Category: Genebanks

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Good news from Trinidad & Tobago

While many newspaper readers and television viewers overseas are, repeatedly, exposed to negative news about this country, particularly with respect to the uncomfortable rise in the level of murders, it would be a plus for the image of the twin island State if these people could be apprised as well of the contribution of Trinidad and Tobago’s International Cocoa Gene Bank.

Go get ’em, George Alleyne, who writes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Cocoa Gene Bank. We all share the problem of interesting people in news about agricultural biodiversity, when what they really want is murder and mayhem.

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A different way to conserve coconut

Good news from Roland Bourdeix of CIRAD. His idea for a new approach to the conservation of coconut genetic resources has taken a first important step. Roland wants to find uninhabited, isolated islets around the world and plant each one with a single coconut variety. Think of it: no maintenance costs, no expensive controlled pollinations to preserve the genetic integrity of each population, seednuts whenever you want them. Ok, of course there are drawbacks, but given the costs and difficulties of maintaining conventional coconut field genebanks, it’s worth a try. Roland calls it the Polymotu Project.

Well, Roland now tells us that he has his first islets. Marlon Brando’s family and their company Pacific Beachcomber SC has made available 5 islets from its Tetiaroa atoll. A different Tahitian variety will be conserved on each. As Roland says: “il nous reste encore 45 îlots et vallées à trouver…” Good luck!

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Pawnee corn pix

Our friend Karen Williams at the USDA writes:

The story of the Pawnee maize is fascinating! You have probably seen the display cases in Beltsville of the collection of maize varieties. Years ago, David and I were involved in getting all the samples photographed. Attached are photos of the 3 samples identified as Pawnee varieties. You are welcome to post these to your blog, if you think they are of interest.

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Unfortunately, the display cases are so old (1930s or earlier) that no documentation on their history exists. We don’t even know who collected them. They predate the NPGS so there are no corresponding germplasm samples.

So lets really push our luck here, and ask whether anyone out there has any information about the USDA’s display case collections?

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Bad news from Tehran

In addition to everything else, it seems that the Turkman horse is under threat of extinction. ((And, yes, I know that this is no joking matter. But still.)) The problem seems to be interbreeding with Throughbreds, and owners unwilling to risk pure-bred Turkmen horses, which are expensive, in races where there is a risk of injury and prize money is low. According to one expert:

Iranian horses have unique features such as smartness, nobility, special physical conditions and high endurance level which cannot be observed in any of the imported horses.

Among the proposals to save the Turkmen horse are a genebank (not sure how that would work) and a breed register, which would probably require DNA testing for individuals.

The Byerly Turk
The Byerly Turk

One thing puzzles me. In the very restricted genetic bottleneck that resulted in the English Thoroughbred is a fine animal known as The Byerly Turk. Was it really a Turk? Wikipedia thinks not. More to the point, one can only be grateful that the English did not decry all that messy genetic pollution that gave rise to the English Thoroughbred.