- A critical review on the utility of DNA barcoding in biodiversity conservation. Not bad, but not by itself.
- A whole genome DArT assay to assess germplasm collection diversity in common beans. It works, and can distinguish Andean from Mesoamerican accessions.
- Optimization of a SNP assay for genotyping Theobroma cacao under field conditions. It works, and is being used in Ghana.
- A Global Assessment of Salmon Aquaculture Impacts on Wild Salmonids. Meta-analysis shows farming salmon and trout in an area has in general been bad for their wild relatives there.
- Genome-wide selection in cassava. High correlations between SNPs and several phenotypic traits of interest to breeders mean that selection time could be cut by half. Could.
- Cereal landraces genetic resources in worldwide GeneBanks. A review. We don’t have enough data. On so many different levels.
- Coevolutionary genetic variation in the legume-rhizobium transcriptome. Wait, does this mean we should be conserving Rhizobium too?
Nibble: South Sudan seed fair, Seed cinema, Dandelion diversity, Nature’s value graphic, Cocaine synthesis, Livestock farming, Visualizing conservation trade-offs, Vertical farms, Sequence fungi
- A seed fair in South Sudan. Good idea, but why only certified seed?
- Maybe they should watch Seeds of Freedom. Well, maybe.
- Genetic diversity is important! Settle down, we’re talking dandelions.
- Nature’s value includes crops. Phew. Dandelion is a crop, isn’t it?
- Talking about value… She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie…
- And again. Award-winning research on livestock farming’s value to developing countries. And its dark side.
- Both of which could of course be usefully visualized by the people involved.
- Vizualise this! Nightmare skyscraping vertical farms, for real.
- Today’s jetpack request comes from Sophien Kamoun, stimulated by ravishing fungi.
Nibbles: Maize genome, Mapping plants in the US, Sixth extinction, Finding species, Korean dog, IUCN guidelines, Ginkgo evolution, Churro sheep, Malaysian trees, Nutrition training
- Maize diversity sliced and diced to within an inch of its life.
- Mapping invasives sometimes = mapping crop wild relatives. Compare and contrast.
- Red List hits 20,000 species.
- And yet we keep finding new ones, even in Europe.
- Reconstructing a Korean dog breed.
- You too can help IUCN with its genebank guidelines.
- Video history of ginkgos. “Are we watching them as they evolve, or are they watching us?”
- Video history of Navajo sheep. Touching.
- Malaysian forest tree genebank at work. Any ginkgos in it?
- Hurry! You have 2 days to apply for a Training course on Food Systems: From Agronomy to Human Health, in Benin.
Brainfood: Agronomy, Endophytes, Breadfruit morphology, Setaria genetic diversity, Yeast epigenetics, Wild rice
- Avenues to meet food security. The role of agronomy on solving complexity in food production and resource use. Wait, what, it’s not all about the breeding?
- Population studies of native grass-endophyte symbioses provide clues for the roles of host jumps and hybridization in driving their evolution. Wait, what, we have to conserve these things too now?
- Morphological diversity in breadfruit (Artocarpus, Moraceae): insights into domestication, conservation, and cultivar identification. Cool, we now have a multi-access Lucid key to help us recognize varieties.
- Geographical variation of foxtail millet, Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv. based on rDNA PCR–RFLP. Geographic differentiation, centre in East Asia, evidence of migration, yada yada.
- Within-genotype epigenetic variation enables broad niche width in a flower living yeast. Wait, what, now we have to document the epigenome too?
- Phylogeography of Asian wild rice, Oryza rufipogon: a genome-wide view. Fancy markers come through where lesser breeds caused confusion. Two groups, clinally arranged, with the China-Indochina group close to indica, neither close to japonica. So one, Chinese, domestication event, yada yada.
Talking tomato Today
Dr Sandra Knapp of the Botany Department of the Natural History Museum in London was interviewed by the BBC’s Today Programme this morning about the tomato genome, which of course has been all over the news lately. You can hear her 54:20 minutes in, or, if that doesn’t work, here. Particularly cool that she squeezes in a mention of the wild relative that was also sequenced.