I’m not sure if I agree with the assertion, but this is a really nice poster.
Brainfood: Conserving rice, Cypriot olives, Bambara groundnut bioactives, Chinese spuds, Ancient pastoralism, Epigenetics, Diverse rice systems, Detecting evolution, CWR & pollution, VAM, Bacterial taxonomy
- Securing Diversity for Food Security: The Case of Conservation and Use of Rice Genetic Resources. Great achievements, but “… 95% of the rice genepool remains untapped and unexploited in rice improvement.”
- Characterization and Identification of Indigenous Olive Germplasm from Cyprus Using Morphological and Simple Sequence Repeat Markers. 125 trees, 32 accessions, 16 genotypes, 3 groups.
- Quantification of Selected Anti-nutrients and Bioactive Compounds in African Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.). Nothing to worry about, but if you insist on worrying, try the cream-coloured ones.
- DNA Fingerprinting and Genetic Diversity Analysis with Simple Sequence Repeat Markers of 217 Potato Cultivars (Solanum tuberosum L.) in China. Cultivars released since 1950 have a narrow genetic base.
- Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara. What have pastoralists ever done for us?
- Epigenetic Diversity and Application to Breeding. Some epigenetic differences can be inherited independently of genetic differences. But how to use it?
- Complex rice systems to improve rice yield and yield stability in the face of variable weather conditions. The more azolla, fish and ducks the better.
- Can plants evolve to meet a changing climate? Yes, and we can detect it: the potential of field experimental evolution studies.
- Wheat’s wild relatives vary in their response to nitrogen and ozone. In situ populations may be at risk.
- Little evidence that farmers should consider abundance or diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi when managing crops. One less thing to worry about? Ok, one fewer thing to worry about.
- Exclusivity offers a sound yet practical species criterion for bacteria despite abundant gene flow. Taxa do exist if you take the whole genome into account.
Rooting for the tubers
Oh gosh, I forgot all about this.
You can watch the whole thing on livestream. And of course there’s a hashtag.
Good to see the usually neglected yams getting a proper airing.
Bhattacharjee Ranjana @IITA_CGIAR @RTB_CGIAR is exploring yam genetic diversity and sharing key results for more effective breeding programs #ISTRC2018 pic.twitter.com/pNulUPZ2FE
— Claudio Proietti (@cldprtb) October 23, 2018
Nibbles: ITPGRFA, CIMMYT, VIR, Livestock & CC, Vesuvius, Apple pie, Biobanking
- The Plant Treaty tries to enhance itself: the story so far.
- CIMMYT gets a podcast. Here’s one on blue maize.
- The Vavilov collection put to good use. Again.
- “Cow farts cause more climate change than cars.” Not really. Here comes the science, by way of a Twitter thread, of all things.
- The Pompeii eruption: August, or October? Here comes the archaeobotany, among other things, by way of a Twitter thread, of all things.
- It was World Apple Day or somesuch, so here’s two canonical feel-good heirloom apple stories.
- Fancy an open-access special issue of Biopreservation and Biobanking? Too nerdy? It’s on agricultural genebanks… Yeah, I thought you might.
Brainfood: Wild palm, Yield trends, Indigenous veggies double, Old goat grass, Saline soy, Carob history, Pesticidal plants, Rapeseed diversity, Livestock positives, Domestication syndrome, Kiwifruit evolution, Forest diversity
- Genetic structure of the Canarian palm tree (Phoenix canariensis) at the island scale: does the “island within islands” concept apply to species with high colonization abilities? High dispersal ability doesn’t always lead to high connectivity among populations.
- Uncertainties of potentials and recent changes in global yields of major crops resulting from census- and satellite-based yield datasets at multiple resolutions. Average overall annual yield increases of about 1.5% for maize, rice, wheat and soybean for 1981 to 2008 are uncertain and probably not sufficient.
- Indigenous underutilized vegetables for food and nutritional security in an island ecosystem. People in the the Andaman and Nicobar Islands eat a lot of different vegetables. Interestingly, most are perennial and a quarter are wild.
- Knowledge Loss and Change Between 2002 and 2017—a Revisit of Plant Use of the Maasai of Sekenani Valley, Maasai Mara, Kenya. But for how long will the above be true?
- Use of grass seed resources c.31 ka by modern humans at the Haua Fteah cave, northeast Libya. Including wild wheat relative(s).
- Soybean PI 675847 A as a new source of salt tolerance. But it can’t be the only one, surely?
- The carob tree at the crossroad of domestication center and refugia hypotheses. Out of the west, surprisingly.
- Pesticidal Plant Extracts Improve Yield and Reduce Insect Pests on Legume Crops Without Harming Beneficial Arthropods. Worth a try.
- Genome-wide selection footprints and deleterious variations in young Asian allotetraploid rapeseed. Asian rapeseed derived from European, diverged, introgressed, split into 2 groups.
- Essential amino acids: master regulators of nutrition and environmental footprint? If you take essential amino acids into account, livestock production doesn’t seem such a bad idea after all.
- Parallel selection on a dormancy gene during domestication of crops from multiple families. Cloned soybean dormancy gene also showed evidence of selection during domestication in rice and tomato.
- Two Likely Auto-Tetraploidization Events Shaped Kiwifruit Genome and Contributed to Establishment of the Actinidiaceae Family. And you can thank them for the high vitamin C content.
- Hydraulic diversity of forests regulates ecosystem resilience during drought. More diverse forests better at coping with dry spells.