- A systematic review of conservation efforts using non-monetary, non-regulatory incentives to promote voluntary behaviour change. Mix it up, and get personal.
- Chromosome reciprocal translocations have accompanied subspecies evolution in bananas. Some subspecies of M. acuminata were more involved in cultivar development than others.
- Challenges and Prospects for the Conservation of Crop Genetic Resources in Field Genebanks, in In Vitro Collections and/or in Liquid Nitrogen. Everything that can be, should be in cryo.
- Population genetic structure and classification of cultivated and wild pea (Pisum sp.) based on morphological traits and SSR markers. The species are real, the subspecies maybe less so.
- Iron Absorption from Iron-Biofortified Sweetpotato Is Higher Than Regular Sweetpotato in Malawian Women while Iron Absorption from Regular and Iron-Biofortified Potatoes Is High in Peruvian Women. More than just calories.
- Survey data on income, food security, and dietary behavior among women and children from households of differing socio-economic status in urban and peri-urban areas of Nairobi, Kenya. Lots of data to play around with, including on dietary diversity. But not on biofortification, I don’t think.
- “Rambo root” to the rescue: How a simple, low‐cost solution can lead to multiple sustainable development gains. Grow it on degraded land. After biofortifying it, natch.
- Genetic Diversity and Structure of Iberoamerican Livestock Breeds. Creole breeds are hanging in there, especially in marginal areas. Maybe they could be fed on cassava?
- Whole genome analysis of water buffalo and global cattle breeds highlights convergent signatures of domestication. The same mutations occurred independently and were then selected for in water buffalo and cattle.
- Bison, anthropogenic fire, and the origins of agriculture in eastern North America. Bison favoured the growth of crop wild relatives in the prairies. No word on any attempt to domesticate the brutes, but the above should provide some guidance.
- Archaeogenomics of a ~2,100-year-old Egyptian leaf provides a new timestamp on date palm domestication. Dates showed introgression from wild relatives way back. No evidence of bison involvement.
Brainfood: WCR, Parasites, Wild tomato, Wild olive, MAGIC, ART cooking, Payments for conservation, ICARDA barley, Canary barley, Enset, Mexican relicts, Data management, Bumblebee map
- Resistance and Tolerance to Root Herbivory in Maize Were Mediated by Domestication, Spread, and Breeding. Domestication and spread decreased maize resistance to Western corn rootworm, but breeding increased it.
- Does genetic diversity protect host populations from parasites? A meta‐analysis across natural and agricultural systems. Yes, but it depends. Western corn rootworm unavailable for comment.
- Genome of Solanum pimpinellifolium provides insights into structural variants during tomato breeding. Lots of variants in regulatory genes for agronomic traits, compared to domesticated lines.
- Genomic evidence for recurrent genetic admixture during the domestication of Mediterranean olive trees (Olea europaea L.). There was a domestication bottleneck back in the day, but that was almost wiped out by later repeated introgression from the wild relative as the crop spread. So quite different from the above maize and tomato cases?
- Multi-parent populations in crops: a toolbox integrating genomics and genetic mapping with breeding. Not just good for QTL mapping any more, but you need a whole package of stuff for them to be useful to breeding programmes.
- Current uses of Andean Roots and Tuber Crops in South American gourmet restaurants. None of the chefs interviewed knew of mauka, but it’s not their fault.
- Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services: An overview of Latin American experiences, lessons learned and upscaling challenges. Conserving in situ 100 varieties on 5 hectares each would cost US$70,000 p.a. Maybe useful for mauka? But will chefs pay?
- Genetic and agro-morphological diversity in global barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) collection at ICARDA. Under heat stress, though, which is the important bit left out of the title. Unclear if any of the material was from the Canaries (see below), but I can find out if anyone’s interested. Come to think of it, I’m kinda interested myself…
- An Evolutionary Approach to the History of Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Cultivation in the Canary Islands. You can apparently infer historical extents of cultivation on different islands in the archipelago, as well as the timing of separation of populations, which is pretty amazing. No word on representation in rock art though (see below).
- Enset (Ensete ventricosum) and the Archaeology of Southwestern Ethiopia. Information comes mainly from megalithic and rock art sites, which is pretty amazing. No word on genetic relationships, at least in this paper. Do you need me to link to previous Brainfoods on enset? No, of course you don’t, you know how to search the archive. You just put your lips together, and
whistleblow (kudos to whoever quotes the reference in the comments first). - Relict Plant Communities at Prehispanic Sites in Oaxaca, Mexico: Historical Implications. Ancient native Mexicans really liked succulents around their settlements. Well, who wouldn’t, when all is said and done?
- To clean or not to clean: Cleaning open‐source data improves extinction risk assessments for threatened plant species. Clean. Always clean. And then clean again.
- Global Patterns and Drivers of Bee Distribution. Hope they cleaned the data or this unusual double-humped diversity pattern could be in trouble, and that would be a pity.
Nibbles: Seed pod, Lost Thanksgiving, Prairie crops, Wild PNG bananas, Seedkeeper Rowen White, Sustainable farming, Legume journal
- Podcast on saving crop diversity every which way you can.
- Because it can be lost.
- Yes, lost, but, with some effort, bison permitting, found again.
- Wild relatives too, of course.
- And maybe then rematriated, even used for a greener agriculture, who knows.
- So that eventually it can make it into things like Legume Perspective, the cool journal of the International Legume Society that was inexplicably unknown to me until just now.
Brainfood: Covid, Tropical trees, Tree GR, Brazil nut, Fair research, ICARDA, FIGS, Landraces, Evolutionary breeding, Range edges, Central Asia, Mixtures, Taro origins, Nigerian abattoirs, Aquaculture policy
- From biomedical to politico-economic crisis: the food system in times of Covid-19. How to build back better? Food sovereignty, peasant agriculture, territorial markets and agroecology.
- Food for thought: The underutilized potential of tropical tree‐sourced foods for 21st century sustainable food systems. How to realize that potential? Lots of ideas here, including: “Investment in the conservation of tree genetic resources and the development of formal seed delivery systems.”
- Priorities, challenges and opportunities for supplying tree genetic resources. Invest in what bits of conservation and seed delivery systems, though? Read this and find out.
- Genetic threats to the Forest Giants of the Amazon: Habitat degradation effects on the socio‐economically important Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa). After reading the above, maybe apply to this?
- From texts to enacting practices: defining fair and equitable research principles for plant genetic resources in West Africa. How to make sure everyone understands words the same way? Theater. Of course, darling.
- Safeguarding a global seed heritage from Syria to Svalbard. It took a (global) village.
- Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS): Polishing a rough diamond. Natural selection is not enough. Links both to above and below, but you knew that.
- Göte Turesson’s research legacy to Hereditas: from the ecotype concept in plants to the analysis of landraces’ diversity in crops. “Understanding … landrace diversification assists also on breeding new cultivars sustainably since it provides insights regarding crop evolution across stress-prone environments, and for finding genebank accessions and other germplasm whose allelic diversity may be missing in today’s breeding programs.”
- Yield, yield stability and farmers’ preferences of evolutionary populations of bread wheat: A dynamic solution to climate change. Maybe the problem is with today’s breeding programs?
- What Do We Really Know About Adaptation at Range Edges? Peripherality does not predict degree of adaptation.
- The Central Asiatic region of cultivated plants. 800 species, no less.
- Biodiversity enhances the multitrophic control of arthropod herbivory. Plants lose less biomass to arthropods in mixtures, as compared to monocultures.
- Evolutionary origins of taro (Colocasia esculenta) in Southeast Asia. Not PNG after all, according to chloroplast DNA.
- Abattoirs – A Hidden Centre for Livestock Genetic Resources Loss in Nigeria. Because they slaughter pregnant animals. Did not see that one coming, frankly.
- More than fish: Policy coherence and benefit sharing as necessary conditions for equitable aquaculture development. Regional policies need to be domesticated.
Domesticating the podcast
Want to review the state of knowledge on domestication of chickens, sheep and cattle in less than half an hour? Yes? Well then, Jeremy has a podcast for you. It’s an interview with Olivier Hanotte, who teaches livestock genetics at the University of Nottingham.
The beautiful chicken pic is from a book by photographers Moreno Monti and Matteo Tranchellini.
There’s also a stunning book on the diversity of African cattle from ILRI, where Dr Hanotte also has a position.