Funding

June 27, 2018June 27, 2018

From little vegetable seeds…

Nunhems Netherlands b.v., currently a subsidiary company of Bayer (soon a subsidiary of BASF), specializing in vegetable varieties, has paid USD 119,083 to the International Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund, equaling 0.77% of seed sales of ten varieties of vegetables commercialized using germplasm made available by the Centre for Genetic Resources of the Netherlands (CGN) and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) of Germany through the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing of the International Treaty. [links added]

A hugely important milestone for the Treaty and the whole plant genetic resources conservation community. Hopefully the first of many such announcements.

June 4, 2018June 5, 2018

Brainfood: Cassava domestication, Phylogenomics review, Flavour breeding, Anticolonialism, Arid beet, Arid Vigna, Arid maize, ABS double, Trout stem cells

Patterns of nuclear and chloroplast genetic diversity and structure of manioc along major Brazilian Amazonian rivers. No structure related to river basins. Separate histories for sweet and bitter types, with the sweet domesticated and spreading first.
Practical considerations for plant phylogenomics. Use the right tool for the job.
The genetics of fruit flavour preferences. Here’s a “molecular roadmap to flavour improvement,” breeders. Now go crazy.
Beyond Culinary Colonialism: Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Liberal Multiculturalism, and the Control of Gastronomic Capital. Multiculturalism is incompatible with food sovereignty.
Predicting genotypes environmental range from genome‐environment associations. Fraction of aridity-associated alleles in wild beet could accurately predict adaptation to aridity in independent set of cultivated individuals.
Diversity of drought tolerance in the genus Vigna. No word on genotypes. But wilds more tolerant of drought in Vigna too.
Identification of Drought, Heat, and Combined Drought and Heat Tolerant Donors in Maize. Only 2 out of 300 inbreds are resistant to both drought and heat. No word on how teosinte does.
Benefit sharing mechanisms for agricultural genetic diversity use and in-situ conservation. Show me the money.
The Nagoya Protocol could backfire on the Global South. It’s not just about the money.
Invasion of a legume ecosystem engineer in a cold biome alters plant biodiversity. Biosafety first.
Interspecific germ cell transplantation: a new light in the conservation of valuable Balkan trout genetic resources? Maybe.

May 25, 2018

Nibbles: Konzo double, ANI, ICRISAT genebank, World Potato Congress, Coffee sequence, Food Forever job

The fascinating story of konzo, nicely told.
You’ll remember my take on that, of course.
Speaking of my take, on the release of the Access to Nutrition Index I ask: cui bono genebanks?
Somebody mention genebanks? Yes, ICRISAT.
Consider the beauty of the humble potato.
Nobody ever calls coffee humble.
Wanna tell the world about any of the above?

January 31, 2018January 31, 2018

Opportunities for seedy people

Two related (sort of) opportunities for you today. First, if you’re a young agricultural economist with an interest in impact assessment, you may want to check out the Crop Trust-CGIAR “Genebank Impacts Fellowship Program.” And second, if you want to study how to tweak seed systems and thus increase those genebank impacts, have a look at the call for proposals from NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development, CGIAR and the Food & Business Knowledge Platform.

LATER: As you were, here’s a third one: a training course leading to certification in Seed System Security Assessment.

January 31, 2018January 31, 2018

Nibbles: Wild wheat & rice genomes, Lost American crops, Bread Lab, Tea symposium, Burping cows, Australian botanist, Ecuadorian landrace pics, Red listing, Fermentation PhD, Cheese rind microbes, HRH reception

Goat grass genome to the rescue.
No, some other weedy grass genomes to the rescue!
Weeds could actually be lost crops.
Clif Bar endows Bread Lab.
Symposium on the future of tea. Mother-in-law alerted.
You’ll need milk for that tea: breeding cattle for more production and less burping.
Aunty Fran Bodkin: Australian botany hero.
Field Museum field guide to Ecuadorian landraces. Of all things.
Learn about red-listing.
Study the microbial communities of cabbage leaves.
Cheese rind has complex microbial communities too.
So, anyways, this was fun.