- Biological collections under pressure.
- And mobile phones probably wont help. Much.
- Chilean pisco? Really?
- The end of cooking?
- Sericulture on the Silk Road.
- ILRI is 40, did we say? Not sure what they do on sericulture. No doubt somebody there will tell us. They’re social networking machines over there.
- Watch out, ILRI, Silicon Valley is coming for ya.
- One of the reasons why we need livestock research: deforestation.
- I like any article with the word nexus in the title.
- The landscape approach meta-analyzed to within an inch of its life. Bottom line: it’s the women, stupid!
- The power of the people’s potatoes.
- A secret herb garden revealed. I hope they install CCTV.
- Kana’tarokhónwe. Yep, clickbait, but worth it, trust me. And then scale the thing up.
- How to do climate-smart agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean, country by country.
- Oh no, yet another article on that Himalayan Viagra caterpillar fungus thingy.
- Boffins resurrect 700-year-old fungus from reindeer crap.
- Indian rice breeders talk about their cool new basmati.
Fibers on display in Boston
That’s from the “[s]plendid, viscerally engaging … groundbreaking exhibition” called Fiber: Sculpture 1960-Present, now on at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. And it was pretty cool. But would it have killed them to include some pictures, or even live examples, of the plant (and animal) sources of the raw materials for objects such as this? 1
Well, maybe not the animal sources…
Brainfood: Polyculture services, Apple resistance, Clover seed storage, Oil palm diversity, Alternative foods in Italy, Oregano chemicals, Pig diversity, IPR and indigenous people
- Do polycultures promote win-wins or trade-offs in agricultural ecosystem services? A meta-analysis. Yes, at least if the services in question are per-plant yield and biocontrol.
- Susceptibility of apple genotypes from European genetic resources to fire blight (Erwinia amylovora). 3 of 40 were resistant.
- Effect of sulphuric acid scarification on seed accessions of cluster clover (Trifolium glomeratum) stored in a genebank. Potentially disastrous.
- Genetic diversity of the world’s largest oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) field genebank accessions using microsatellite markers. 3 groups: extreme W Africa, rest of Africa, Madagascar. Choose parents based on genetic distance, though, not just genetic group.
- Introducing territorial and historical contexts and critical thresholds in the analysis of conservation of agro-biodiversity by Alternative Food Networks, in Tuscany, Italy. Alternative Food Networks can contribute to conservation, but they need context.
- Chemical diversity among different accessions of Origanum vulgare L. ssp. vulgare collected from Central Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, India. 2 chemotypes, the one with higher thymol mainly from higher altitudes.
- Merging Molecular Data for Evaluating Cross Country Genetic Diversity of Pigs. Microsatellite datasets from USA, China and Brazil successfully combined and analyzed together. Should be more of this kind of thing.
- How Are Indigenous and Local Communities’ Rights Over Their Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources Protected in Current Free Trade Negotiations? Highlighting the Draft Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TTPA). Indigenous people are generally not given stronger rights over their intellectual property in international instruments compared to non-indigenous people. Rights over IP are in general stronger than over genetic resources.
Nibbles: Poor research, Salmon conservation, Hemp comeback, Fungal evolutionary history, Sugarcane field day, Urban oaks
Brainfood: AnGR in Europe, Almond evaluation, Jatropha hybrids, Emmer to the rescue, Peanut genomics, Chickpea genomics, Aibika diversity, Cacao improvement, Cynodon drought tolerance
- European Gene Bank Network for Animal Genetic Resources (EUGENA). Compare and contrast with crops situation.
- Oil content, fatty acid composition and tocopherol concentration in the Spanish almond genebank collection. A couple of varieties have very high levels. But only a couple.
- Variability in almond oil chemical traits from traditional cultivars and native genetic resources from Argentina. Local cultivars are best. No word on how they relate to the above.
- Development of interspecific and intergeneric hybrids among jatropha-related species and verification of the hybrids using EST–SSR markers. Even biofuels need wild relatives.
- Evolution of wild emmer wheat and crop improvement. “…arguably best source for wheat improvement and future food production…” Largely untapped, though, as yet.
- Genomewide Association Studies for 50 Agronomic Traits in Peanut Using the ‘Reference Set’ Comprising 300 Genotypes from 48 Countries of the Semi-Arid Tropics of the World. Ok, can we start using these now, please?
- Genome wide SNP identification in chickpea for use in development of a high density genetic map and improvement of chickpea reference genome assembly. Ok, can we start using these now, please?
- Aibika (Abelmoschus manihot L.): genetic variation, morphology and relationships to micronutrient composition. DNA, morphology and chemical composition give different groupings for this PNG veg. In general, environment seems to be more important than genetics as far as micronutrients are concerned.
- Broadening the Gene Pool of Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) Progenies with Guiana Clones: Establishment and Precocity Traits. That would be the “…recently identified genetic groups with high resistance to black pod diseases.” Progenies with tester clones did really well in Ghana.
- Characterization of Gene Expression Associated with Drought Avoidance and Tolerance Traits in a Perennial Grass Species. 36 genes involved in drought tolerance in Bermudagrass and relative, including for stuff like cuticle wax accumulation, antioxidant defense and dehydration-protective protein accumulation.