Breeding

November 4, 2020November 4, 2020

A bean thread for the ages

Since I’m on a Twitter thread kick, get a load of this mega-thread on beans from Jorge Berny.

Beans are getting popular and they have helped me endure grad school. I´ll post some of my favorites while this pandemic endures.

Tzama´ are mostly grown in Southern Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Planted later, as a relay after maize, with a shorthish cycle. Tasty AF. pic.twitter.com/OqAnRedHk7

— Jorge C. Berny Mier y Teran (@JorgeCBerny) March 26, 2020

Here’s the ThreadReader version for those of you who are averse to Twitter. Epic.

And, you can even wear them.

November 3, 2020

Nibbles: NordGen, Xylella, Finger millet, Indian genebanks, Seed saver

NordGen genebank information system gets a boost.
Uji for everyone in Kenya, thanks to genebank and breeding.
Assam’s government supports a field genebank. One of many such efforts in India.
Will Bonsall‘s genebank needs help. Maybe should move to India.
Video on the Italian olive plague. This is why we need genebanks.

November 2, 2020November 2, 2020

Brainfood: Now what edition

Image-Based Goat Breed Identification and Localization Using Deep Learning. Fancy maths can identify goat breeds from photos. Ok, cool, now what?
AI Naturalists Might Hold the Key to Unlocking Biodiversity Data in Social Media Imagery. Fancy math can often identify common flowers on Flickr. Ok, cool, now what?
FoodMine: Exploring Food Contents in Scientific Literature. Fancy maths can trawl the literature to pick out the chemical components of different foods. Ok, cool, I guess, now what?
Cultural and linguistic diversities are underappreciated pillars of biodiversity. Well, yeah. But now what?
Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration. Fancy maths says restoring 15% of converted lands in identified priority areas could avoid 60% of expected extinctions while sequestering 30% of the total CO2 increase in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. Cool, now what?
An unexpectedly large count of trees in the West African Sahara and Sahel. Wait, does that mean some of the above won’t be necessary?
Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices: Evidence from 177 countries. Fancy maths shows that nutritious diets are almost 3 times as expensive as diets supplying basic energy needs, and costs increase with remoteness. Ok, cool, now what?
Phylogenetic inference enables reconstruction of a long-overlooked outbreak of almond leaf scorch disease (Xylella fastidiosa) in Europe. The olive plague started on almonds. Ok, now what though?
Genome-wide association study in accessions of the mini-core collection of mungbean (Vigna radiata) from the World Vegetable Gene Bank (Taiwan). Genotyping, phenotyping and fancy maths find that mungbean could grow in temperate conditions. Ok, cool, now what?
Enhancing the searchability, breeding utility, and efficient management of germplasm accessions in the USDA−ARS rice collection. Genotyping and fancy maths can improve genebank management. Well, yeah, but now what? No, wait, we know exactly now what: digital genebanks!
Ok, that was a bit of fun, but the important point is that research, no matter how cool, is only the beginning.

October 27, 2020October 27, 2020

Nibbles: Vanilla, Maize vid, CIMMYT lines, Personal genebank, Fruit diversity

Trees help natural enemies of pests in vanilla plantations.
Cool video by Sherry Flint-Garcia on the history of maize. And its genetics.
CIMMYT releases a bunch of interesting maize pre-breeding products, though they don’t call them that.
Retired Turkish teacher starts seed bank.
Area man is really into fruits.

October 26, 2020October 26, 2020

Brainfood: CGIAR genebanks, Sweet potato heat, Rice breeding, CWR gap trifecta, PES, Wild potatoes, Wild olives, Rare olives, Cryo veggies, Broccoli diversity, Crop switching, Cattle diversity, IK

Germplasm Acquisition and Distribution by CGIAR Genebanks. A lot of stuff going in, a lot of stuff coming out, to everyone’s benefit. 35 years of data, with special focus on the last 10.
Intraspecific diversity as a reservoir for heat-stress tolerance in sweet potato. 132 out of 1973 accessions tolerant of heat, though in different ways. A prime example of the above benefits.
Identification and characterization of high‐yielding, short‐duration rice genotypes for tropical Asia. Short-duration varieties will need to be a bit taller and leafier to yield more. Another example of the above benefits.
Modelled distributions and conservation priorities of wild sorghums (Sorghum Moench). More stuff needs to go into the above genebanks, though, for example from N. Australia.
Ex situ and in situ conservation gap analysis of crop wild relative diversity in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Same from the Fertile Crescent.
In situ and ex situ conservation gap analyses of crop wild relatives from Malawi. And not just the above genebanks either.
The Potential of Payment for Ecosystem Services for Crop Wild Relative Conservation. Ok, we have the gaps (see above), and now here we have the method. What’s stopping us?
Assessing under-Estimation of Genetic Diversity within Wild Potato (Solanum) Species Populations. Wild diploid species more diverse than previously thought. So providing more ecosystem services?
Genetic diversity and differentiation of Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata (Wall. & G.Don) Cif. in the Hajar Mountains of Oman. No word on the ecosystem services being provided.
The investigation of minor and rare Tunisian olive cultivars to enrich and diversify the olive genetic resources of the country. Rare + minor doesn’t mean bad. But maybe an influx of Omani genes would help?
Biobanking of vegetable genetic resources by in vitro conservation and cryopreservation. Yes, even for vegetables.
From landrace to modern hybrid broccoli: the genomic and morphological domestication syndrome within a diverse B. oleracea collection. Four subpopulations: Calabrese broccoli landraces, hybrids, sprouting broccoli, and violet cauliflower. Diversity in modern varieties decreasing with time.
Crop switching reduces agricultural losses from climate change in the United States by half under RCP 8.5. But it will have to be a lot of switching. Hopefully out of broccoli.
The mosaic genome of indigenous African cattle as a unique genetic resource for African pastoralism. An influx of zebu genes about a thousand years ago is responsible for the success of African pastoralism.
Protection of traditional agricultural knowledge and rethinking agricultural research from farmers’ perspective: A case from Turkey. Against power imbalances the gods themselves contend in vain.