- EURISCO: The European search catalogue for plant genetic resources. 43 countries, 400 institutes, 1.8 million accessions, and a vital part of Genesys!
- Yield-related salinity tolerance traits identified in a nested association mapping (NAM) population of wild barley. Salinity allele found in wild barley.
- Geographical distribution of traits and diversity in the world collection of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br., synonym: Cenchrus americanus (L.) Morrone] landraces conserved at the ICRISAT genebank. Plant height in Burkina Faso ranges from 80 to 490cm.
- Hardy Kiwifruit Genetic Resources. They’re wild.
- Deciphering Genetic Diversity in the Origins of Pepper (Capsicum spp.) and Comparison with Worldwide Variability. Diversity is decreasing in Ecuador.
- Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers show greater similarity among morphologically diverse Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars grown in Pakistan. Morphologically diverse varieties show little genetic diversity.
- Assessing climate adaptation options and uncertainties for cereal systems in West Africa. About the only thing that’s going to work is increased temperature resilience during flowering.
Dissecting pearl millet diversity
Our friends at ICRISAT have been busy describing their pearl millet collection, and their latest offering is a thorough analysis of the geographic distribution of morphological traits. That follows, among other things, a general review of the collection, and an analysis of latitudinal patterns in morphological diversity.
That last paper showed that although pearl millet landraces reach basically similar latitudes in both the N and S hemispheres (about 34°), there is much more cultivation north of the equator than south, as one would perhaps expect from the relative distribution of landmasses, except perhaps for the 15°–20° range, from which there is more cultivation south of the equator than north. Mid-latitude regions (15°–20°) in both hemispheres have proved the most useful as sources of material for developing high-yielding cultivars (they are early-maturing, producing long and thick panicles with large seeds). So it seems that southern hemisphere germplasm has a greater chance of being useful in breeding, although most cultivation is in the north. Another example of interdependence.
The latest paper 1 goes in a lot more detail for individual traits. It’s very difficult to summarize patterns in 8 quantitative traits (days to 50% flowering, plant height, total and productive tillers per plant, panicle exsertion, length and thickness and 1000 seed weight) and 8 qualitative traits (panicle shape and density, bristle length, seed shape and color, endosperm texture, green fodder yield potential and seed yield potential) from 15,969 accessions from 30 countries. So I’ll limit myself to one recommendation. If you want to see huge variation in pearl millet height, go to Burkina Faso.
Nibbles: Turkish seeds, KBA, Wild ginger, ICARDA, AGRA, Weird agrobiodiversity, Coffee journey
- Ancient seeds put on life support. Not holding my breath.
- Key Biodiversity Areas to be mapped. Agrobiodiversity also? Not holding my breath.
- Botany on reality TV? Not holding my breath. No, wait…
- More on the ICARDA story. Holding my breath.
- Kofi Annan on that “uniquely African Green Revolution.” Not holding my breath, but here’s the latest report on how AGRA is doing. Oh, and there’s more on Africa, from IFPRI this time.
- A caterpillar on the Silk Road. Now, that I’d like to see.
- But not before coffee.
Brainfood: Organic penalty, Rye gaps, Sustainable diet indicators, Wheat evolution
- Commercial Crop Yields Reveal Strengths and Weaknesses for Organic Agriculture in the United States. The headline will be that organic yield is 80% of conventional, but the results are far more nuanced than that suggests.
- Genetic Distinctiveness of Rye In situ Accessions from Portugal Unveils a New Hotspot of Unexplored Genetic Resources. More collecting needed.
- A Consensus Proposal for Nutritional Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of a Healthy Diet: The Mediterranean Diet as a Case Study. 13 indicators of sustainability described, from “Vegetable/animal protein consumption ratios” to “Diet-related morbidity/mortality statistics.”
- Reconciling the evolutionary origin of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). One slightly changed ancestral subgenome, one much-changed ancestral subgenome, and one weird hybrid subgenome involving the previous two plus another. Basically, we were insanely lucky to get wheat.
A genebank in need
Our vault, where we store over 20,000 varieties of rare and heirloom seeds is critical to that mission. And the vault is failing. It has a crack in the floor, which could potentially lead to unstable temperatures and structural instability.
Do consider helping Seed Savers Exchange. They do great work. As, indeed, do thousands of seed savers around the world.