Genebanks

May 17, 2011May 17, 2011

Identifying the source of Bluefields’ breadfruits

Frank Lohmann asked an intriguing question in a comment on a recent post about breadfruit:

I have several breadfruit trees, which most likely go back to the trees captain Bligh brought to Jamaica, does anyone know which variety that is?

The reason Frank gave for believing his plants to date back to Capt. Bligh is “because he brought them to Bluefields were I live and planted them here.”

I asked for some photos and showed them to Diane Ragone of the Breadfruit Institute in Hawaii. She said that it is certainly plausible that the tree is from Tahiti.

Pressed for a variety name, this is what she said:

It’s so hard to tell with the Tahitian varieties. There are so many of these Polynesian triploid types with round fruit and deeply lobed leaves. Perhaps Rare, which was one of the varieties that Bligh noted in the Bounty log, but no mention in the Providence log as to what he actually brought to the Caribbean. A paper on that is on my too-long and neglected list of papers on breadfruit!

So we’ll just have to wait for a positive ID. But Frank could well be right that his breadfruits go back to the famed captain. I for one will choose to believe they do.

May 16, 2011May 13, 2011

Brainfood: Millet biscuits, Wheat micronutrients, Diversification and C footprint, Agroforestry, Epazote, Grape history, Belgian farmers, Millet phenology, Species migration, Barley domestication, Sheep genetics

Quality characteristics of biscuits prepared from finger millet seed coat based composite flour. They’re nutritious. Crocodile Dundee on the tastiness of the iguana may, however, apply.
Minerals and trace elements in a collection of wheat landraces from the Canary Islands. There are differences, but environment and agronomic practices could affect them.
Lowering carbon footprint of durum wheat by diversifying cropping systems. Yes, by 7-34%, depending on how the diversification was done.
Effect of shading by baobab (Adansonia digitata) and néré (Parkia biglobosa) on yields of millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and taro (Colocasia esculenta) in parkland systems in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Taro is a shade lover; grow it under néré, and vice versa.
Ethnobotanical, morphological, phytochemical and molecular evidence for the incipient domestication of Epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides L.: Chenopodiaceae) in a semi-arid region of Mexico. Good to know; I love epazote.
Grape varieties (Vitis vinifera L.) from the Balearic Islands: genetic characterization and relationship with Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean Basin. See the grand sweep of European history unfold.
Microsatellite characterization of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) genetic diversity in Asturias (Northern Spain). No evidence of communication with the previous group.
Plant economy of the first farmers of central Belgium (Linearbandkeramik, 5200–5000 b.c.). They were dope fiends.
Selection for earlier flowering crop associated with climatic variations in the Sahel. Compared to 1976 millet samples, samples collected in 2003 had shorter lifecycle (due to an early flowering allele at the PHYC locus increasing in frequency), and a reduction in plant and spike size. So you don’t need new varieties, the old ones will adapt to climate change. Oh, and BTW, there’s been no genetic erosion.
Do species’ traits predict recent shifts at expanding range edges? No.
The domestication syndrome genes responsible for the major changes in plant form in the Triticeae crops. Failure to disarticulate and 6-rows in barley, in detail. Part of a Special Issue on Barley.
The genetics of colour in fat-tailed sheep: a review. I didn’t know karakul had fat tails.

May 15, 2011May 16, 2011

Nordic chefs exploring Nordic foods with Nordic genebank

I was intrigued by a reference to a genebank in a restaurant review in the Wall Street Journal. Not just any restaurant, but the best restaurant in the world, Noma in Copenhagen, which is “is best known for its fanatical approach to foraging.” Here’s the reference:

Noma helped found a Nordic Food Lab, which has a gene bank that is collating information about the wild products in the region.

Nordic Food Lab does indeed sound interesting (especially its fermentation trials):

Nordic Food Lab is a non-profit self-governed institution established by head chef of Noma, Rene Redzepi and gastronomic entrepreneur, Claus Meyer with the purpose of scientifically exploring the New Nordic Cuisine and disseminating results from this exploration.

But they’re not really establishing a genebank, as suggested by the WSJ piece.

We are collaborating with Nordgen, the amazing bank of genetic material, to evaluate the gastronomic potential of bygone varieties of Scandinavian produce. We will publish our sensory evaluations as they are completed. This promises to be an extremely interesting project; many modern species are produced on other merits besides flavor, and we expect intriguing findings.

Much more sensible.

nordgen — The entrance to NordGen (Nordic Genetic Resource Center) at Alnarp.

May 15, 2011May 15, 2011

Englishman saving potatoes in Ireland

So apparently…

David Langford has established the most comprehensive collection of heritage potatoes in Ireland over many years and we are very proud to have been chosen as the repository for this wonderful collection. There are now 180 varieties of potato growing at Lissadell dating from 1768 right up to 2004, including the Famine Lumper.

You can hear Mr Langford thanks to the consistently excellent Home Grown: Ireland from RTE. I hacked the photo from their Facebook page. Friend them!

Lissadell House looks wonderful, but it’s not clear to me how their potato collection relates to Ireland’s national plant genetic resources conservation efforts. Maybe Danny can tell us…

May 13, 2011May 15, 2011

Landraces on display at JIC

The second issue of the e-newsletter of the Germplasm Resources Unit of the John Innes Centre (JIC), for Spring 2011, is out. It comes with a nice name-check for the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, for which we are very grateful. Always happy to spread news about genebanks.

On this occasion, I was particularly taken with the piece on the demonstration plot for heritage wheats, including landraces. This on the left, for example, is Blue Cone, “an old wheat cultivated often in the 17th Century through to the 1930’s.” The piece struck me because as I read it I had just finished writing yesterday’s post about things that can be done to promote the on-farm management of landraces such as Blue Cone. One of those things, according to the paper I summarized in the post, is to re-introduce materials from ex situ collections. Clearly, the demonstration plots at John Innes are part of such an effort:

As previously, the plots will be available for viewing by prior appointment either as individual or group visits. In addition, an open day will be organised where interested parties will have the opportunity to view the plots with a view to identifying any material of potential interest that they might care to grow and evaluate for themselves. This initiative will be publicised in the farming and local press. Anyone interested is encouraged to contact us to arrange viewing and inspection of the material with a view to requesting small quantities for their own evaluation following harvesting and processing.