- Courtesy of Bioversity, useful summary of agricultural biodiversity events at the CBD COP, starting in a few days.
- The USDA National Plant Germplasm System, justified.
- The ancient symbolism of celery. Spoiler alert: death.
- A breeding professor calls for a major change in breeding. Spoiler alert: productivity is not enough.
- What’s the next açaí? And will it save the Amazon?
- Saving threatened species. Spoiler alert: seeds are not enough.
- 9000 years of maize history, decoded.
- The Access to Seeds Index 2019 report for South and Southeast Asia is out. Spoiler alert: I feel a guest post coming on.
- UK supermarket to stock salsify.
Brainfood: Emmer & drought, European legumes, Sainfoin, Alpine nomads, American domestication, Cereal domestication, Tree plantations, Garlic breeding, African veggies, African staple breeding, Sugarcane genome
- Genetic contribution of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccon Schrank) to heat tolerance of bread wheat. It’s considerable.
- Warm Season Grain Legume Landraces from the South of Europe for Germplasm Conservation and Genetic Improvement. Ok ex situ, in situ not so much.
- Onobrychis viciifolia; a comprehensive literature review of its history, etymology, taxonomy, genetics, agronomy and botany. The fall and rise of an orphan forage.
- Interstitial but Resilient: Nomadic Shepherds in Piedmont (Northwest Italy) Amidst Spatial and Social Marginalization. Truly a vale of tears.
- Parallel vs. Convergent Evolution in Domestication and Diversification of Crops in the Americas. Still can’t tell which is more prevalent.
- Whole-Genome Analysis of Candidate genes Associated with Seed Size and Weight in Sorghum bicolor Reveals Signatures of Artificial Selection and Insights into Parallel Domestication in Cereal Crops. 63 seed size genes selected during domestication in sorghum, a significant number of which in maize and rice also.
- A systematic review of the socio-economic impacts of large-scale tree plantations, worldwide. Not a good idea.
- Recent Advances in Sexual Propagation and Breeding of Garlic. Restoration of flowering ability has done wonders for diversity. With diversity poster goodness.
- Core collection of two important indigenous vegetables; Gboma eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon L.) and Jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) in Africa: An important step for exploitation of existing germplasm and development of improved cultivars. Interesting, of course, but I wouldn’t call these core collections. But I won’t complain again if it gets the stuff used more.
- Measuring the impact of plant breeding on sub-Saharan African staple crops. High ROI for the usual suspects. How about the traditional veggies et al., though. Anyway, do readers want more on this paper? Let me know in the comments if you want a full post on the main findings.
- Allele-defined genome of the autopolyploid sugarcane Saccharum spontaneum L. A lot of the good stuff is in wild-cultivated rearranged chromosomes.
Brainfood: Wild palm, Yield trends, Indigenous veggies double, Old goat grass, Saline soy, Carob history, Pesticidal plants, Rapeseed diversity, Livestock positives, Domestication syndrome, Kiwifruit evolution, Forest diversity
- Genetic structure of the Canarian palm tree (Phoenix canariensis) at the island scale: does the “island within islands” concept apply to species with high colonization abilities? High dispersal ability doesn’t always lead to high connectivity among populations.
- Uncertainties of potentials and recent changes in global yields of major crops resulting from census- and satellite-based yield datasets at multiple resolutions. Average overall annual yield increases of about 1.5% for maize, rice, wheat and soybean for 1981 to 2008 are uncertain and probably not sufficient.
- Indigenous underutilized vegetables for food and nutritional security in an island ecosystem. People in the the Andaman and Nicobar Islands eat a lot of different vegetables. Interestingly, most are perennial and a quarter are wild.
- Knowledge Loss and Change Between 2002 and 2017—a Revisit of Plant Use of the Maasai of Sekenani Valley, Maasai Mara, Kenya. But for how long will the above be true?
- Use of grass seed resources c.31 ka by modern humans at the Haua Fteah cave, northeast Libya. Including wild wheat relative(s).
- Soybean PI 675847 A as a new source of salt tolerance. But it can’t be the only one, surely?
- The carob tree at the crossroad of domestication center and refugia hypotheses. Out of the west, surprisingly.
- Pesticidal Plant Extracts Improve Yield and Reduce Insect Pests on Legume Crops Without Harming Beneficial Arthropods. Worth a try.
- Genome-wide selection footprints and deleterious variations in young Asian allotetraploid rapeseed. Asian rapeseed derived from European, diverged, introgressed, split into 2 groups.
- Essential amino acids: master regulators of nutrition and environmental footprint? If you take essential amino acids into account, livestock production doesn’t seem such a bad idea after all.
- Parallel selection on a dormancy gene during domestication of crops from multiple families. Cloned soybean dormancy gene also showed evidence of selection during domestication in rice and tomato.
- Two Likely Auto-Tetraploidization Events Shaped Kiwifruit Genome and Contributed to Establishment of the Actinidiaceae Family. And you can thank them for the high vitamin C content.
- Hydraulic diversity of forests regulates ecosystem resilience during drought. More diverse forests better at coping with dry spells.
Nibbles: Banana leaf wilt, EIB, Wheat rust, NUS, Amazon conservation, Snakes & carob, Global farmers, Spud genes
- Bananas resistant to bacterial wilt found at last.
- The Ethiopian genebank gets the very cool Atlas Obscura treatment.
- It needs a helping hand, though. Technology to the rescue in wheat rust management.
- Diversify your diet, why don’t you.
- Giving standing trees value in the Amazon. Great drone shots too.
- Carob trees have value in Cyprus.
- Also nice pix in this Guardian photo essay on how farmers fight climate change.
- Genotyping the CIP collection. That includes the humble potato, of course.
Brainfood: Forests & diets, Homegardens & diets, Landsparing, NZ megafauna, Broomcorn millet origins, Aflatoxin in peanut, Sorghum nutrients, Sorghum & sugarcane diversity in Ethiopia, Hawaiian seedsaving, English sustainability, Wheat evaluation, Lentil review, Danish apples
- Impacts of forests on children’s diet in rural areas across 27 developing countries. Exposure to forests is good for dietary diversity.
- The Role of Homegardens for Food and Nutrition Security in Uganda. Homegardens too.
- The challenge of feeding the world while conserving half the planet. Sparing biodiversity-rich areas means food production will take a hit.
- Human Perceptions of Megafaunal Extinction Events Revealed by Linguistic Analysis of Indigenous Oral Traditions. The Maori were aware of what was happening to the moa.
- Perpetuating Agricultural Heritage: Saving Seeds and Stories on Hawai‘i Island. Diverse messaging needed to reflect diverse motivations. Maybe that would have helped the moa.
- Genetic evidence for a western Chinese origin of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum). Not northern China, nor eastern Europe.
- New tools to screen wild peanut species for aflatoxin accumulation and genetic fingerprinting. Let the screening begin.
- Identification of new donors for spot blotch resistance in cultivated wheat germplasm. 7 out of 1483 from the Indian collection. Hard row to hoe
- Nutritional variation in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] accessions from southern Africa revealed by protein and mineral composition. Among 23 accessions, two are good for both Fe and Zn, a different one for protein, Ca and P, and a different one still for Ca and K.
- Farmers’ synergistic selection criteria and practices for livelihood security through the sustainable uses of onfarm Sorghum landrace diversity, Ethiopia. Diverse selection criteria reflect diverse uses.
- Sugarcane Landraces of Ethiopia: Germplasm Collection and Analysis of Regional Diversity and Distribution. Variation follows altitude. Compare and contrast with above.
- To what extent has sustainable intensification in England been achieved? Not much, and only quite recently.
- Lentils: Genetic Resources: Collection, Conservation, Characterization and Maintenance. More work on wild relatives needed.
- Population structure, relatedness and ploidy levels in an apple gene bank revealed through genotyping-by-sequencing. 78% of 349 apple accessions in the Danish genebank are unique.