Breeding – Page 138 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

September 14, 2017

Breeding tomorrow’s heirlooms

Interesting article in Modern Farmer, on Why We Need to Revitalize Organic Seed Farming. They rounded up the usual suspects, who offer the expected explanations, none of which detracts from the importance of what some breeders are doing.

“The heirloom boom of the nineties helped people see the value of preserving seed, but they don’t understand that it can get even better,” says Selman. “Public plant breeders are creating varieties that are more resilient and more appropriate for the future.”

Lane Selman talked to me about her work with the Culinary Breeding Network for Eat This Podcast.

September 11, 2017February 8, 2018

Brainfood: Eggplant germplasm, CC threat, Impact metrics, Drought & seeds, Burundi cattle, Wild chickpea, Banana collecting, Bambara groundnut diversity, CIP cryo, USA PGR policy, Australian forages, ILRI seed testing, Nepal intensification, Maize and CC

World Vegetable Center Eggplant Collection: Origin, Composition, Seed Dissemination and Utilization in Breeding. 3,200 accessions from 90 countries, covering all 3 cultivated species, but not enough wild relatives.
An integrated framework to identify wildlife populations under threat from climate change. Need to know about landscape connectivity, and genomic data would be useful too.
Research impact: a narrative review. There are lots of methods, and the indirect ones are sometimes the best.
Orthodox seeds and resurrection plants: two of a kind? Resurrection plants have reactivated the ancient seed drought tolerance program in vegetative tissues.
Effect of genetic European taurine ancestry on milk yield of Ankole-Holstein crossbred dairy cattle in mixed smallholders system of Burundi highlands. European ancestry good for milk yield.
First insights into the biochemical and molecular response to cold stress in Cicer microphyllum, a crop wild relative of chickpea (Cicer arietinum). High altitude Himalayan species found to have frost tolerance.
Banana Collecting Mission in the Autonomous Region Of Bougainville (AROB), Papua New Guinea. 13 days, 61 accessions. Hard work.
Morphological Characterisation of Selected African Accessions of Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.). 3 out of 300 out of 1973 have high yield potential. Hard work.
A large-scale viability assessment of the potato cryobank at the International Potato Center (CIP). They’re getting better at it. Hard work.
Deep Seeded Problems: A Look At Seed Bank Regulations. The USA should engage internationally on crop diversity conservation. Hard work.
Australian Pastures Genebank – Temperate Species Regeneration. Hard work.
Medium-term seed storage of 50 genera of forage legumes and evidence-based genebank monitoring intervals. Hard seeds are hard work.
Agricultural Land Use Intensity and Determinants in Different Agroecological Regions in Central Nepal Himalaya. Location, location, location.
Maize Diversity and Climate Change. To investigate the local adaptation of landraces, which you need for adaptation to climate change, you need the synergy that comes from genomics and phenomics in coordinated fashion.

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017

Nibbles: Community seed bank, Weird chocolate, Rice breeding, “Super” plants, Quinoa, Bush tucker

Mr Chetri’s genebank.
Ruby chocolate. You heard me.
The next Green Revolution won’t be like the first one. Phew.
Ideas that will change the world include “super plants” like enset. Right.
But not, surprisingly, quinoa.
Or bush tucker.

September 4, 2017September 4, 2017

Brainfood: Maize trifecta, Montado grazing, Indian CWR, Amazonian cassava, Better breeding, Australian CWR, Apple routes, Citrus routes, African chickens, Ancient African ag, Ancient Mayan ag

Genotyping-by-sequencing highlights original diversity patterns within a European collection of 1191 maize flint lines, as compared to the maize USDA genebank. “The joint analysis of collections by GBS offers opportunities for a global diversity analysis of maize inbred lines.”
Genetic Diversity among Selected Elite CIMMYT Maize Hybrids in East and Southern Africa. It could, and should, be more.
Genetic diversity and intra-racial structure of Chilean Choclero corn (Zea mays L.) germplasm revealed by simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs). There’s diversity within the race. More than in Europe or elite African hybrids? Er, well…
The effect of grazing exclusion over time on structure, biodiversity, and regeneration of high nature value farmland ecosystems in Europe. Both undergrazing and overgrazing are bad for the Portuguese montado.
Wild Relatives of Cultivated Plants in India. Huge book, much of it on Google Books.
Farmer variety exchange along Amazonian rivers influences the genetic structure of manioc maintained in a regional Brazilian GeneBank. No structure among the 5 main Amazonian rivers.
Assessing and exploiting functional diversity in germplasm pools to enhance abiotic stress adaptation and yield in cereals and food legumes. Integration is the answer.
Implementing Access and Benefit Sharing for Seed Banking. Working with Indigenous traditional owners to collect and conserve CWR in Australia.
Genome re-sequencing reveals the history of apple and supports a two-stage model for fruit enlargement. But only one post-domestication. Also, wild apples E of the Tien Shan are totally untapped. Nice map.
The Citrus Route Revealed: From Southeast Asia into the Mediterranean. Along with apples? Here’s more.
Reconstructing Asian faunal introductions to eastern Africa from multi-proxy biomolecular and archaeological datasets. Mid-first millennium CE, or 3000 BCE? For chickens and rats, the former.
Geoarchaeological evidence for the construction, irrigation, cultivation, and resilience of 15th-18th century AD terraced landscape at Engaruka, Tanzania. Soil erosion can be domesticated.
Identifying ‘plantscapes’ at the Classic Maya village of Joya de Cerén, El Salvador. Central American Pompeii offers up casts of eerie ghost gardens of plaster casts of ancient crops.

August 28, 2017September 4, 2017

Brainfood: DNA barcoding, Extremophiles, Chinese wild walnut, Sheep breeders, Argentinian beans, Biobanks QMS, E African seed systems, Apulian vines, People & diversity, Ancient farmers

Identification of zucchini varieties in commercial food products by DNA typing. You can trace zucchini varieties in food products despite various kinds of processing.
Anaerobic microorganisms in astrobiological analogue environments: from field site to culture collection. Practicing to collect genetic resources on Mars.
Genetic diversity and population structure in the narrow endemic Chinese walnut Juglans hopeiensis Hu: implications for conservation. It’s in trouble.
Do traditional sheep breeders perform conscious selection? An example from a participatory breeding program of Morada Nova sheep. Breeders of purebreds use different criteria to those of crossbreds.
Characterization of common bean wild populations for their in situ conservation in Northwestern Argentina. Some populations should be conserved because they’re pure wild, the rest because they’re not pure wild.
Quality Management System for Research Biobanks: a Tool to Incentivize Public-Private Partnerships. ISO developing a QMS specifically for biobanks. Full text in Google Books.
Cryopreservation of fruit germplasm. Elements of a strategy for Germany.
Implications of Seed Policies for On-Farm Agro-Biodiversity in Ethiopia and Uganda. 117 provisions in 21 national seed policies in coded for implications for availability and accessibility of improved, quality-controlled and genetically diverse local seed in both the formal and informal seed systems. Ok, now what?
Measuring the financial sustainability of vine landraces for better conservation programmes of Mediterranean agro-biodiversity. Landraces are not worth it, because of low yields.
Traditional People, Collectors of Diversity. ‘Nuff said.
Changes in human skull morphology across the agricultural transition are consistent with softer diets in preindustrial farming groups. Cheese changed your skull shape.