patterns of nuclear and chloroplast genetic diversity and structure of manioc along major Brazilian Amazonian rivers. No structure related to river basins. Separate histories for sweet and bitter types, with the sweet domesticated and spreading first.
- Practical considerations for plant phylogenomics. Use the right tool for the job.
- The genetics of fruit flavour preferences. Here’s a “molecular roadmap to flavour improvement,” breeders. Now go crazy.
- Beyond Culinary Colonialism: Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Liberal Multiculturalism, and the Control of Gastronomic Capital. Multiculturalism is incompatible with food sovereignty.
- Predicting genotypes environmental range from genome‐environment associations. Fraction of aridity-associated alleles in wild beet could accurately predict adaptation to aridity in independent set of cultivated individuals.
- Diversity of drought tolerance in the genus Vigna. No word on genotypes. But wilds more tolerant of drought in Vigna too.
- Identification of Drought, Heat, and Combined Drought and Heat Tolerant Donors in Maize. Only 2 out of 300 inbreds are resistant to both drought and heat. No word on how teosinte does.
- Benefit sharing mechanisms for agricultural genetic diversity use and in-situ conservation. Show me the money.
- The Nagoya Protocol could backfire on the Global South. It’s not just about the money.
- Invasion of a legume ecosystem engineer in a cold biome alters plant biodiversity. Biosafety first.
- Interspecific germ cell transplantation: a new light in the conservation of valuable Balkan trout genetic resources? Maybe.
Brainfood: Cassava breeding, Teosinte gaps, Arabidopsis and CC, Urban pineapple, Minnesota apples, European CWR, Spiderplant review, British condiments, Yeast diversity, Diversity & productivity
- Toward improving photosynthesis in cassava: Characterizing photosynthetic limitations in four current African cultivars. The landraces are better at photosynthesis than the improved cultivars. Maybe because the aim of producing the latter was pest and disease resistance rather than yield.
- Ecogeography of teosinte. Only 11% in protected areas.
- A map of climate change-driven natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana. Summer is coming.
- Urban backyards as a new model of pineapple germplasm conservation. Two thirds of citizen scientists did a really good job.
- Identification of unknown apple (Malus × domestica) cultivars demonstrates the impact of local breeding program on cultivar diversity. 330 unknown highly diverse trees in northern Minnesota, 264 unique genotypes, 76 matched to 20 named cultivars from local breeding program at the University of Minnesota, or imported Russian cultivars.
- Development of national crop wild relative conservation strategies in European countries. 30 countries: 13 in preparation stage, 14 with drafts, and 3 not yet started.
- Current knowledge and breeding perspectives for the spider plant (Cleome gynandra L.): a potential for enhanced breeding of the plant in Africa. I actually like the bitterness of the leaves.
- Condiments before Claudius: new plant foods at the Late Iron Age oppidum at Silchester, UK. Benefits of a customs union, I guess.
- Adaptation of S. cerevisiae to Fermented Food Environments Reveals Remarkable Genome Plasticity and the Footprints of Domestication. Genetics linked to lifestyle differences.
- Plant spectral diversity integrates functional and phylogenetic components of biodiversity and predicts ecosystem function. About 50% of variation in productivity in the Cedar Creek biodiversity experiment explained by spectral diversity.
Brainfood: Czech genebank value, AnGR value, Korea rice core value, Cannabis value, Red rice diversity, Aquaculture trends, Mexican CWR, Rice male sterility, Evidence base, Siberian cheese
- Estimating the Value of Crop Diversity Conservation Services Provided by the Czech National Programme for Agrobiodiversity. Willingness-to-pay (WTP) amounts to country-wide benefits of $68 million.
- Animal genetic resources diversity and ecosystem services. Traditional breeds make a significant contribution to non-provisioning ecosystem services, but their keepers are often marginalized. Maybe somebody should calculate WTP?
- Genome-wide association study reveals candidate genes related to low temperature tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa) during germination. 100 genes on 2 chromosomes, based on data from the Korean core collection.
- The Role of Agriculture in Supplying Nutritional, Medicinal, and Recreational Cannabis Products. We need a Green Ganja Revolution, man.
- Diversity and population structure of red rice germplasm in Bangladesh. Red rices, actually.
- Comparative terrestrial feed and land use of an aquaculture-dominant world. Farming fish spares more land than farming livestock. And is better for you.
- A Crop Wild Relative Inventory for Mexico. 310 taxa, 30% endemic.
- Genetic analysis of male sterility obtained from a rice cultivar Lebed backcrossed with Taichung 65. You can get it here.
- The major barriers to evidence‐informed conservation policy and possible solutions. Convince the public, and the policy-makers will come.
- Using PacBio sequencing to investigate the bacterial microbiota of traditional Buryatian cottage cheese and comparison with Italian and Kazakhstan artisanal cheeses. Buryatia is a mountainous Russian republic in eastern Siberia, and they make really diverse cheese there, bacterially speaking.
Brainfood: Spanish livestock, IPK forage & wheat, USDA soybean diversity, NERICA/ARICA, Nagoya, Intensification, Greek lentil, Zulu sheep, Kola vs cocoa, African rice farming, Wild foods
- Human and ecological determinants of the spatial structure of local breed diversity. The closer Spanish provinces are in demography, ecology, history and geography, the more similar in their livestock breeds.
- Enhancing the Sustainable Use of Lolium perenne Genetic Resources from Genebanks in Plant Breeding and Research. The importance of international collaboration illustrated yet again. Material best at different things comes from different countries.
- Leveraging the use of historical data gathered during seed regeneration of an ex situ genebank collection of wheat. Accessions should be regenerated at random. From same genebank as above.
- Population and quantitative genomic properties of the USDA soybean germplasm collection. 8 major clusters.
- Assessment of Genetic Variation and Population Structure of Diverse Rice Genotypes Adapted to Lowland and Upland Ecologies in Africa Using SNPs. Lowland NERICA close to indica, highland NERICA close to japonica.
- Do You Conduct International Research? What You Need to Know About Access, Benefit‐Sharing, and the Nagoya Protocol. Quite a lot.
- Pasture intensification is insufficient to relieve pressure on conservation priority areas in open agricultural markets. Intensification relieves pressure on land in Africa, but not in Latin America, where it stimulates increased trade.
- Genetic diversity analysis of the Greek lentil (Lens culinaris) landrace ‘Eglouvis’ using morphological and molecular markers. 400 years old, quite distinct, and with some variation.
- Genetic structure of South African Nguni (Zulu) sheep populations reveals admixture with exotic breeds. Quite variable and not much inbreeding, but gotta watch out the admixture with exotics.
- Is kola Tree the Enemy of Cocoa? A Critical Analysis of Agroforestry Recommendations Made to Ivorian Cocoa Farmers. No, but you wouldn’t think it from Big Chocolate recommendations.
- ‘The Tides Rhyme with the Moon’: The Impacts of Knowledge Transmission and Strong Spring Tides on Rice Farming in Guinea-Bissau. The youth resist.
- Wild Foods: Safety Net or Poverty Trap? A South African Case Study. Depends on the season.