- Large‐scale genome‐wide association study, using historical data, identifies conserved genetic architecture of cyanogenic glucoside content in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) root. Two loci explain about a third of variation in HCN content.
- Strategic use of Iranian bread wheat landrace accessions for genetic improvement: Core set formulation and validation. Not much structure, but some accessions are good for multiple traits.
- Population studies of the wild tomato species Solanum chilense reveal geographically structured major gene-mediated pathogen resistance. Not all populations of a crop wild relatives will be equally useful in breeding.
- Genetic diversity of Ethiopian sorghum reveals signatures of climatic adaptation. 12 sub-populations, with about 10% of the variation explained by either agroecology or geography.
- Common bean SNP alleles and candidate genes affecting photosynthesis under contrasting water regimes. And all in just 158 Portuguese accessions.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Algerian Endemic Plant Species Avena macrostachya Bal. ex Cross. et Durieu. Collecting sites need to be visited again. I can vouch that doing so would be very interesting.
- Conservation priorities for African Vigna species: Unveiling Angola’s diversity hotspots. It’s a huge collecting gap.
- Remote sensing enabled essential biodiversity variables for biodiversity assessment and monitoring: technological advancement and potentials. The Remote Sensing enabled Essential Biodiversity Variables are a work in progress. Would like to see it applied to those Vignas.
- Genomic consequences of apple improvement. …are relative genetic uniformity.
- Genome-Wide DArTSeq Genotyping and Phenotypic Based Assessment of Within and Among Accessions Diversity and Effective Sample Size in the Diverse Sorghum, Pearl Millet, and Pigeonpea Landraces. Optimal sample size for regeneration of genebank accessions varies from 50-200 among crops.
- Not so robust: Robusta coffee production is highly sensitive to temperature. Looking at historical production data from 800 farms in SE Asia suggests optimal temperature is below 20°C, a lot lower than suggested by the species’ home range in the Congo Basin.
- Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE. Bronze Age Levantines ate bananas and soya, according to dental calculus. No word on coffee.
- Archaeological Central American maize genomes suggest ancient gene flow from South America. Pre-domesticated maize was taken to South America, where is was finished off away from introgression from pesky wild relatives, and then taken back home.
- Fruits of the Veld: Ecological and Socioeconomic Patterns of Natural Resource Use across South Africa. South Africans collect and eat a lot of wild fruits, but could plant and eat them more.
- Exploring the Biodiversity of Red Yeasts for In Vitro and In Vivo Phenotypes Relevant to Agri-Food-Related Processes. Which is interesting because they can delay food spoilage and also provide nutritional supplements. Though personally I’d prefer veld fruits.
Nibbles: Chickpea, Rice, Potato, Open seeds, Ipomoea, Cider apples, Functional foods, Colombian seeds, Meaty diets, Coffee ritual
- Chickpea breeding in the news, if you can believe it.
- Somehow rice breeding in the news is easier to believe.
- Or potato breeding, for that matter.
- The case for public ownership of seed. Now, that would be news.
- I doubt that changing the sweet potato’s scientific name will ever be news.
- Michigan’s cider lovers round up their favourite apples.
- Visualization on how to make functional foods sustainable.
- A Colombian (seed) exchange.
- People have always eaten meat. Sure, but so what?
- Anyone for coffee?
Nibbles: Macron magic, UK Strategic Priorities Fund, Macadamia, Tepary, Nordic spuds, Diversification, Carolina rice, Couscous, Wild tobacco, Yeast diversity, Da 5 Foods
- France pushes for agricultural development. Money to follow mouth?
- Meanwhile, Britain puts its money into its own food systems.
- The macadamia is not diverse enough. Who’d have thought it.
- Couscous gets protected. Phew, ’cause it’s right on the verge of extinction, isn’t it.
- I hope tepary beans don’t become the next macadamia.
- Reviving old potatoes the Nordic way.
- Malaysia told to look beyond oil palm. To tepary and macadamia, maybe?
- Speaking of diversification, how about Laotian rice in Appalachia?
- Chasing the wild tobacco. See what I did there?
- Yeast has been domesticated by bakers into two genetic groups: industrial and artisanal sourdough.
- A history of the world in entirely the wrong 5 foods.
Brainfood: Perennial staples, Mainstreaming NUS, African veggies, Domestication, Gut microbiota, Yam domestication, Breeding strategies, Breeding history, Coffee diversity, Social networks, Vanuatu diets, Milpa, Decolonizing ABS, Restoration, Soil biodiversity double, Bambara groundnut seeds
- Perennial Staple Crops: Yields, Distribution, and Nutrition in the Global Food System. Most perennial staple crops are not as well known or widely grown as annual staple crops, but maybe should be.
- Determining appropriate interventions to mainstream nutritious orphan crops into African food systems. Look to the supply of seeds.
- Diversity and conservation of traditional African vegetables: Priorities for action. Focus on conserving diversity West Tropical Africa and southern Cameroon. And then look to the supply of seeds everywhere, presumably.
- The origins of agriculture: Intentions and consequences. Domestication happened pretty much all by itself, through co-evolution.
- The role of the microbiota in human genetic adaptation. Co-evolution happened with the gut microbiota as well as with plants.
- Genome analyses reveal the hybrid origin of the staple crop white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata). Unclear if people were involved.
- Crop adaptation to climate change as a consequence of long‑term breeding. Better to focus on the slow but steady accumulation of small effects. By people, presumably.
- Trends of genetic changes uncovered by Env- and Eigen-GWAS in wheat and barley. Maybe you don’t even need to measure the results of those small effects.
- Genetic Diversity of Coffea arabica. We need to catalogue all germplasm collections, together with their marker profiles, and make material and data easily available. Easier said than done.
- Farmers’ social networks and the diffusion of modern crop varieties in India. Caste affects adoption of new varieties.
- From garden to store: local perspectives of changing food and nutrition security in a Pacific Island country. Those that have access to stores, and therefore enough food, don’t have a well balanced diet, and those that don’t have store have a better balanced diet but occasionally not enough food. No word on modern varieties.
- The role of the milpa in food and nutritional security in households of Ocotal Texizapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Who needs stores?
- Dilemmas of protection: decolonising the regulation of genetic resources as cultural heritage. But are the above natural or cultural resources?
- A meta-analysis contrasting active versus passive restoration practices in dryland agricultural ecosystems. Just add water.
- Soil biodiversity enhances the persistence of legumes under climate change. If you want to keep legumes, and thus diversity, in your vegetation under climate change, better maintain soil biodiversity. Or add water, presumably.
- Soil microbial legacy drives crop diversity advantage: linking ecological plant‐soil feedback with agricultural intercropping. Same as above, but for intercropping.
- Effect of high temperature drying on seed longevity of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) accessions. Initial drying at 45°C/35% RH for 8 days before moving to a more conventional 17°C/15% RH can be good for some accessions, but which?
Brainfood: COVID & seeds, Livestock integration, Farm diversity, Diet diversity, Genetic diversity, Cassava landraces, Wild coffee, Variety registration, Kava kastom, Neolithic Europe
- Viewpoint: COVID-19 and seed security response now and beyond. Think before you spread seeds around.
- Integrated crop-livestock system with system fertilization approach improves food production and resource-use efficiency in agricultural lands. Integrating livestock in soybean production is good for the amount of energy produced per unit of nutrient applied, if that’s what floats your boat.
- Holistic agricultural diversity index as a measure of agricultural diversity: A cross-sectional study of smallholder farmers in Lilongwe district of Malawi. An interesting way of measuring overall farm diversity. But is there a link with dietary diversity?
- Dietary diversity scores, nutrient intakes and biomarkers vitamin B12, folate and Hb in rural youth from the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study. Dietary diversity is linked to better micronutrient status. But is there a link with genetic diversity?
- Evaluating surrogates of genetic diversity for conservation planning. There’s nothing quite as good as neutral markers, alas.
- Phenotypic diversity assessment within a major ex situ collection of wild endemic coffees in Madagascar. Never mind the species or genetic diversity, look at the trait variability.
- Understanding cassava varietal preferences through pairwise ranking of gari‐eba and fufu prepared by local farmer–processors. Landraces are sometimes better than improved varieties.
- Do the importations of crop products affect the genetic diversity from landraces? A study case in garlic (Allium sativum L.). Apparently not, surprisingly enough.
- Overcoming barriers to the registration of new varieties. DUS needs genomics. But what about registering landraces? Do we need a completely separate system for that?
- Legal geographies of kava, kastom and indigenous knowledge: Next steps under the Nagoya Protocol. One approach implementing Nagoya at the community level. But is it scalable?
- New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry in Atlantic NW Europe. There was a long period of contact between local hunter-gatherers and incoming farmers, resulting in a transitional farmer-herder stage.