- Access and Benefit Sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity and Its Protocol: What Can Some Numbers Tell Us about the Effectiveness of the Regulatory Regime? That not much has happened. Between 1996 and 2015, out of the 14 countries with ABS legislation in force, 2 agreements for commercial researches per year.
- Genetic monitoring of traditional chestnut orchards reveals a complex genetic structure. The diversity in Spain is in the rootstocks.
- Climate change and national crop wild relative conservation planning. Well, for Norway anyway.
- Integrating genetic maps in bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L) Verdc.] and their syntenic relationships among closely related legumes. Synteny to the rescue.
- Stakeholder involvement and the management of animal genetic resources across the world. Breeders’ associations and cooperatives are the key.
- Decline of Jakar sheep population in pastoral communities of Bhutan: A consequence of diminishing utility, alternate income opportunities and increasing challenges. It’s the fault of the caterpillar fungus.
- Origin and phylogenetic status of the local Ashanti Dwarf pig (ADP) of Ghana based on genetic analysis. It’s a bit of a mongrel.
- Genetic analysis identifies the region of origin of smuggled peach palm seeds. Genebank confirms biopiracy.
- Genetic Structure and Selection of a Core Collection for Long Term Conservation of Avocado in Mexico. 36 of 318 accessions recover 80% of total alleles, which seems a bit low.
- Genome sequencing supports a multi-vertex model for Brassiceae species. More than just “triangle of U”.
Nibbles: Meet a breeder, Radiation breeding, Cassava IK, Banana apocalypse, Chestnut doom & gloom, Crazy grafter, Crazy recombination, Obsidian sickle, Cat rug
- Meet a pumpkin breeder.
- Meet the history of atomic plant breeding.
- Meet a cassava anthropologist.
- Dial back the banana apocalypse stuff, banana guy says.
- On the other hand, the American chestnut apocalypse is all too real.
- A really wild pig.
- Grafting gone wild.
- Wild plants reveal a gene to speed plant breeding, someday.
- Beautiful Neolithic tools from the Sea of Galilee.
- And a beautiful, but slightly freaky, Egyptian rug. Made of cat hair.
Brainfood: Cotton domestication, Niche modelling, Finger millet double, Bird flu, Lake Chad millet, USDA Ethiopian sorghum, Phast phenotyping, Corchorus genomes
- Genome-wide divergence, haplotype distribution and population demographic histories for Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense as revealed by genome-anchored SNPs. Parallel domestication.
- Integrating species distribution modelling into decision-making to inform conservation actions. You need really nice maps.
- Establishing a core collection of finger millet (Eleusine coracana [L.] Gaertn.) ex situ holdings of the Ethiopian genebank. Particularly interesting for the discussion of what to do with the core, now that it exists.
- Characterization of Some Ex Situ Conserved Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.)) Germplasm Accessions in Sri Lanka. Unlike this one.
- Global mapping of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 and H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4 viruses with spatial cross-validation. It’s the intensively raised chickens.
- Unexpected pattern of pearl millet genetic diversity among ethno-linguistic groups in the Lake Chad Basin. Different linguistic groups have genetically distinct pearl millet, but only on the western side of the lake.
- Genomic characterization of a core set of the USDA-NPGS Ethiopian sorghum germplasm collection: implications for germplasm conservation, evaluation, and utilization in crop improvement. 7,217 accessions from Ethiopia, 374 in the core subset, representing 11 highly admixed and very diverse populations.
- High-throughput phenotyping and QTL mapping reveals the genetic architecture of maize plant growth. Brave new world.
- Comparative genomics of two jute species and insight into fibre biogenesis. There are a few but interesting genetic differences between the 2 species of Corchorus cultivated for fibre. No word on the differences between fibre and vegetable varieties, if any.
Nibbles: Agroforestry info, Coffee genome, Citrus family tree, Physalis fossil, Conservation economics, Wild Vicia, African rice history, USDA PGR strategy, Fisheries, Evidence base
- Agroforestry Species Switchboard gets upgrade.
- Arabica sequenzzzzzzz…
- “But what is the point of collecting and preserving this genetic diversity as seed, if it should remain in perpetuity in a seed bank?”
- Citrus untangled.
- 52 million year old tomatillo fossil already had Inflated Calyx Syndrome.
- Faba bean wild relative found, kinda sorta.
- It’s the economics, stupid.
- African rice in the New World. Mash up with peanuts?
- National Program 301: Plant Genetic Resources, Genomics, and Genetic Improvement. Action Plan 2018-2022.
- Communities that catch more diverse fish species are more resilient shock.
- Database of what works in conservation. Not of crop and livestock diversity, though, alas.
Nibbles: Cryoconservation, Barley history, Beer in UNESCO, Future crops, Pacific crops, Ag & biodiversity, Sequencing NUS, Market education, Mauritanian camels
- Cryo congress coming.
- Ancient farmers enjoyed a beer…
- …and now we all can.
- Yeah but what’s next in the improvement pipeline?
- CePaCT: The Video.
- Why can’t we all just get along?
- Genetic maps are from Mars, nutrition is from Venus…
- Using markets to teach biodiversity.
- The end of camel herding?