- The biodiversity and genetic structure of Balearic sheep breeds. 5 types, pretty well differentiated among themselves, and very different to the mainland breeds.
- Exploration of genetic diversity within Cichorium endivia and Cichorium intybus with focus on the gene pool of industrial chicory. Species reasonably, though not completely, differentiated. C. intybus division into 3 phenotypic cultivar groups (Witloof, root chicory and leaf chicory) confirmed. Leaf chicory division into 3 phenotypic subgroups confirmed (Radicchio, Sugarloaf and Catalogne cultivars). Modern industrial root cultivars have high phenotypic and genetic variability.
- The genome of cultivated sweet potato contains Agrobacterium T-DNAs with expressed genes: An example of a naturally transgenic food crop. No doubt it will soon be banned in Europe.
- Distributions, ex situ conservation priorities, and genetic resource potential of crop wild relatives of sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., I. series Batatas]. 79% of species identified as high priority for further collecting. None of them GMOs. Yucatan is the place to go to get bang for buck.
- Complementary effects of species and genetic diversity on productivity and stability of sown grasslands. Species diversity increased productivity under drought, regardless of number of genotypes per species present. Genotypic diversity increased temporal stability of production under both drought and non-drought conditions, regardless of number of species.
- Exploiting Nutritional Value of Staple Foods in the World’s Semi-Arid Areas: Risks, Benefits, Challenges and Opportunities of Sorghum. Unbalanced amino acid composition, cyanogenic glycosides and antinutrients are obstacles to increased consumption, but can be overcome by: reduction of worrisome components (or their activity), good practices to minimise contamination and compensation by varied diet.
- Nutritional and Health Implications of Conventional Agriculture — A review. Only agricultural biodiversity can save us.
- Pollination services from field-scale agricultural diversification may be context-dependent. Hedgerows may not always be good for both crop pollination and wild bee conservation.
- Morphological, Physiological and Molecular studies on wildly collected Cordyceps militaris from North West Himalayas, India. You can cultivate it.
- Olive biodiversity in Colombia. A molecular study of local germplasm. 5 of the genotypes could not be identified with known varieties.
- A phylogenetic analysis of 34 chloroplast genomes elucidates the relationships between wild and domestic species within the genus Citrus. 3 main clades: citron/Australian species, pummelo/micrantha and papeda/mandarins. Lots of heteroplasy. 4 genes showing positive selection.
Dr Solh on the ICARDA genebank
“Even when the war was going on, they were managing to take seeds out of Syria…”
ILRI@40 puts down some agricultural biodiversity markers
Last year was a big one for the International Livestock Research Institute, marking as it did its 40th anniversary. There was a whole series of events, the results of which were summarized last week by Nadine Sanginga, the ILRI@40 Coordinator, in an email to stakeholders.
At each event, we asked participants to comment on two questions: Looking to 2054, what are the two most critical livestock-related challenges we must answer through research? What is the most promising ‘best bet’ opportunity we should invest in to achieve better lives though livestock by 2054?
You can see what they had to say nicely pulled together in a Powerpoint. Securing livestock genetic diversity featured as a challenge, as did developing sustainable feeds and forages, which will depend on likewise securing forage genetic diversity. Some interesting stuff among the “best bets” too, such as paying more attention to insects and to multi-purpose crops (grain and forage). Plenty of work there for ILRI’s forage genebank, as well as for its animal genetic resources conservation people.
Nibbles: SDGs, Seed book, Magic millets, Medieval diets, Obsessive botanist, Cocoa melting gene, Double sake, Simcock, CIMMYT double, Popular breeder, Georgian wine odyssey, Cinnamon vid, Yam bean factsheet, Jackfruit bandwagon, Prairie berries
- Agriculture and the SDGs in one nice infographic thingy.
- Seeds: The Book.
- Seeds like millets?
- Those medievals really knew how to eat.
- An obsessive botanist? Whatever next.
- Deconstructing chocolate, one gene at a time.
- Sake 101. And for a more in-depth look…
- Joseph Simcox, self-described “Internationally Renowned World Food Plant Resource Authority” takes you “on a World Adventure to learn about little known edible plants!” On Facebook.
- A journey into the heart of CIMMYT. They’ll even screen your maize for you.
- The people’s breeder.
- Tracing wine to its source: Georgia.
- Harvesting cinnamon. With video goodness.
- FAO unleashes its mighty comms machine on another poor neglected crop: yam bean. Not many people hurt.
- Watch out jackfruit, you’re probably next.
- Or maybe saskatoon berries (Amelanchier alnifolia).
DOI see the future of genebank documentation?
Mike Jackson, indefatigable blogger and former manager of the IRRI genebank (among other things), is on a mission.
I’m on the editorial board of Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. I have proposed to the Editor-in-Chief that any manuscript that does not include the germplasm accession numbers (or provenance of the germplasm used) should be automatically sent back to the authors for revision, and even rejected if this information cannot be provided, whatever the quality of the science! Listing the germplasm accession numbers should become a requirement for publication.
Draconian response? Pedantic even? I don’t think so, since it’s a fundamental germplasm management and use issue.
As regular readers will suspect, we’re totally behind Mike’s pedantically draconian suggestion here. We’ve said much the same thing ourselves on occasion. We’ve even taken it a step further and suggested globally unique identifiers for each genebank accession. Well, not entirely coincidentally, Genesys has just announced a major new feature along these lines:
Genesys database was upgraded to allow for enhanced handling of archived accession data. Accession records in Genesys are assigned a Universally Unique Identifier and are accessible with Persistent Uniform Resource Locators.
A step in the right direction? Over to you, genebank data geeks.