- Conservation priorities for endangered coastal North African Pennisetum glaucum L. landrace populations as inferred from phylogenetic considerations and population structure analysis. In other news, there’s pearl millet in costal Tunisia.
- Is the sky the limit? On the expansion threshold of a species’ range. “…adaptation fails when genetic drift reduces genetic diversity below that required for adaptation to a heterogeneous environment.”
- Soil analysis in discussions of agricultural feasibility for ancient civilizations: A critical review and reanalysis of the data and debate from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. They grew crops there after all.
- Future warming increases probability of globally synchronized maize production shocks. Summer is coming.
- Early agriculture at the crossroads of China and Southeast Asia: Archaeobotanical evidence and radiocarbon dates from Baiyangcun, Yunnan. Rice, foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, soybeans and Vigna spp were cultivated 2600–2000 BCE.
- Ten‐year assessment of the 100 priority questions for global biodiversity conservation. Mainly freshwater ecosystems, societal structures, and impacts.
- Ancestry of the two subgenomes of maize. Out of Africa…
- Global impact of accelerated plant breeding: Evidence from a meta-analysis on rice breeding. Fancy maths confirms faster is better.
- Understanding root, tuber, and banana seed systems and coordination breakdown: a multi-stakeholder framework. Step one: admit they’re different from true seeds.
- Hindcasting global population densities reveals forces enabling the origin of agriculture. Better conditions led to population increases led to agriculture.
- The effects of landscape patterns on ecosystem services: meta-analyses of landscape services. Landscape complexity is positively associated with ecosystem services.
- Global survey of rice breeders to investigate characteristics and willingness to adopt alternative breeding methods. Willingness to adopt new technology high, actual adoption low. Go figure.
- Identification of rice landraces with promising yield and the associated genomic regions under low nitrogen. Will they adopt this “technology,” I wonder?
- Aligning conservation efforts with resource use around protected areas. Being better off doesn’t necessarily decrease use of tiger reserves.
Brainfood: Phenotyping, Genotyping, Perennial Hordeum, Communicating PGRFA, Participatory breeding, Sri Lankan homegardens, Traditional Slovak landscapes, Ecosystem services, LWR double, African cassava, Labelling fish
- Translating High-Throughput Phenotyping into Genetic Gain. More to it than cool drones. Although those are not to be sneezed at.
- A guide to sequence your favorite plant genomes. Someone may already have what you need.
- Towards the Development of Perennial Barley for Cold Temperate Climates—Evaluation of Wild Barley Relatives as Genetic Resources. H. bulbosum is the best bet. So far.
- Communicating plant genetic resources for food and agriculture to the public — A study of grant-receivers with demonstration-projects in the Danish Rural Development Programme. It can be done.
- Farmers’ participatory selection of new rice varieties to boost production under temperate agro-ecosystems. It can be done.
- Assessing the Impacts of Agrobiodiversity Maintenance on Food Security Among Farming Households in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone. Help the poor.
- Contribution of Traditional Farming to Ecosystem Services Provision: Case Studies from Slovakia. Traditional systems more diverse and balanced in provision of ecosystem services than intensive modern systems. The problem is that pesky production service. Yeah, but about that…
- Bright spots in agricultural landscapes: Identifying areas exceeding expectations for multifunctionality and biodiversity. Small is beautiful.
- Why should we save the wild relatives of domesticated animals? Because we can.
- Tracking trends in the extinction risk of wild relatives of domesticated species to assess progress against global biodiversity targets. And because we should.
- Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) diversity of cassava genotypes in relation to cassava brown streak disease in Mozambique. Some Mozambican landraces are very similar to resistant Tanzanian landraces.
- Generic names and mislabeling conceal high species diversity in global fisheries markets. DNA barcoding reveals that 300 “snapper” samples are in fact 67 species from disparate fisheries. Use Latin names, folks!
Brainfood: Sustainable Brazil, Epigenetic variation, Global conservation, Rice nutrition, Austronesian societies, Saharan domestication, GM wheat, Smallholders, Bos introgression
- 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.