- Genotyping-by-sequencing highlights original diversity patterns within a European collection of 1191 maize flint lines, as compared to the maize USDA genebank. “The joint analysis of collections by GBS offers opportunities for a global diversity analysis of maize inbred lines.”
- Genetic Diversity among Selected Elite CIMMYT Maize Hybrids in East and Southern Africa. It could, and should, be more.
- Genetic diversity and intra-racial structure of Chilean Choclero corn (Zea mays L.) germplasm revealed by simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs). There’s diversity within the race. More than in Europe or elite African hybrids? Er, well…
- The effect of grazing exclusion over time on structure, biodiversity, and regeneration of high nature value farmland ecosystems in Europe. Both undergrazing and overgrazing are bad for the Portuguese montado.
- Wild Relatives of Cultivated Plants in India. Huge book, much of it on Google Books.
- Farmer variety exchange along Amazonian rivers influences the genetic structure of manioc maintained in a regional Brazilian GeneBank. No structure among the 5 main Amazonian rivers.
- Assessing and exploiting functional diversity in germplasm pools to enhance abiotic stress adaptation and yield in cereals and food legumes. Integration is the answer.
- Implementing Access and Benefit Sharing for Seed Banking. Working with Indigenous traditional owners to collect and conserve CWR in Australia.
- Genome re-sequencing reveals the history of apple and supports a two-stage model for fruit enlargement. But only one post-domestication. Also, wild apples E of the Tien Shan are totally untapped. Nice map.
- The Citrus Route Revealed: From Southeast Asia into the Mediterranean. Along with apples? Here’s more.
- Reconstructing Asian faunal introductions to eastern Africa from multi-proxy biomolecular and archaeological datasets. Mid-first millennium CE, or 3000 BCE? For chickens and rats, the former.
- Geoarchaeological evidence for the construction, irrigation, cultivation, and resilience of 15th-18th century AD terraced landscape at Engaruka, Tanzania. Soil erosion can be domesticated.
- Identifying ‘plantscapes’ at the Classic Maya village of Joya de Cerén, El Salvador. Central American Pompeii offers up casts of eerie ghost gardens of plaster casts of ancient crops.
Nibbles: Cyprus seeds, Vietnamese rice, Policy briefs, English breakfast tea, Magic mushrooms, Peanut ontology Moccasin Boots, GeoAgro, Zea archaeology, Oenoarchaology, Old ham, ICRISAT genebank, Coffee podcast, ITPGRFA, Amphicarpaea bracteata
- “It is like archaeology to me. When you save an ancient seed it is like saving a sculpture. It represents the culture, tradition and history. Different types have different traits and intense flavours, like tomatoes years ago for example.”
- Vietnamese specialty rices direct from the genebank. Totally unrelated to this NY Times video-essay on Hmong rice farming.
- Time for tea.
- Making coffee good again. Jeremy explores fair trade and Fair Trade. Do tea now, please, Cherfas.
- ‘Shrooms got magic horizontally, man.
- Why do circus peanuts taste of bananas?
- Bringing back the mouse bean. Which may or may not taste of bananas.
- Cool maize book to round off the Native American crops trifecta.
- Oh no, here’s another one. Pinning down maize domestication.
- Funky ICARDA agroclimatological app.
- REALLY old Italian wine. And something to go with it.
- ICRISAT has a genebank in Zimbabwe too.
- Plant Treaty transfers hit a milestone.
- Policy brief on policy briefs. Homework: do a killer policy brief on any of the above.
Nibbles: Genomic taxonomy, AI taxonomy, Apple history, Polo on sago, Quinoa cooking, Super-crap, Funding conservation, Coffee conservation
- Boffins sequence plant in field for real-time identification.
- Boffins decide machines do identification better.
- Boffins trace apple domestication to Silk Road.
- Famous Silk Road traveller on sago.
- Thinking up fun ways of cooking another pretty tasteless staple.
- Did someone mention super-foodszzzzzzz.
- Mongabay: Africa needs creative conservation funding approaches.
- Emily Garthwaite: Hold my latte.
Brainfood: Temperate maize, Pre-Neolithic Revolution, Social media, European maize
- Genomic estimation of complex traits reveals ancient maize adaptation to temperate North America. “The diversity needed for high altitudes was there, but getting it in the right combination took 2,000 years,” says ancient maize DNA.
- The deep human prehistory of global tropical forests and its relevance for modern conservation. There were “garden cities” in the tropical forests of equatorial Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia starting 45,000 years ago.
- An Introduction to Social Media for Scientists. Choose wisely.
- Is there an optimum level of diversity in utilization of genetic resources? It depends.
Brainfood: Soybean wild relatives, Durum diversity double, Intensifying livestock, Organic soil, Fodder millet, Brachiaria phylogeny, Use bottlenecks, Another spud, Sclerotinia stem rot, Canola resynthesized
- Characterizing the allopolyploid species among the wild relatives of soybean: Utility of reduced representation genotyping methodologies. Allopolyploids are more than the sum of their diploid progenitors, but also less.
- Genetic Diversity within a Global Panel of Durum Wheat (Triticum durum) Landraces and Modern Germplasm Reveals the History of Alleles Exchange. Modern varieties have a lot of rare alleles, and Ethiopian landraces may be the results of a separate domestication. But I’m not sure you can call this a core collection. Incidentally, genotyped by 35K Affymetrix Axiom wheat breeders array1 at TraitGenetics (Gatersleben, Germany).
- Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits. Farmers know what they’re talking about. No word on any overlap with above. Incidentally, genotyped on the Infinium 90K wheat chip at TraitGenetics (Gatersleben, Germany). There’s a coincidence!
- The role of livestock intensification and landscape structure in maintaining tropical biodiversity. If we want to keep more livestock while maintaining biodiversity, we should spare forests and avoid using agrochemical inputs. Assuming that dung beetles can stand in for tropical biodiversity as a whole.
- Organic farming enhances soil microbial abundance and activity — A meta-analysis and meta-regression. Especially legumes in crop rotations and organic inputs.
- Identification of promising sources for fodder traits in the world collection of pearl millet at the ICRISAT genebank. From over 300 to about a dozen.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Brachiaria Species and Breeding Populations. Fancy molecular markers agree with morphology.
- Bottlenecks in the PGRFA use system: stakeholders’ perspectives. Need better policies, capacity and access.
- Solanum jamesii: Evidence for Cultivation of Wild Potato Tubers by Ancestral Puebloan Groups. But does it make good chips?
- Resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in wild Brassica species and the importance of Sclerotinia subarctica as a Brassica pathogen. Thanks to the U. of Warwick genebank.
- Genetic changes in a novel breeding population of Brassica napus synthesized from hundreds of crosses between B. rapa and B. carinata. Any of them resistant to Sclerotinia?