Genetic diversity – Page 113 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

Wheat landraces get together

As part of the 1st International Conference of Wheat Landraces for Healthy Food Systems, the local host is planning a field day that would showcase a variety of wheat landraces, including those sent in by conference participants.

Another nice idea.

Hen Gymro "old Welsh" landrace wheat on a trip to Italy for #ICWL18 #IWLC18 #landraces #anciengrains https://t.co/rdpRffavN9 for @Brockwell_Bake & @WelshGrain , Andrew @scotlandbread & Eyal @e5bakehouse checking how it has travelled, looking good. pic.twitter.com/kFEniNFqIr

— Brockwell Bake (@Brockwell_Bake) June 15, 2018

Nibbles: Phenotyping drones, Citrus history, Potato museum, Mango database, Florilege, Endicott Pear, Landrace booze, Neolithic Revolution, Easy mapping

Breeding grass while high. Probably not what you’re thinking.
When life gives you ancient lemons.
Potato Museum gets new website.
Mango gets a database.
So do France’s genebanks.
The oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America? I think not, but interesting nevertheless.
Whiskey goes heirloom.
Excerpt from Spencer Wells’ Pandora’s Seed on the Neolithic Revolution.
Our occasional contributor Robert Hijmans sings the praises of mapping with R.

June 11, 2018June 11, 2018

Brainfood: Sustainable Brazil, Epigenetic variation, Global conservation, Rice nutrition, Austronesian societies, Saharan domestication, GM wheat, Smallholders, Bos introgression

Sustainable diet from the urban Brazilian consumer perspective. Healthiness, basically.
Comparison of the Relative Potential for Epigenetic and Genetic Variation To Contribute to Trait Stability. Genetic >> epigenetic.
Global mismatch of policy and research on drivers of biodiversity loss. Except for climate change.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels this century will alter the protein, micronutrients, and vitamin content of rice grains with potential health consequences for the poorest rice-dependent countries. And not in a good way. But some variation among varieties = breeding opportunity?
Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy. Among Austronesian-speaking societies, no evidence that agricultural intensification drives social complexity; if anything, it’s the other way around.
Plant behaviour from human imprints and the cultivation of wild cereals in Holocene Sahara. Weediness has been good to humans in the past.
Gene Flow in Genetically Modified Wheat. Would probably only be a problem within fields.
How much of the world’s food do smallholders produce? FAO: 70%. New paper: 30-34%.
Pervasive introgression facilitated domestication and adaptation in the Bos species complex. Miscegenation has been rampant.

June 4, 2018June 5, 2018

Brainfood: Cassava domestication, Phylogenomics review, Flavour breeding, Anticolonialism, Arid beet, Arid Vigna, Arid maize, ABS double, Trout stem cells

Patterns of nuclear and chloroplast genetic diversity and structure of manioc along major Brazilian Amazonian rivers. No structure related to river basins. Separate histories for sweet and bitter types, with the sweet domesticated and spreading first.
Practical considerations for plant phylogenomics. Use the right tool for the job.
The genetics of fruit flavour preferences. Here’s a “molecular roadmap to flavour improvement,” breeders. Now go crazy.
Beyond Culinary Colonialism: Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Liberal Multiculturalism, and the Control of Gastronomic Capital. Multiculturalism is incompatible with food sovereignty.
Predicting genotypes environmental range from genome‐environment associations. Fraction of aridity-associated alleles in wild beet could accurately predict adaptation to aridity in independent set of cultivated individuals.
Diversity of drought tolerance in the genus Vigna. No word on genotypes. But wilds more tolerant of drought in Vigna too.
Identification of Drought, Heat, and Combined Drought and Heat Tolerant Donors in Maize. Only 2 out of 300 inbreds are resistant to both drought and heat. No word on how teosinte does.
Benefit sharing mechanisms for agricultural genetic diversity use and in-situ conservation. Show me the money.
The Nagoya Protocol could backfire on the Global South. It’s not just about the money.
Invasion of a legume ecosystem engineer in a cold biome alters plant biodiversity. Biosafety first.
Interspecific germ cell transplantation: a new light in the conservation of valuable Balkan trout genetic resources? Maybe.

May 28, 2018May 16, 2018

Brainfood: Cassava breeding, Teosinte gaps, Arabidopsis and CC, Urban pineapple, Minnesota apples, European CWR, Spiderplant review, British condiments, Yeast diversity, Diversity & productivity

Toward improving photosynthesis in cassava: Characterizing photosynthetic limitations in four current African cultivars. The landraces are better at photosynthesis than the improved cultivars. Maybe because the aim of producing the latter was pest and disease resistance rather than yield.
Ecogeography of teosinte. Only 11% in protected areas.
A map of climate change-driven natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana. Summer is coming.
Urban backyards as a new model of pineapple germplasm conservation. Two thirds of citizen scientists did a really good job.
Identification of unknown apple (Malus × domestica) cultivars demonstrates the impact of local breeding program on cultivar diversity. 330 unknown highly diverse trees in northern Minnesota, 264 unique genotypes, 76 matched to 20 named cultivars from local breeding program at the University of Minnesota, or imported Russian cultivars.
Development of national crop wild relative conservation strategies in European countries. 30 countries: 13 in preparation stage, 14 with drafts, and 3 not yet started.
Current knowledge and breeding perspectives for the spider plant (Cleome gynandra L.): a potential for enhanced breeding of the plant in Africa. I actually like the bitterness of the leaves.
Condiments before Claudius: new plant foods at the Late Iron Age oppidum at Silchester, UK. Benefits of a customs union, I guess.
Adaptation of S. cerevisiae to Fermented Food Environments Reveals Remarkable Genome Plasticity and the Footprints of Domestication. Genetics linked to lifestyle differences.
Plant spectral diversity integrates functional and phylogenetic components of biodiversity and predicts ecosystem function. About 50% of variation in productivity in the Cedar Creek biodiversity experiment explained by spectral diversity.

1. What’s wrong with supermarkets.
2. Cate Blanchett on the Millennium Seed Bank. Attitude to supermarkets unknown.
3. Access & Benefit Sharing 101. Cate Blanchett unavailable for comment.
4. Experts weigh in on how we should change how we eat. Nobody but Cate Blanchett will listen, but supermarkets and seeds feature, for what it’s worth.
5. How they ate in the Middle Ages without supermarkets. Or at least harvested.
6. After we’re done with medieval haymaking, let’s bring back the aurochs too. And put it in a supermarket?
7. Yeah but what is a breed anyway? Or an aurochs, for that matter.
Published on September 9, 2025