Genetic diversity

August 6, 2025August 7, 2025

Tuber or not tuber

A paper in Cell has really caught the imagination of the media in the past few days. You wouldn’t necessarily be able to guess why from its title, though: “Ancient hybridization underlies tuberization and radiation of the potato lineage.” The reason for all the interest, I guess, is that the hybridization in question was between a potato ancestor with no tubers and a plant that was closer to a tomato. Yes, two genes from distant lineages, neither tuber-forming, combined by chance some 9 million years ago to produce the progenitor of all tuber-bearing potatoes, which then diversified as the Andes were uplifted and themselves diversified. Definitely worth the hoopla.

Jeremy also includes the paper in his latest newsletter.

July 22, 2025

Cock and bull stories of crop diversity

In his latest Eat This Newsletter, Jeremy deconstructs a paper on Tiggiano and Polignano heriloom carrots…

Culturally, each landrace is associated with a local patron saint, St Vitus in Polignano and St Ippazio in Tiggiano. Flavia Giordano notes that St Ippazio is “the protector of virility and male reproductive health, symbolically linked to the carrot’s elongated shape”. Which is odd, considering that all the commentary I’ve seen, including Flavia’s, agrees that Tiggiano carrots lose their turgidity very rapidly.

…and also points to an article about “the “Garlic Nerds” who are persuading garlic to reproduce sexually and then using the resulting seeds to develop new strains.” No word on the hairiness of said new strains.

July 8, 2025July 8, 2025

Brainfood: EcoregionsTreeFinder, Microbe niches, Herbarium phenology, Green Status Index of Species Recovery, Feral pigs, Trade & biodiversity, African cereal self-sufficiency, Plant protection, Ugandan seed systems, Grasspea breeding, Indigenous knowledge

EcoregionsTreeFinder—A Global Dataset Documenting the Abundance of Observations of > 45,000 Tree Species in 828 Terrestrial Ecoregions. The right native tree for your ecoregion of choice. Which, given lots of the stuff below, is good to know. Oh, and BTW, there’s also the Agroforestry Species Switchboard.
Modelling the distribution of plant-associated microbes with species distribution models. Would be cool to mash up with the above one day.
The promise of digital herbarium specimens in large-scale phenology research. Something else you can use herbarium specimens for, if you’re careful.
A global indicator of species recovery. The Green Status Index of Species Recovery, no less. Herbaria surely involved again.
Valorization of feral pigs in the tropics, from the genetic characterization to the re- domestication. Wish there was a Green Status Index of Breed Recovery.
Global staple food trade exacerbates biodiversity loss: a network perspective. Soybeans are messing with the Green Status Index of Species Recovery of lots of species, I suspect.
Prospects for cereal self-sufficiency in sub-Saharan Africa. Prospects for self-sufficiency are not bad, but will require yield increases if the Green Status Index of Species Recovery is not going to take a hit.
Protecting crops with plant diversity: Agroecological promises, socioeconomic lock-in, and political levers. Agroforestry and diverse landscapes are best for pest control, but cultivar mixtures are worth a try too. Wonder what they will do for cereal self-sufficiency in Africa. I lot, I bet, if given a chance.
The dynamics of crop diversity and seed use in the context of recurrent climate shocks and poverty: Seasonal panel data evidence from rural Uganda. Farmers use crop diversity to cope with climate change, and wealthy farmers do it better. Pest control too, maybe?
Understanding Farmer Preferences to Guide Crop Improvement: The Case of Grasspea in Ethiopia. Breeders should provide jam today and jam tomorrow.
Crop diversity trends captured by Indigenous and local knowledge: introduction to the symposium. Indigenous and local knowledge can help you keep track of all of the above.

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025

Brainfood: Rice breeding, Sorghum parents, Cowpea diversity, Sweet potato double, Lesser yam uses, Tomato breeding, Peanut hybrids, Rice wild relatives, Sorghum genetic erosion

Future flooding tolerant rice germplasm: Resilience afforded beyond Sub1A gene. You want to make rapid breeding progress? You need the “Transition from Trait to Environment” approach. As far as I can tell, this means that you fix your trait of interest in a pool of elite parents before using it in proper yield breeding.
Prioritizing parents from global genebanks to breed climate-resilient crops. Yeah but how do you find your trait of interest in the first place. You start with passport and genotyping data from genebank collections of course.
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) landraces in Mozambique and neighbouring Southern African countries harbour genetic loci with potential for climate adaptation. You see what I mean?
Genetic diversity and population structure of Colombian sweet potato genotypes reveal possible adaptations to specific environmental conditions. Ok, now do you see what I mean?
Genetic diversity analysis and duplicates identification of new sweetpotato accessions collected in China. Manage your duplicates though, right?
The lesser yam Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burkill: a neglected crop with high functional food potential. This doesn’t have decent collections, let alone duplicates.
Molecular screening of wild and cultivated tomato germplasm reveals potential materials for multi-locus disease resistance breeding. Again, thank goodness for genebanks — plural.
First report on trait segregation in F1 hybrids between the cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and the wild incompatible species A. glabrata Benth. I wonder if this could be used in tomato.
A blueprint for tapping the wild relatives for crop improvement: A success story of CWR-derived rice varieties, Nông Dân 1 and Nông Dân 2. No need for embryo rescue here. No word on the need for submergence tolerance.
Genetic diversity in in situ and ex situ collections of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] landraces. Diversity is still out there, at least in India. Which is great. But how would you know without genebanks? And you need genebanks for breeders to use it.
And to cap things off, a new occasional feature: A ChatGPT-generated one-sentence summary of the week’s Brainfood. “To breed crops for climate resilience and future food security, you need to systematically mine, manage, and mobilize the diversity stored in genebanks—especially landraces and wild relatives—and integrate it into elite breeding pipelines using smart, trait-targeted strategies.”

June 3, 2025June 3, 2025

Brainfood: Balanced diets, Diverse diets, Diverse flavonoids, Micronutrients and GHGE, African traditional diets, Tef diversity, Intercropping, Sleeping crops, Cluster bean, Taste

A framework for adequate nourishment: balancing nutrient density and food processing levels within the context of culturally and regionally appropriate diets. Some processing, but not too much. Some animal-source food, but not too much.
Diversity of Plant-Based Food Consumption: A Systematic Scoping Review on Measurement Tools and Associated Health Outcomes. And make the non-animal-source food diverse.
High diversity of dietary flavonoid intake is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and major chronic diseases. Make the flavonoids diverse too, while you’re at it.
Greenhouse gas emissions in relation to micronutrient intake and implications of energy intake: a comparative analysis of different modeling approaches. It’s unclear whether diets that deliver more (and more diverse?) micronutrient are worse for greenhouse gas emissions.
Africa’s contribution to global sustainable and healthy diets: a scoping review. African traditional diets are pretty healthy. I’m betting their greenhouse gas emissions are low and all.
Population genomics uncovers loci for trait improvement in the indigenous African cereal tef (Eragrostis tef). Which is not to say that traditional African crops could not be improved, healthwise.
Hidden potential of cluster bean: an unexploited legume crop for food and nutritional security. Or other underused traditional crops, for that matter.
Impacts of biodiversity-positive intercropping systems on food quality, safety and the consumer acceptance: A case study of intercropped wheat. What, the food needs to be intercropped too? Another tick for African diets.
The sleeping crops of eastern North America: a new synthesis. Traditional eastern North American crops, production systems and diets probably tick a bunch of boxes too. Awake, Cinderellas!
But does it taste good? A plea to consider the importance of flavor in managing plant genetic resources. None of the above matters, I suspect, if the stuff doesn’t taste good. I’m looking at you, teff and cluster bean.