DNA – Page 78 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

March 12, 2012March 14, 2012

Brainfood: Beans, Potatoes, Lettuce, Agave, Gaming, Mangroves, Ancient millets, Ancient missions

Mesoamerican origin of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is revealed by sequence data. Revealed is kinda strong isn’t it? This from a bean expert of my acquaintance: “Yes, we knew that, as it seems to be the case of all species of the Phaseoli section. They could have done a bit better in including the 2 populations of Cordoba mountain, in order to see whether these belong to the first migration to the Andes, or the second one. Wild vulgaris from western Panama, or Venezuela, could have helped in this regard too. We have shown years ago that the complex genetic structure in Mexico and in Colombia is the result of these floristic migrations combined with gene flow events because beans cross among themselves.”
The Enigma of Solanum maglia in the Origin of the Chilean Cultivated Potato, Solanum tuberosum Chilotanum Group. These are long-day adapted and therefore crucial to the history of the potato in Europe. But the various sorts of evidence looked at to investigate their relationship to the rare Chilean wild relative S. maglia just do not agree. Bummer.
Wild and weedy Lactuca species, their distribution, ecogeography and ecobiology in USA and Canada. So Iowa is a wild lettuce hotspot. If you’re interested in the germplasm, it’ll be in the genebank of Palacký University in the Czech Republic.
Sustainability of the traditional management of Agave genetic resources in the elaboration of mezcal and tequila spirits in western Mexico. Tequila industrial agriculture should learn from the traditional kind.
Fate of the World: computer gaming for conservation. Worth a try. No, really.
The Economic Value of Mangroves: A Meta-Analysis. You might think there would be a value in the abstract; you would be wrong.
Early millet use in northern China. That would be Setaria italica and Panicum miliaceum, and new evidence from ancient starch grain on pottery and grinding stones found in archaeological sites has pushed back their cultivation in N China by 1000 and 2000 years respectively, to about 9500-7500 BC. The Archaeobotanist has more, as ever.
Digitization and online availability of original collecting mission data to improve data quality and enhance the conservation and use of plant genetic resources. They’re there (and here; what’s up with that?) to consult and make use of if you want.

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March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

Nibbles: Gene, Database, Climate Change, Nutrition, Archaeology, Website, Prices, Svalbard

Today’s maybe we’ll get some coverage if we link it to hunger and famine press release. Petunia gene.
Today’s there’s a database for that announcement. FAO’s Horticulture Cultivars Performance Database.
Today’s impact of climate change on X report. Forest resources in the Caribbean.
Today’s debunking a crappy piece of nutrition research killjoys. Experts respond to nutrition claims.
The Archaeobotanist has been going great guns; new book on domestication and millet domestication. We’ll pass on the museum post till we can firm it up.
IFPRI says let two flowers bloom. Here’s the super-groovy new policy kid on the block for non-policy wonks.
I’ll see your evil speculators and raise you a rising secular trend in food prices. (See what I did there?)
With a heavy clunk, The Economist gave Svalbard’s Doomsday Seed Vault a fine 4th birthday present.

March 6, 2012June 8, 2020

Nibbles: African seeds, African needs, Egyptian seed preservation, Archaeocandy, Conservation, Seed swap site, Water buffalo genome, Anti-striga films, Entomophagy, Black sigatoka, Pavlovsk, Cannabis genome

Gates just gave AGRA $56 million to make new seed varieties available. PASS still not collecting the diversity it hopes to displace.
Hang on though. Africa needs a “Green renaissance, not revolution”.
Saving seeds the ancient Egyptian way.
Eating sweets the ancient Papuan (and others) way.
Odd to hear an agrobiodiversity dude talking about silver bullets – even with a question mark.
SeedZoo site offers a space to give and to receive “traditional and indigenous food plants from around the world”.
Today’s forthcoming genome of agricultural interest: water buffalo.
Farmer to farmer films – gender sensitive, natch – “fight against striga”.
Assessing the Potential of Insects as Food and Feed in assuring Food Security, from the FAO document repository.
Much sound, less light, on black Sigatoka disease, from the BBC (natch).
Vaviblog rounds up the latest skinny on Pavlovsk.
And speaking of Vavilov, the latest genome to be sequenced has a VIR connection.

March 5, 2012March 5, 2012

Brainfood: Water, Policy, Geneflow

The water footprint of humanity. Someday you’ll need this. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Evolution in biodiversity policy – current gaps and future needs. EU policies are all but useless; but you knew that.
Genomic regions in crop–wild hybrids of lettuce are affected differently in different environments: implications for crop breeding. To prevent the spread of GMO genes to wild relatives, it matters where you make the insertion.

February 27, 2012February 27, 2012

Brainfood: Bison on the prairie, Tilapia breeding, AM on banana, Phenomics,Yam collection, Nopales, Arable flora

Can bison play a role in conserving habitat for endangered sandhills species in Canada? Maybe, hence the recommendation to re-introduce them. Incidentally, there are a few crop wild relatives on the list of threatened plants of Canada.
Genetic improvement of farmed tilapias: Genetic parameters for body weight at harvest in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) during five generations of testing in multiple environments. The 10-year “Genetic Improvement of Farmed Tilapias” (GIFT) project was not a complete waste of time. The GIFT population will respond well to selection for increased body mass, and you dont have to do the evaluation in lots of different environments.
Mycorrhizal colonization of major banana genotypes in six East African environments. Different banana genotypes had different levels of infection, but environment also plays an important role. Important because arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may increase production.
On the use of depth camera for 3D phenotyping of entire plants. An example of this.
Genetic and phenotypic diversity in a germplasm working collection of cultivated tropical yams (Dioscorea spp.). Should be a good starting point for improvement programmes. Kind of like the GIFT population, then, eh? But starting point? Haven’t people been breeding yams for a while?
Cytogeography of the Humifusa clade of Opuntia s.s. Mill. 1754 (Cactaceae, Opuntioideae, Opuntieae): correlations with pleistocene refugia and morphological traits in a polyploid complex. The southeastern and southwestern U.S. represent glacial refugia for diploid members of the clade, and a whole bunch of polyploids resulted when the taxa spread out again after glacial episodes. How many of these are eaten is what I’d like to know, and whether ploidy affects that. I suppose climate change will lead to further complications?
The impact of agricultural intensification and land-use change on the European arable flora. Is significant. Not least because some crop wild relatives are involved, although that’s not really discussed here.