Genebanks

September 8, 2015

Colin gets doctored

photo (10) Our friend and occasional contributor Colin Khoury has successfully defended his PhD thesis at Wageningen University. As spelled out in a nice summary over at CIAT, where he was a visiting researcher, Colin’s work addressed four crucial questions dear to our hearts here at the blog:

(1) What is the status of diversity in our food systems, and where are the greatest vulnerabilities?
(2) Where can genetic diversity be found that can be useful in increasing productivity and mitigating these vulnerabilities?
(3) Is this genetic diversity available in the present and in the long term?, and
(4) What steps are needed to improve the ability for researchers to access genetic resources critical for present and future crop improvement?

Congratulations, Colin, and best wishes for the future.

September 7, 2015September 9, 2015

Brainfood: Protein in Amazon, Ponies in UK & US, Old wheats, Resistant filberts, Buying local breeds, Chickpea roots, Beet diversity, Italian goats, Mung bean improvement

From fish and bushmeat to chicken nuggets: the nutrition transition in a continuum from rural to urban settings in the Colombian Amazon region. More fish and bushmeat in rural areas compared to towns, where they are considered luxuries. Industrial chicken reaching rural areas, though, and that’s bad for nutrition.
Comparative genetic diversity in a sample of pony breeds from the U.K. and North America: a case study in the conservation of global genetic resources. Mother and daughter populations of breeds in the UK and US respectively turned out to be somewhat genetically different.
Do “ancient” wheat species differ from modern bread wheat in their contents of bioactive components? No.
Marine reserves help preserve genetic diversity after impacts derived from climate variability: Lessons from the pink abalone in Baja California. More protection, more diversity.
Sources of resistance to eastern filbert blight in hazelnuts from the Republic of Georgia. 79 plants from 34 seedlots out of 1374 seedlings from 50 seedlots. Hard row to hoe.
Determinants of the intention to purchase an autochthonous local lamb breed: Spanish case study. People are lazy.
Assessing Genetic Variability for Root Traits and Identification of Trait-Specific Germplasm in Chickpea Reference Set. 23 out of 300 accessions could be useful in breeding for better roots.
Breeding patterns and cultivated beets origins by genetic diversity and linkage disequilibrium analyses. Fodder and sugar beets grouped together, separated from garden and sea beets, in worldwide genebank collection but not in elite lines.
Genetic diversity of Italian goat breeds assessed with a medium-density SNP chip. As with so much else in Italy, goat diversity follows a N-S pattern.
Genomic resources in mungbean for future breeding programs. A couple of reference genomes will make everything easier.

September 7, 2015September 7, 2015

CIMMYT genebank goes solar

cimmyt

I’m not sure how many genebanks around the world are run on solar power, but it’s not that many. The Millennium Seed Bank is one. Please drop me a line if you know of any other.

September 4, 2015September 4, 2015

Nibbles: Genebank videos, Genebank QMS, Leakey vid, Oz Oryza, Plant ID app, CGIAR saga, PNG food crisis, Impressive melons, Quinoa, Asian sheep diversity, Kenyan CSA

Nice video on the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew. Compare and contrast with Ft Collins. Or CIAT’s genebank for that matter.
Quality video on quality management systems in genebanks. No doubt followed to the letter by the three above.
Video of webinar by Roger Leakey explaining how trees will save us: “The Global Food Crisis: Can we Heal a Divided and Ailing World?”
Collecting wild rice in Australia. No video, alas, but nice pics.
App to identify plants for leaves. If ever a video was needed…
The latest on the CGIAR re-re-structuring. Hollywood interested, I’m told.
Meanwhile, El Niño beginning to affect PNG.
Which doesn’t stop a watermelon going for thousands in Japan.
Hope El Niño doesn’t affect Colombia’s plans to stuff it to poor Bolivian quinoa farmers.
Enough plants already. Asian sheep more diverse than previously thought, thanks to both migration from Fertile Crescent and indigenous development and back-dispersal.
Not to mention “Surprising ways Kenyans are embracing climate-smart agriculture“.

August 28, 2015August 28, 2015

Potatoes in the Arctic

CNeT6w3UYAAPi46

Wonderful to see indigenous leaders from the Parque de la Papa — joined by Alejandro Argumedo of Asociacion ANDES, the Director General of FAO, Graziano de Silva, and Marie Haga of the Global Crop Diversity Trust — deposit botanical seeds of their native potatoes, which they themselves produced with help from CIP, in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. A great example of collaboration and complementarity between on farm and ex situ conservation.