- Vitis vinifera L. fruit diversity to breed varieties anticipating climate changes. Nice, but isn’t this leaving it rather late?
- The Deterioration of Morocco’s Vegetable Crop Genetic Diversity: An Analysis of the Souss-Massa Region. 80-90% loss in 30 years.
- Interspecies Respect and Potato Conservation in the Peruvian Cradle of Domestication. Some varieties have more charisma than others.
- Quantitative Analysis, Distribution and Traditional Management of Pigeon Pea [Cajanus Cajan (L.) Millsp.] Landraces’ Diversity in Southern Benin. Larger farms have slightly more varieties, otherwise difficult to find socioeconomic correlates of diversity; main criterion for choosing varieties is market value.
- Higher agrobiodiversity is associated with improved dietary diversity, but not child anthropometric status, of Mayan Achí people of Guatemala. Diversifying diets won’t help without better toilets.
- Dwarf germplasm: the key to giant Cannabis hempseed and cannabinoid crops. The mainstreaming of weed continues. The Man unavailable for comment.
- Early North African Cattle Domestication and Its Ecological Setting: A Reassessment. No early North African cattle domestication after all?
- Identification and rapid mapping of a gene conferring broad-spectrum late blight resistance in the diploid potato species Solanum verrucosum through DNA capture technologies. From Mexico with love.
Brainfood: Tunisian carrots, Benin & CC, Tree variation, Grape phenotyping, Small ruminant domestication, Rio herbarium, Barley domestication, Millet groupings, Greek cheese
- Genotyping-by-sequencing reveals the origin of the Tunisian relatives of cultivated carrot (Daucus carota). D. carota subsp. gummifer is different.
- Impacts of climate change on cropping patterns in a tropical, sub-humid watershed. Recent advances in both rainfed and irrigated cropping in central Benin will be undone. Genetics to the rescue?
- Is local trait variation related to total range size of tropical trees? No.
- High-Precision Phenotyping of Grape Bunch Architecture Using Fast 3D Sensor and Automation. Next, put it on a drone.
- Convergent genomic signatures of domestication in sheep and goats. Same genes, different selection pressures.
- Herbarium collection of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (RB), Brazil. Any crops wild relatives? Pretty sure there must be.
- Targeted resequencing reveals genomic signatures of barley domestication. Distinct ancestor populations at eastern and western ends of the Fertile Crescent implicated in domestication.
- Towards Defining Heterotic Gene Pools in Pearl Millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br.]. Hybrid pearl millet is just around the corner.
- Biodiversity and microbial resistance of lactobacilli isolated from the traditional Greek cheese kopanisti. Impressive biodiversity, alarming resistance.
Brainfood: Lupinus diversity, African veggies, School food, Citrus collusion, Taro seeds, Hot seeds, Hunter-gatherers, Citrus phylogeny, Sheep management, Genebanks -> farmers
- Exploring the genetic and adaptive diversity of a pan-Mediterranean crop wild relative: narrow-leafed lupin. W-E migration.
- From lesser-known to super vegetables: the growing profile of African traditional leafy vegetables in promoting food security and wellness. I’m sold.
- Home-grown school feeding: promoting local production systems diversification through nutrition sensitive agriculture. Any traditional leafy greens, though?
- Citrus genebank collections: international collaboration opportunities between the US and Russia. Very complementary.
- Adapting clonally propagated crops to climatic changes: a global approach for taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott). The need for seed.
- High-temperature drying of seeds of wild Oryza species intended for long-term storage. The need for drying seeds at 45°C.
- Productivity, biodiversity, and pathogens influence the global hunter-gatherer population density. Come the zombie apocalypse, head for subtropical and temperate forest biomes.
- Genomics of the origin and evolution of Citrus. It all started when the SE foothills of the Himalayas got a bit dryer in the Miocene… But there’s only one genus (well, plus Poncirus), with 10 species. Oh and pummelos are really important.
- Sheep herding systems and animal genetic resource management in the Central Plateau region of Burkina Faso. The best strategy overall would be for rural breeders to specialize in maintaining purebreds and urban breeders, closer to markets, fattened F1 crossbreds. But that’s easier said than done.
- Access to genes: linkages between genebanks and farmers’ seed systems. You can do it in half a dozen different ways, but there are challenges with scale, sustainability and legal frameworks.
Nibbles: ICRISAT sorghum, Citrus phylogeny, Mobiles, Medicinal genebank, Agroforestry benefits
- Unusual story linking the adoption of new varieties with the possible loss of old ones.
- Unusual story linking climate change with orange juice.
- Unusual story linking mobile phones with debatable development impacts.
- Story on an unusual, new(ish) USDA genebank.
- Not very unusual story about the C sequestration impacts of agroforestry.
Nibbles: Svalbard, Irish Seed Savers Association podcast, Heirloom tomatoes, Rice genomes, Avocado history, 3D seeds, Agroforestry, Canarium development, IK, Indian nutrition, Biofortification, Salvia, Biorepositories best practices, Neurolathyrism
- The Smallholder on Svalbard. Martha unavailable for comment.
- Jeremy’s latest bit of blarney.
- Tasty toms.
- A bunch more rice genomes. Wait, didn’t we Brainfood this? Of course we did, ages ago.
- Avocado tattoos?
- 3D seeds. So beautiful, so useless.
- Trees as technology.
- Like galip nut, for instance.
- My indigenous knowledge is your climate change adaptation.
- Maharashtra: Malnutrition down, high blood pressure up.
- Could probably still do with some biofortification.
- The botany of chia.
- ISBER Best Practices for biological repositories: The Webinar.
- Meet ODAP.