Angry about what’s going on at Pavlovsk? Want to do something about it? The Global Crop Diversity Trust has a suggestion.
Pavlovsk Station finally in the news
You of course heard it here first, but the potentially tragic situation unfolding at VIR’s Pavlovsk Station has now made it into the pages of New Scientist. Let’s hope this has some effect.
The Iraqi Seed Project
You may remember our post a few months back about the heroic Mrs Sanaa Abdul Wahab Al-Sheikh and her efforts to save the Iraqi genebank. Well it seems that those efforts have attracted the attention of documentary film-maker Emma Piper-Burket and her team. I’ll be following their work, and really look forward to seeing the results of the project.
A very cold hotspot
Seeds of some 10% of the world’s flora are stored in the coldroom behind this door…
You can see a few more pictures on my Flickr set, and read all about the Millennium Seed Bank on their web page. If you do, you may well be intrigued by this story:
Recently we have conducted germination tests on seeds of 33 South African species collected in 1802/3. The seeds were found at the National Archives in London among the papers of a Dutch merchant, Jan Teerlink whose ship was captured by British privateers during its return from the Far East via the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Seeds of three species germinated: two legumes (Liparia sp. and Acacia sp.) and a Proteaceae (Leucospermum sp.). Our report in Seed Science Research 1 of seeds surviving for over 200 years (supported by carbon-dating) under sub-optimal conditions, suggests adaptation for extreme seed longevity in species of seasonally dry, Mediterranean environments.
And if you are so intrigued, and would really like to see what a Leucospermum plant germinated from 200-year old seeds looks like, well, here it is:
Crop genebanks taken for granted, again
The Crop Science Society of America suggests that in order to adapt agriculture to climate change we will need to
Genotype the major crop germplasm collections to facilitate identification of gene treasures for breeding and genetics research and deployment of superior genes into adapted germplasm around the globe.
Which is all well and good, but it does rather assume that “the major crop collections” will be there to genotyped in the first place. 2
‘Twas ever thus with genebanks. It’s just assumed that they will always be there, ready, willing and able to provide breeders and geneticists with the material they need, forever, no matter what. It’s really scary to realize that, actually, such an assumption is unjustified. Somebody should tell CSSA that.