Breeding

November 17, 2012November 17, 2012

Nibbles: AIRCA lives, Graft mangos, Breed forage, Discuss seed laws, Overfish

Apologies for the lack of service; we’re a bit all over the map.

The Association of International Research and Development Centres for Agriculture (AIRCA) comes a step closer. Smallholder farmers rejoice.
Side grafting and informal scion exchange for fun and profit. Smallholder mango farmers rejoice.
Annals of botany highlights strategies for forage and grass improvement. Forage breeders and livestock rejoice.
European NGOs discuss non-paper on revision to seed legislation. Eurocrats see no reason to rejoice.
German development agency goes large on small fish stocks, with added political goodness. Fisherfolk see no reason to rejoice either.

November 13, 2012November 9, 2012

Brainfood: Sierra Leone rice, Bean breeding, Cacao geographic diversity, Red fleshed apples, Species richness & productivity, African maize diversity, Human expansion, Barley gaps, Wild coffee and CC, Acacia and CC, Genetic erosion

Analysis of genetic diversity in farmers’ rice varieties in Sierra Leone using morphological and AFLP markers. Still a lot of diversity in traditional rice after the war, both among and within landraces, mostly among, organized regionally, and recognized by local names.
Simultaneous selection for resistance to five bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases in three Andean × Middle American inter-gene pool common bean populations. Thanks goodness for multiple independent domestication events. And genebanks.
Present Spatial Diversity Patterns of Theobroma cacao L. in the Neotropics Reflect Genetic Differentiation in Pleistocene Refugia Followed by Human-Influenced Dispersal. So need to collect in areas at the margins or just outside the refugia if you want high diversity. But of course that may already be ex situ. But wait, didn’t you just do the analysis based on the provenance of ex situ holdings?
An ancient duplication of apple MYB transcription factors is responsible for novel red fruit-flesh phenotypes. The whole genome got duplicated during evolution of the apple and the red flesh phenotype is controlled by loci in both copies, but in different ways.
What is the form of the productivity–animal-species-richness relationship? A critical review and meta-analysis. Positive.
Spatial Structure and Climatic Adaptation in African Maize Revealed by Surveying SNP Diversity in Relation to Global Breeding and Landrace Panels. Distinct Sahelian, Western and Eastern clusters. Some SNPs associated with high temperatures.
MtDNA analysis of global populations support that major population expansions began before Neolithic Time. Humans needed good weather to thrive, not agriculture.
Genetic gap analysis of wild Hordeum taxa. Argentina?
The Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Arabica Coffee (Coffea arabica): Predicting Future Trends and Identifying Priorities. Generally very bad to disastrous, but some “core localities” will be ok, and therefore could be used for in situ conservation. Interestingly, genebank accession locality data not used.
The genus Acacia (Fabaceae) in East Africa: distribution, diversity and the protected area network. No such luck for Acacia, I’m afraid.
Monocropping Cultures into Ruin: The Loss of Food Varieties and Cultural Diversity. Are you sure you want to know what a sociologist and a political scientist have to say on the matter?

November 9, 2012November 20, 2017

UK Chancellor backs plant breeding

#OsborneSci Uses the @royalsociety's 'sustainable intensification' line. Nods to JIC and Rothamsted. I can feel @bbsrc beaming from here.

— Jack Stilgoe (@Jackstilgoe) November 9, 2012

Does that mean the UK’s genebanks are safe? More here. And here.

I wonder if he might be interested in what’s going on in Brussels at the same time. No, probably not.

November 9, 2012November 9, 2012

Nibbles: Wild Africa, Wilder Africa, Domesticated India

Protected areas not conserving Acacia in E Africa. And coffee?
Wildlife tourism is hard. I want to know about agricultural tourism.
Goa goes to the feds for help with crop conservation. The alternative being?

November 5, 2012November 5, 2012

Brainfood: Chinese fermented fish, Yeast diversity, Wild papayas, Milpa nutrition, Rare wild sunflower, Albanian pomegranate, Wheat mixtures, Climate change yield decline

Chemical and microbial properties of Chinese traditional low-salt fermented whole fish product Suan yu. “The values of Enterobacteria and Pseudomonads were under the detection limits in six different brands” is about the best that can be said for it.
Tapping into yeast diversity. Some new, diverse wild lineages in China may tell us important things about yeast ecology, evolution and domestication.
Genome size variation among sex types in dioecious and trioecious Caricaceae species. Lots of retrotransposons, and sex chromosomes in some species.
The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication. The diet preceded the crops.
Genetic diversity and population structure in the rare Algodones sunflower (Helianthus niveus ssp. tephrodes). Low diversity overall, but some populations quite distinct. Which tells you about how to conserve it.
Albania, the domestication country for pomegranate (Punica granatum L.). Well, maybe.
Mixtures of genetically modified wheat lines outperform monocultures. Two transgenes are better than one.
Climate change impacts on crop productivity in Africa and South Asia. -8% overall. The surprise? Sorghum declines more than maize in Africa, less in S Asia.