- “Every heirloom plant seed grown for food has a story…”
- The history of alcohol.
- The history of a particular alcohol-producing plant.
- U. of Minnesota students travel to crop cradle.
- They could just have gone to Washington State University.
- Brazil is back in the cacao game.
- Deconstructing durian’s smell is easier than you thought.
- The CIAT genebank in Scientific (Latin)American.
Brainfood: CO2 & domestication, Amaranth double, Nordic apple double, Chinese alfalfa, Sheep double, Moroccan lentils, SE Asian veggies, Cattle relative
- Yield responses of wild C3 and C4 crop progenitors to subambient CO2: a test for the role of CO2 limitation in the origin of agriculture. It was tough for CWR in the last glacial period, better afterwards.
- Analysis of phylogenetic relationships and genome size evolution of the Amaranthus genus using GBS indicates the ancestors of an ancient crop. Three cultivated species derived from one wild relative in different geographic regions.
- Genomic and phenotypic evidence for an incomplete domestication of South American grain amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus). Maybe because of continued geneflow with the CWR.
- Unravelling genetic diversity and cultivar parentage in the Danish apple gene bank collection. Only 10% duplicates among 448 accessions, many unique.
- Redundancies and Genetic Structure among ex situ Apple Collections in Norway Examined with Microsatellite Markers. 14 synonyms among 181 accessions. No word on the overlap between Danish and Norwegian collections.
- The Current Status, Problems, and Prospects of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Breeding in China. 77 registered cultivars for the whole of China seems very few.
- Assessment of genetic diversity and structure of major sheep breeds from Pakistan. They cluster based on use rather than geographic origin.
- Mapping molecular diversity of indigenous goat genetic resources of Asia. Chinese goats are different.
- On-farm Conservation of Zaer Lentil Landrace in Context of Climate Change and Improved Varieties Competition. People like everything about the landrace except its yield.
- Conservation of Indigenous Vegetables from a Hotspot in Tropical Asia: What Did We Learn from Vavilov? Not much, it seems.
- Assessment of genetic diversity of Mithun (Bos frontalis) population in Bhutan using microsatellite DNA markers. Also known as gayal.
Nibbles: Catching up edition
- And we’re back.
- India wants to set up a fish genebank. Because climate change, which is scrambling up climates everywhere. And fish are important, so don’t scoff.
- Nepal’s community seed banks in the news. Also Brazil’s. And New Zealand’s, since we’re at it.
- Don’t forget India’s. And not just the community sort, either.
- Our friends at Kew on the wonders of genebanks.
- Someone mention genebanks? Latest photos from Ft Collins.
- You can make your own. Genebank, that is.
- Podcast on a really long-term seed viability experiment.
- It’s not just about the genebanks, though. Or all that biotechnology for that matter. Indeed not, as iPES-Food reminds us.
- Italian monks help rebuild earthquake-hit town. With beer.
- French monks are at it too. Beer, that is.
- Go ahead, have that piece of cheese with that monk-brewed beer.
- Or with a nice IPA for that matter.
- Or a banana beer.
- Sure, take all the romance out of beer, why don’t you.
- The Mesoamerican, entomological roots of the colour scarlet.
- Don’t keep people out if you want to protect forests. I can’t understand why this still needs to be said.
- The story of the quest for super-sweet corn. And a celebration of the life of a giant of corn (as in maize) research.
- And for the “ultimate” avocado.
- How about ultimate dope?
- The traditional, end-of-year, save-the-apple and the-end-of-frankincense stories. Actually there were two on apples. And it’s not all bad news for frankincense.
- Saving the Tamworth pig in Australia. And the camel in Rajasthan.
- Cool map of French traditional foods.
- For your next Saturnalia feast.
- The Met has a “corne field.”
- Earliest evidence of potatoes from the central Andes. What, not Canada?
- Neolithic hunter-gatherers of the Libyan Sahara liked their veggies. Which we all should. But not at these prices. Ah, wait, though, is the melon a vegetable, or a fruit?
- Some crops come, some go.
- Which seems a good place to bring this first, gigantic Nibble of 2017 to a close. Did you miss us? I know you did. But did we miss anything over the holidays? Let us know.
Illustrating domestication
There’s really nothing better than a map to explain the history of domestication in an economic and effective fashion, but I have to say that this recent example from a paper on crop domestication in the Fertile Crescent misses the mark.
It’s supposed to show that…
…plant remains from archaeological sites dated to around 11,600-10,700 years ago suggest that in regions such as Turkey, Iran and Iraq, legumes, fruits and nuts dominated the diet, whereas cereals were the preferred types of plants in Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Israel.
Which I suppose it does, but I have to think they could have done better. Compare with this, from another recent paper, showing the prevalence of spotted coats in early domestic horses.
It’s still a bit busy, but much clearer than the previous one, I think.
Would be great to see an index of all such maps, maybe a mash-up in due course, even a GIF eventually?
Nibbles: Reindeer, Olives, Seeds
- Donner and Blitzen — reindeer domestication
- Crop wild relative to the rescue, eventually, maybe. Wild olives uninfected by Xylella.
- Open source seeds, a roundup.