- A Genome-Wide Association Study on the Seedless Phenotype in Banana (Musa spp.) Reveals the Potential of a Selected Panel to Detect Candidate Genes in a Vegetatively Propagated Crop. One strong candidate gene, from 6 possible regions. And here’s the light version.
- Yeast culture collections in the twenty-first century: New opportunities and challenges. Pretty much the same as plant genebanks.
- Genetic variation in sorghum as revealed by phenotypic and SSR markers: implications for combining ability and heterosis for grain yield. Possible parents for hybrids identified.
- Actionable knowledge for ecological intensification of agriculture. Look at the landscape, articulate trade-offs and don’t forget the social dynamics.
- Taxonomic and functional diversity in Mediterranean pastures: Insights on the biodiversity–productivity trade-off. Somebody mention trade-offs?
- Are the major imperatives of food security missing in ecosystem services research? Pretty much.
- Reproductive trade-offs in extant hunter-gatherers suggest adaptive mechanism for the Neolithic expansion. Agriculture got you laid, but then killed you.
- High carbon and biodiversity costs from converting Africa’s wet savannahs to cropland. Bad idea all round.
Talking non-biotech strawberries and citrus
If the recent post on the UC Davis Strawberry Wars whetted your appetite, the Talking Biotech podcast can help with a leisurely run-through the history of the crop and efforts to breed it from Kevin Folta and his guest, Dr Jim Hancock, strawberry breeder from Michigan State University. Where things are not as wild as at Davis, apparently. It’s a fascinating story of global interdependence in genetic resources, and the importance of crop wild relatives. And, it turns out the first scientifically bred crop variety was a strawberry. Since I’m at it, the episode on citrus was pretty good too. But Kevin, how about some more explicit recognition of the importance of genetic resources collections (i.e. genebanks) in all this work?
Nibbles: Banning bars, New genomes, Pepper revolution, Participatory breeding, Organic mead, Paying for breeds, Punica breeding, Cyperus in Egypt, Adansonia in Uganda, Cyclone trees
- “Friends don’t let friends make bar plots.” Of course they don’t.
- Friend also don’t let friends hype the carrot and cassava genomes.
- “The food of the true revolutionary is the red pepper. And he who cannot endure red peppers is also unable to fight:” chili con China.
- Salvatore Ceccarelli, who should know, on the centrality of seed. And the guys from Experimental Farm Network would agree.
- Yes, you can now have organic tej.
- “In theory…the undoubted value of these natural treasures should be reflected in their price, which should rise steeply as they become scarcer… In practice, natural assets are often hard to price well, if at all.”
- A “Himalayan solution” for pomegranate breeding.
- Nutsedge definitely needs a new name.
- First formal record of the baobab in Uganda.
- Wind-resistant tree germplasm for the Pacific. Much needed.
Brainfood: Old chestnuts, Seed networks, Seed health, Soybean GWAS, Quinoa ABS, Taro breeding
- Mapping the Genetic Diversity of Castanea sativa: Exploiting Spatial Analysis for Biogeography and Conservation Studies. Mapping genetic data is both fun and instructive.
- Effects of farmer social status and plant biocultural value on seed circulation networks in Vanuatu. Big Men control Important Plants.
- Diagnostics of Seed-Borne Plant Pathogens for Safe Introduction and Healthy Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources. Genebanks need seed health labs.
- Characterization of Disease Resistance Loci in the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection using Genome-wide Associations. Phenotypic data in GRIN meets SNP data, hilarity ensues.
- The global expansion of quinoa: trends and limits. From 8 to 75 countries in 35 years. But need new arrangements for access and benefit sharing for genetic resources.
- Evaluation of Vegetative Growth, Yield and Quality Related Traits in Taro (Colocasia esculenta [L.] Schott). A lot of the characters you want to improve are strongly heritable.
Will the Strawberry Wars never end?
When we last checked on the cut-throat world of Californian strawberries in 2014, the Strawberry Commission, a grower’s association, was suing UC Davis for control of the content of the university’s vaunted breeding programme. The whole thing was precipitated, you’ll remember, by the breeders involved wanting to move on, and take their material with them.
Well, that was apparently settled out of court in early 2015, followed by all sorts of commitments on both sides to work together, and a review of the programme by the state auditors. That included the following recommendations:
- UC-Davis should ensure that the breeding program is adequately funded and consider allocating more of the university patent income directly back to the program.
- UC-Davis should regularly reassess whether the royalty rates charged to strawberry nurseries and growers — licensed to sell patented strawberry varieties — are appropriate, and adjust the rates as needed to support the program.
- UC-Davis’ Department of Plant Sciences, home to the strawberry breeding program, should prepare annual budgets specifically for the breeding program.
- UC-Davis should in the 2015-16 fiscal year implement a program to begin accounting for the strawberry breeding program’s financial activities separate from the financial activities of the program’s breeder.
- UC-Davis should periodically review the financial records of the companies that hold licenses to grow and sell the program’s patented strawberry varieties, making sure that the university is receiving all of the royalties it is entitled to.
That doesn’t seem onerous, or unreasonable, to me. But it’s a dog-eat-strawberries world out there, and it looks like the agreement didn’t stick.
Yes, the breeders concerned, who have set up a private company in competition to the UC Davis programme, are now suing their former employers because, they allege, they have been denied the opportunity to license the material they originally produced.
What’s going on? University strawberry breeding programmes in other parts of the country don’t get into such hot water. Thing is, we’re not talking peanuts here.
UC Davis’ breeding program has been crucial to the industry and a big money-maker for the university. Between 2005 and 2014, strawberry nurseries around the world paid UC Davis royalties totaling $50 million. In return, nurseries and their customers – the farmers – have been able to deliver huge improvements in taste and durability developed by the Davis scientists. The two scientists themselves have earned several million dollars, their share of the university’s royalty income.
Strawberry varieties developed at UC Davis account for about half of California’s $2.6 billion-a-year crop. Some of the top names in the business, including Dole and California Giant, rely on UC Davis’ technology.
There are some big players involved, and big money. This won’t end any time soon, I suspect. But the university seems upbeat about the future.