Genebanks

October 31, 2014November 1, 2014

Sudan genebank gets a boost

Interesting news from Sudan, via Facebook:

The Plant Genetic Resources Unit of the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) of Sudan has been upgraded to a centre with the new name “Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre” according to the decision of the Director General, ARC on 20 Oct. 2014 following the approval by the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.

sudan

Something similar recently happened in Kenya, although it doesn’t yet seem to be reflected in that genebank’s web page. Is there something in the air in East Africa?

Anyway, congratulations to Dr Mohammed El-Tahir, the head of the genebank, and his colleagues in Wad Medani. Here he is, with the lady in charge of genebank documentation, back in 2005, when I was last there.

DSCF0583

October 30, 2014October 30, 2014

Nibbles: Cannabis, Brachiaria, Grasslands, Oryza, Taxonomy resources, Artocarpus, Quercus, Zea, MAS, GBIF

“Something researchers are looking at is which cultivars, or strains, of hemp are best for the various uses — fiber, oil, nutrition, etc.” Love that etc.
Speaking about grass: Brachiaria goes home, to wild acclaim.
Did someone say wild? Wild grass needs help!
Rice is a grass. Oh my yes.
How to keep up to date with taxonomic research online.
Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative gets an award.
You can also make flour from acorns.
And maize: what’s a grit?
Greenpeace touts MAS.
Next thing you know they’ll be singing the praises of Big Data. Yeah, maybe not.

October 29, 2014October 29, 2014

Apple pie

It must be the season, but there’s been a ton of stuff on apples on the interwebs recently. Here’s a little sampler:

Problems with Kazakhstan’s apples.
Problems with Britain’s apples.
Cambridge has a solution for those, though.
Solutions, actually.
And then there’s Dan Bussey‘s way.
And Rowan Jacobsen‘s. (He of the Apple Renaissance.) Which basically means documenting every last variety you can find.
They can then all — or the ones you can still find — go into the Seed Savers Exchange collection, say.
I’ll drink to that!
And a teaser…

October 27, 2014October 27, 2014

Brainfood: Filipino rice synonyms, Jatropha breeding, Polish oats, Amazonian peppers, Wild lentils, Indian pigeonpea, Russian peas, Pulse markers, Wild pollinators, Phenotyping platforms, Almonds & peaches, Cerrado roads, Arboreta conservation

Multiplex SSR-PCR analysis of genetic diversity and redundancy in the Philippine rice (Oryza sativa L.) germplasm collection. 427 rice accessions in the national collection with similar names resolve to about 30 unique profiles. I think. The abstract is a little hard to follow, and that’s all I have access to.
Quantitative genetic parameters of agronomic and quality traits in a global germplasm collection reveal excellent breeding perspectives for Jatropha curcas L. 375 genotypes, 7 locations and 3 years get you quite enough data to plan a decent breeding programme.
Studies on genetic variation within old Polish cultivars of common oat. Forward into the past.
Morphoagronomic peppers no gender pungent Capsicum spp. Amazonia. Actually nothing to do with gender. That’s a mis-translation of “genus,” if you can believe it. Paper basically says that Amazonian peppers are really variable, which is not as interesting as it might have been.
Global Wild Annual Lens Collection: A Potential Resource for Lentil Genetic Base Broadening and Yield Enhancement. The core collection of wild annuals (which is actually a somewhat novel concept) comes mainly from Turkey and Syria, and it’s got diversity that’s not in the cultigen.
Pigeon pea Genetic Resources and Its Utilization in India, Current Status and Future Prospects. Indian genebank evaluates the ICRISAT core and mini-core. Then does some mutation breeding :)
Molecular genetic diversity of the pea (Pisum sativum L.) from the Vavilov Research Institute collection detected by the AFLP analysis. Molecular data does not correspond with subspecies nor ecogeographic groupings. Back to the drawing board.
Characterization of microsatellite markers, their transferability to orphan legumes and use in determination of genetic diversity among chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars. Chickpea SSRs are ok for other, less studied, crops too.
From research to action: enhancing crop yield through wild pollinators. Go wild.
Integration of phenotyping and genetic platforms for a better understanding of wheat performance under drought. You really need managed environment facilities. Didn’t a paper in Brainfood last week say what you needed was a network of field sites? I guess you need both.
Wild almonds gone wild: revisiting Darwin’s statement on the origin of peaches. He was not entirely wrong.
The role of roadsides in conserving Cerrado plant diversity. 70% of species is not bad, I guess. No word on whether that includes wild peanuts, but I suspect yes.
Do living ex situ collections capture the genetic variation of wild populations? A molecular analysis of two relict tree species, Zelkova abelica and Zelkova carpinifolia. Yes and no. But this is in botanic gardens and arboreta, what about seedbanks? The cerrado people want to know…

October 26, 2014October 29, 2014

Nibbles: Wonder Bread, Cassava sex, Languages and biodiversity, Wild Musa, Bronze Age musings, New Indian rice varieties, Improved breeds in Kenya, GMOs in China, Organic vision, Foreign food, Publicity, Nutrition advice & indicators, Ethiopian seed banks, Zimbabwe millet, Agroforestry, MSB legume collection, Demon paywalls, CIMMYT seed, Tempting apple

The industrial sliced loaf as racist fantasy.
Bill Gates talks dirty. About cassava, settle down.
Where the wild things are is where the languages are, but why? And where are they endangered?
This new Indian wild banana is probably a bit endangered.
The past may be a foreign country, but they got Street View there too.
Blockbuster rice in India. (But how energy-efficient is it?)
And potentially blockbuster livestock breeds in Kenya.
China goes GMO. Which of these?
Maybe they should read this vision for organic farming? You know, just for completeness?
Have a food adventure! Just perhaps not in China.
FAO and National Geographic have a food security adventure together. For more stuff like this, no doubt…
Eat more plants, and ditch the junk food. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Ok, for the more complicated, nerdy approach, there’s always fancy indicators.
Ethiopia’s community seed banks.
I bet there are some in Zimbabwe…
African Development Bank makes a bet on agroforestry. Maybe health is why? There’s more that one reason…
Gotta be strategic with your legume collecting.
Want conservation science to translate into impact? Don’t publish behind a paywall.
CIMMYT earns its keep.
Build a better apple, and you won’t be able to keep the journalists away.