Genebanks

September 7, 2018September 7, 2018

Rescuing the ICARDA genebank

Another important CGIAR genebank with over 41,000 Triticeae accessions at the International Center for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) housed in Aleppo, Syria has been lost from the turmoil in that region…

Err, no, of course not. I thought this story was better known than such a statement implies. Maybe this will help.

September 5, 2018

Nibbles: Farm subsidies, Pressing and naming plants, Cowpea primer, California crop maps, Caribbean mangoes, ABS meeting, Banana mapping, Sarada Krishnan, Indian millets, Apple varieties, Early modern bees

Fun Twitter thread on zombie tropes about farm subsidies in the US. Should have been a blog post, though.
Kew boffins on how to make an herbarium specimen. More complicated than you might think. And why it’s important. While I’m at it, this is how you use herbarium specimens etc. to name plants.
IITA genebank manager interviewed about cowpea.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of cartography. Not very relevant here, I know, but a monumental achievement that I wanted to celebrate. And here’s a wonderful example of cutting-edge online cartography that will no doubt feature in a future edition.
The banana mapping project is progressing nicely.
Damn, I missed the St Lucia mango festival. Next year?
Africa discusses ABS.
Dr Sarada Krishnan of Denver Botanic Garden profiled. She worked on the global coffee conservation strategy. Among many other things.
Millets to the rescue in Gujarat.
Red Delicious bumped from top apple spot.
Amateurs have spread information about beekeeping since 16th century.

September 4, 2018September 7, 2018

Brainfood: Quinoa boom, Diet affordability, Insect boom and bust, Organic & pests, Maize agroforestry, Landraces, Wheat roots, Conservation costs, Sustainable intensification, Defences & domestication, Polyploid niches, Mexican CWR, Danish apples, Diversity proxies, Grassland nutrient hotspots

Foods and fads: The welfare impacts of rising quinoa prices in Peru. Modest.
Measuring the Affordability of Nutritious Diets in Africa: Price Indexes for Diet Diversity and the Cost of Nutrient Adequacy. Maybe they could try quinoa.
Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitude. Insects are in trouble in the tropics, but will make up for it at higher latitudes, which will be really bad for crops there, 10-25% more bad.
Evidence that organic farming promotes pest control. Something for farmers in those higher latitudes to think about.
The global distribution of Bacillus anthracis and associated anthrax risk to humans, livestock, and wildlife. 63.8 million rural poor livestock keepers are at risk. No word on effect of climate change.
Do open-pollinated maize varieties perform better than hybrids in agroforestry systems? Maybe in Rwanda, but in Ethiopia not so much.
More than Yield: Ecosystem Services of Traditional versus Modern Crop Varieties Revisited. Landraces are liked for yield stability in marginal environments, and for cultural reasons.
Root and shoot traits in parental, early and late generation Green Revolution wheats (Triticum spp.) under glasshouse conditions. Modern wheat have smaller roots.
Standardized reporting of the costs of management interventions for biodiversity conservation. Behind a paywall, so can’t tell whether includes genebanks. But I bet it doesn’t. Tell me I’m wrong.
Global assessment of agricultural system redesign for sustainable intensification. Apparently 30% of farms and 10% of agricultural land worldwide, which is both more and less than I would have guessed.
Genetic homogeneity of North-African goats. The Berber breeds are different, everything else is a big mixed up mess.
Plant domestication decreases both constitutive and induced chemical defences by direct selection against defensive traits. In cabbage, even the tissues that are not eaten are more edible than in the wild relative.
Polyploid plants have faster rates of multivariate climatic niche evolution than their diploid relatives. Relevant for domestication?
An Initiative for the Study and Use of Genetic Diversity of Domesticated Plants and Their Wild Relatives. In Mexico.
Population structure, relatedness and ploidy levels in an apple gene bank revealed through genotyping-by-sequencing. There’s a lot of inter-relatedness in the Danish collection.
Biases induced by using geography and environment to guide ex situ conservation. “Although geographic and environmental diversity have proven to be reliable predictors of allele frequency differences and ecotypic differentiation across species ranges, they appear to be poor predictors of allelic diversity per se.” At least for 3 species.
Examining the spectra of herbarium uses and users. Herbaria mostly used by taxonomists shock.
Ancient herders enriched and restructured African grasslands. Shit. You heard me.

August 27, 2018August 13, 2018

Brainfood: Fox domestication, Wheat synthesis, Microscale selection, Sports, Brinjal evolution, Famous faba, Synthetic wheats, Watkins collection, Wheat genetic gains, Chinese cattle

Red fox genome assembly identifies genomic regions associated with tame and aggressive behaviours. It’s down to synaptic plasticity, among other things.
Development and identification of new synthetic T. turgidum–T. monococcum amphiploids. Did this never happen in the wild?
Genomic adaptation to drought in wild barley is driven by edaphic natural selection at the Tabigha Evolution Slope. Big genetic differences in wild populations just meters apart but on different soil types.
Attention sports fans! The far-reaching contributions of bud sport mutants to horticulture and plant biology. Much more than just Pinot gris.
Shedding new light on the origin and spread of the brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and its wild relatives. Originated in Africa, moved to Asia, where it was domesticated; spread in Africa by elephants.
ILB 938, a valuable faba bean (Vicia faba L.) accession. Goes well with chianti. Note the DOI.
Unlocking the novel genetic diversity and population structure of synthetic Hexaploid wheat. More in diversity in synthetics compared to elite bread wheats.
Genetic Gains for Grain Yield in CIMMYT’s Semi-Arid Wheat Yield Trials Grown in Suboptimal Environments. 1.6% per year (2002-2014), not least because of the above.
Hidden variation in polyploid wheat drives local adaptation. Could this contribute to continuing the above?
Genome-wide scanning reveals genetic diversity and signatures of selection in Chinese indigenous cattle breeds. More diversity in the north.

August 13, 2018August 13, 2018

Nibbles: Lad spuds, Assisi olives, Amazing maize art, Wild tea, Peruvian alpaca, TR4, Seed banks, Space Seed Force, Embrapa sweetpotato, ITPGRFA

The hidden treasure of Colombian potatoes. In a lad mag, no less.
Umbrian olive terraces get UN status, no less.
Maize furniture, no less.
New wild tea species found. In protected areas, no less.
Saving the dreadlocked Suri alpaca of Peru through spinning.
Saving the banana through lots of things.
Seed banks for restoration, but also so much more.
Even in space. No less.
But don’t forget to safety duplicate .
Seed Treaty scores important first, explained. I hope.