- 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.
Nibbles: Jumping genes, Lebanese winemaking, Ag data, Ag & soil C, Citrus routes, Breeding peas, Heritage cattle
- Pinning down transposable elements across the whole maize genome.
- Wine and weed in Lebanon. Not as mellow as it sounds.
- Yields and Land Use in Agriculture: The Website.
- The effect of all those yields times 12,000 years on C sequestration is about as much as that of deforestation.
- Ancient Roman 1% responsible for introducing the citron and lemon to the Mediterranean.
- Flowering duration and pod numbers are they keys to heat tolerance in peas.
- 94% of US dairy cows are Holsteins. How boring is that?
Brainfood: Sustainability index, Beet wild relative, Participatory goats, Sarma, Wild wheat & drought, Ahipa conservation, Saving genebanks, Chinese cattle, Bolivia & CC, Seed systems, Cereal residues
- Sustainability assessment of agricultural systems: The validity of expert opinion and robustness of a multi-criteria analysis. Experts know their stuff.
- Genetic diversity of Patellifolia patellaris from the Iberian Peninsula, a crop wild relative of cultivated beets. 271 individuals, 10 sites, maybe 3 genetic groupings?
- Production system and participatory identification of breeding objective traits for indigenous goat breeds of Uganda. Resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses are the priority.
- Plant diversity for sarma in Turkey: nature, garden and traditional cuisine in the modernity. 73, including 3 endemics.
- Identification of ecogeographical gaps in the Spanish Aegilops collections with potential tolerance to drought and salinity. Evaluation avant la lettre.
- Trends and drivers of on-farm conservation of the root legume ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa) in Bolivia over the period 1994/96–2012. Price is too low.
- The Vulnerability of Plant Genetic Resources Conserved Ex Situ. The problem: “…genebanks around the world are generally under stress, largely from inadequate public investment, weakened political support, and insufficient stakeholder engagement.” The solution: privatization, commodification, consolidation, prioritization, communication.
- Species composition and environmental adaptation of indigenous Chinese cattle. Taurine-indicine cline N-S, with traces of banteng, gayal and yak.
- Climate change and crop diversity: farmers’ perceptions and adaptation on the Bolivian Altiplano. Maintaining multiple varieties still done, despite not seen as climate adaptation.
- A Risk Assessment Framework for Seed Degeneration: Informing an Integrated Seed Health Strategy for Vegetatively Propagated Crops. Actually not seed, but rather what to do about pathogen build-up in vegetative planting material. Turns out farmers can be quite good at producing clean material if they can choose healthy plants.
- New criteria for the molecular identification of cereal grains associated with archaeological artefacts. Alkylresorcinols, basically.
Brainfood: Taste breeding, Cat domestication, ITPGRFA in USA, CWR extravaganza, Ecology & ag, Brassica identification, Biodiversity monitoring, Languages, Species recovery, Benin pigeonpea
- Sensory sacrifices when we mass-produce mass produce. You need consumer-assisted selection.
- The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the ancient world. Two Middle-Eastern sub-populations of one sub-species contributed to domestication, at different times, and the result spread first with agriculture and then aboard ships. But we haven’t changed them in the same way we’ve changed dogs etc. You don’t say.
- U.S. ratification of Plant Treaty: benefit sharing ambiguity for plant genomics researchers does not change. But what about genomics data?
- Wading Into the Gene Pool: Progress and Constraints Using Wild Species. Introduction to the Special Section on CWR.
- Plant ecological solutions to global food security. Introduction to the Special Feature on Ecological Solutions to Global Food Security. The intersection with the above is probably here.
- A multiplex PCR for rapid identification of Brassica species in the triangle of U. Now there’s no excuse.
- Connecting Earth observation to high-throughput biodiversity data. I don’t see any reason why the same thinking couldn’t be applied to crop diversity.
- Linguistic diversity of natural UNESCO world heritage sites: bridging the gap between nature and culture. 80% of Natural WHSs intersect at least one indigenous language.
- Overcoming barriers to active interventions for genetic diversity. Embrace the hybrid by focusing on process, not form.
- Utilization and farmers’ knowledge on pigeonpea diversity in Benin, West Africa. For some reason, farmers don’t like coloured seeds.
Brainfood: Banana GWAS, MGIS, Commodification and racialization, Native tree seeds, Tea in China, Potato in China, Indian eggplant, Rapid phenotyping, Ag & environment
- Trait variation and genetic diversity in a banana genomic selection training population. You can use easy-to-measure traits as proxies for important but difficult-to-measure traits. Both of which will hopefully end up in…
- MGIS: managing banana (Musa spp.) genetic resources information and high-throughput genotyping data. Very cool. So when can we expect the data in Genesys?
- Heirloom rice in Ifugao: an ‘anti-commodity’ in the process of commodification. Calling a landrace a “heirloom variety” is just another form of capitalist oppression.
- Race, Status, and Biodiversity: The Social Climbing of Quinoa. Not to mention racist.
- To what extent are genetic resources considered in environmental service provision? A case study based on trees and carbon sequestration. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) afforestation/reforestation project design documents are often unrealistic about the chances of sourcing sufficient quantity and quality of seeds of indigenous species.
- Diversity analysis on catechin genetic of wild tea plant from Yunnan province. They determine whether a variety is used for green or black tea.
- Genetic differences between potato strains introduced from International Potato Center (CIP) and domestic potato resources by SSR molecular markers. The CIP varieties are quite different to the Chinese ones. But we kinda knew that.
- SSR marker analysis points to population admixture and continuum of genetic variation among Indian landraces of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Brinjal gets moved around a lot.
- A high-throughput, field-based phenotyping technology for tall biomass crops. Estimate plant height and stem diameter in sorghum, say, without leaving the office.
- Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice. Better for environment to change dietary habits than production systems.