Genebanks

August 5, 2020August 7, 2020

Aiming for Ames

There’s an important job opening at USDA running the Plant Introduction Station at Ames, Iowa. That’s something like 50,000 accessions to be responsible for. You can also explore the holdings of USA020, as it’s known in the trade, in Genesys. Maize is the big one, but there’s so much more there. A dream job for someone who wants to really do something to protect and use crop diversity.

August 5, 2020August 4, 2020

Questionnaire on seed conservation and security

Do you conserve crop diversity or contribute to seed security at the local or national levels? If so, the DIVERSIFARM project would like to hear from you.

The questionnaire survey is carried out as part of the research project Pathways to food security, poverty alleviation and livelihoods through the implementation of farmers rights to crop genetic diversity (DIVERSIFARM), carried out by the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway, in collaboration with University of Cape Town, South Africa; Mekelle University, Ethiopia; The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture; and Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Following this survey, further research and case-studies will be carried out, with the ultimate goal of identifying a roadmap to scale up successful models.

Please complete, and pass on…

August 4, 2020August 4, 2020

Nibbles: UN training, Genebanks double, CG spatial data, Fruit IPR, Citrus greening, Sikkim diversity, Bulgarian lavender, Biogenetic Paradoxes, Heroin, Palestinian eggplant

Training courses on multilateral environmental agreements, including CBD and Plant Treaty.
CGIAR dashboard on the Genebank Platform. More data here.
Some of the above are included in this list of the world’s most high profile genebanks.
The latest spatial crop data from CGIAR. Useful for genebanks, among other things.
Protecting fruit intellectual property. Wait, that didn’t come out right.
I guess this fruit is next.
Sikkim’s agricultural diversity as colours on a palette.
Lavender is a nice colour, whether in France or Bulgaria.
Book on nation-building through agricultural biodiversity. Bulgarians unavailable for comment.
Poppy diversity being helped by solar panels to build something or other in Afghanistan.
Palestinian paean to the bitinjan. Jeremy goes to town on it in his latest newsletter.

August 3, 2020August 24, 2020

Brainfood: Perennial favourites, Feral grapevines, Silky cat, Damaged yams, Maize vs sorghum, Sunflower ecotypes, Fungal diversity, Pacific voyaging, Vitamin seeds, Biogeoinformatics, Natural language, Evaluation, Aquaculture

Perennial vegetables: A neglected resource for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and nutrition. Over 600 perennial veggies on 6% of global vegetable cropland.
Genomic Evidences Support an Independent History of Grapevine Domestication in the Levant. Separate from what happened in the Caucasus, that is.
Distribution, prevalence and severity of damages caused by nematodes on yam (Dioscorea rotundata) in Nigeria. A quarter of tubers and half of heaps showed nematode symptoms.
Maize long-term genetic progress explains current dominance over sorghum in Argentina. Follow the money.
Phenotypic and physiological responses to salt exposure in Sorghum reveal diversity among domesticated landraces. Salinity tolerance was acquired early but then lost in some geographic regions where it wasn’t needed. See what happens when you invest in a crop?
Massive haplotypes underlie ecotypic differentiation in sunflowers. It’s the recombination-suppressing inversions, stupid.
GlobalFungi, a global database of fungal occurrences from high-throughput-sequencing metabarcoding studies. Cool. Do landraces of a crop next.
The earliest domestic cat on the Silk Road. Coincided with rapid urbanization in the 9th century.
Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement. Yeah, but did Americans go west of their own accord or in Polynesian boats? And did they have sweetpotatoes with them? And cats?
Genetic markers associated with seed longevity and vitamin E in diverse Aus rice varieties. 5 markers on 4 chromosomes.
Biogeoinformatics for the management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR). Software for monitoring erosion and detecting locally adapted genotypes. Plus preserve traditional practices.
Computing on Phenotypic Descriptions for Candidate Gene Discovery and Crop Improvement. Casually talk about a plant in the field –> fancy math –> the plant’s genotype.
Data synthesis for crop variety evaluation. A review. Focus on ranking. Oh, to mash it up with the above.
Scenarios for Global Aquaculture and Its Role in Human Nutrition. For aquaculture to contribute to nutrition it needs enabling trade and economic policies. Well I never.

July 28, 2020July 28, 2020

Nibbles: Data storage, CG reform, Tequila, Seed saving trifecta, ROI, Jeremy

A Svalbard for data, in Svalbard.
IPES-Food critiques OneCGIAR as being insufficiently decentralized, context-specific, agroecological, and power-equitable.
Tequila FAQ. Probably need a shot after the above.
Seed saving made easy; maybe too easy.
The above, applied, in the Pacific.
The above, applied, everywhere.
The ROI of conservation. In situ only, alas.
Jeremy’s latest newsletter: Brazilian agribusiness, boycotts & slavery, cashew boom, peanut crash, Jay Rayner’s suggestions. Do subscribe.