- Genome sequencing reveals evidence of adaptive variation in the genus Zea. Alleles associated with flowering time were key to adaptation in highland and temperate regions.
- THP9 enhances seed protein content and nitrogen-use efficiency in maize. And it came from wild teosinte.
- Diverged subpopulations in tropical Urochloa (Brachiaria) forage species indicate a role for facultative apomixis and varying ploidy in their population structure and evolution. Polyploidy plus apomixis equals world domination. Maize next?
- Plastid phylogenomics uncovers multiple species in Medicago truncatula (Fabaceae) germplasm accessions. Genebanks need to go beyond conventional taxonomy sometimes.
- Comparative Analysis of the Genetic Diversity of Chilean Cultivated Potato Based on a Molecular Study of Authentic Herbarium Specimens and Present-Day Gene Bank Accessions. Native Chilean potato landraces are being replaced and polluted…
- Diversity of Late Blight Resistance Genes in the VIR Potato Collection. …and will probably continue to be replaced and polluted.
- The United States Potato Genebank Holding of cv. Desiree is a Somatic Mutant of cv. Urgenta. Shit happens, even in well-run genebanks.
- Domestication and selection footprints in Persian walnuts (Juglans regia). Breeding hasn’t had much of an effect on diversity.
- Comparative phylogenetic analysis of oolong tea (Phoenix Dancong tea) using complete chloroplast genome sequences. Oolong teas are a genetic thing.
- Linking breadfruit cultivar names across the globe connects histories after 230 years of separation. Because of genebanks, botanic gardens, herbaria and three generations of women scientists we now know which breadfruit varieties Captain Bligh introduced to the West Indies.
- Lactuca georgica Grossh. is a wild species belonging to the secondary lettuce gene pool: additional evidence, obtained by KASP genotyping. A wild species gets demoted.
- Large genomic introgression blocks of Phaseolus parvifolius Freytag bean into the common bean enhance the crossability between tepary and common beans. A wild species helps with crossing two cultivated species. Figure out which genepool it belongs to after that.
- Genebanking plant genetic resources in the postgenomic era. Yeah, but all the above leads to the question: “what happens when all crop diversity has been sequenced?” Read this to find out.
Nibbles: Eating to Extinction, Livestock Conservancy, Pastoral diversification, Donkeys, ICARDA, USDA, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Duragna, Baked bean bread, Kenosha Potato Project, Landrace marketing, Gene editing
- All the videos from the recent Eating to Extinction event in London celebrating food diversity.
- If you want to eat rare breeds or their products, the Livestock Conservancy has a website for you.
- ILRI policy brief on how pastoral systems can usefully diversify.
- The BBC rounds up the history of the domestication of the donkey without, alas, mentioning the Livestock Conservancy or pastoral diversification. Spoiler alert: ancient Roman donkeys were really big.
- NPR interviews the manager of the ICARDA genebank in Lebanon.
- Local Oregon paper visits the USDA genebank in Pullman.
- It’s the turn of the Native Seed/SEARCH genebank to feature in the news.
- Want to know what “duragna” is? This press release from Cornell will explain all. I think we included the original paper in a recent Brainfood, but I can’t be bothered checking. Anyway, trust me, it’s interesting. Spoiler alert: it has to do with cereal diversity.
- Brits told to grow more faba beans and use them to make bread. Census takers not available for comment.
- Fascinating project on the history of saffron cultivation in eastern England. Now that would spice up all that faba bean bread.
- The Kenosha Potato Project deconstructed to within an inch of its life by Modern Farmer. We’ve blogged about this innovative breeding project here before, have a look. Ah no, I just have, and in fact we haven’t, though we have blogged about William Whitson, an independent tuber breeder, who is however a long-time member of KPP.
- Meanwhile, in Peru, local potato landraces are finding a new market via chips/crisps. Pretty sure we’ve blogged about this too. We are so on the ball.
- Gene editing for conservation? Yes, why not? But nothing on crop and livestock species in this succinct explainer, alas.
Nibbles: Agroforestry, Old tea trees, Rare magnolia, New Brachiaria, Animal-based food, Oman livestock genebank
Brainfood: Neolithic microbiomes, Transeurasian languages, Rice history, Chinese Neolithic, Indo-European origins, Chalcolithic stews, Indus Valley hydrology, Bronze Age opium, Cassava storage
- Ancient oral microbiomes support gradual Neolithic dietary shifts towards agriculture. The adoption of agriculture was gradual.
- Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages. The ancestors of the speakers of 98 related languages — including Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic — were the first millet farmers gradually spreading across Northeast Asia.
- Modelling the chronology and dynamics of the spread of Asian rice from ca. 8000 BCE to 1000 CE. Deep breath. Rice domestication originated in eastern China (7430 BCE) and northeastern South Asia (6460 BCE). Then gradually spread in 2 waves: (1) in the 4th-3rd millennia BCE to the rest of China and SE Asia, associated with millet cultivation (Transeurasian speakers?), and (2) in 1st BCE-1st CE to Liao River region, Central Asia, and Africa.
- Plant foods consumed at the Neolithic site of Qujialing (ca. 5800-4200 BP) in Jianghan Plain of the middle catchment of Yangtze River, China. Not just rice and millets but also job’s tears, lotus roots, yam, acorns and beans.
- Indo-European cereal terminology suggests a Northwest Pontic homeland for the core Indo-European languages. The speakers of Proto-Indo-European, on the other hand, gradually making their way from the steppes, were not farmers.
- Revealing invisible stews: new results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Not by bread alone… Iconic, hastily-made, throw-away pottery bowls from 3500 BCE were not bread moulds but rather held tasty stews. No job’s tears and lotus roots, alas, though.
- Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: The case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization. Sorghum and millets were growing under water stress at several Mature Harappan (2500–1900 BCE) sites. But they could take it.
- Opium trade and use during the Late Bronze Age: Organic residue analysis of ceramic vessels from the burials of Tel Yehud, Israel. People were getting high in the 14th century BCE. And who can blame them, after millennia of domesticating plants and gradually spreading around the world.
- Adaptations of Pre-Columbian Manioc Storage Techniques as Strategies to Adapt to Extreme Climatic Events in Amazonian Floodplains. Some current agricultural practices can be seen in the archaeological record. And not just getting high on opium.
- See you in the new year, everyone!
Brainfood: Silkworm, Donkey, Cat, Chicken, Neolithic, Shamans, Locusts
- High-resolution silkworm pan-genome provides genetic insights into artificial selection and ecological adaptation. The silkworm was domesticated 5000 years ago in the middle Yellow River (along with millets?), but was improved independently and in different directions in China and Japan.
- The genomic history and global expansion of domestic donkeys. The donkey was domesticated in the Horn of Africa 7000 years ago and then developed in different directions in Africa and Eurasia.
- Your horse is a donkey! Identifying domesticated equids from Western Iberia using collagen fingerprinting. Turns out you can tell horses and donkeys apart easily and cheaply from ancient collagen in archaeological remains.
- Genetics of randomly bred cats support the cradle of cat domestication being in the Near East. Humans were domesticated by cats in the eastern Mediterranean basin about 12,000 years ago.
- The history of the domestic cat in Central Europe. Wait, the Near Eastern wildcat, from which all domestic cats are derived, could have been in central Europe before the Neolithic.
- Missing puzzle piece for the origins of domestic chickens. Recent dating of chicken domestication from archaeological remains in Thailand at 1650–1250 BC underestimates the timescale. By a lot.
- Was the Fishing Village of Lepenski Vir Built by Europe’s First Farmers? And did they have cats?
- Shamanism at the transition from foraging to farming in Southwest Asia: sacra, ritual, and performance at Neolithic WF16 (southern Jordan). You need shamans to help you cope with all that animal domestication.
- Contributions of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) to livelihoods of peri-urban dwellers in the Free State Province of South Africa. Wait, black locusts are not animals? Hmm, they do seem to have some things in common with cats though.