Genetic diversity

December 17, 2011December 20, 2011

Mining the minerals in cowpea

In the wake of recent news of successes in biofortifying root and tuber crops like sweet potato and cassava, it is as well to remind ourselves that grains also provide micronutrients, ((Having written that, of course another reminder immediately appeared.)) and a paper in Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization does a good job of just that for the somewhat neglected cowpea. ((Boukar, O., Massawe, F., Muranaka, S., Franco, J., Maziya-Dixon, B., Singh, B., & Fatokun, C. (2011). Evaluation of cowpea germplasm lines for protein and mineral concentrations in grains Plant Genetic Resources, 9 (04), 515-522 DOI: 10.1017/S1479262111000815))

The authors assessed 1541 accessions from the IITA genebank for the crude protein, Fe, Zn, Ca, Mg, K and P content of the grains. They found fairly wide diversity, but recognized some 9 groups of accessions within which the nutrient profiles were relatively similar. The “best” 50 accessions belonged to only three of these groups, and seven of the best 10 accessions to just one group. While admitting that “increased mineral content in the grains does not guarantee increased nutrient status for the consumer,” they concluded that

…members of some groups such as G5 and G9, which included TVu-2723, TVu-3638 and TVu-2508, would be potential sources of genes for enhancing protein and mineral concentrations in improved cowpea varieties. These lines would therefore be selected and used in crossing for generating segregating populations from where selections can be made for newly developed nutrient-dense cowpea varieties.

It may be the subject of another paper, but what Ousmane Boukar and his co-authors do not do in this one is investigate whether groups G5 and G9, which as I say are based on mineral composition, also hang together morphologically or geographically. Here’s the geographical distribution of the IITA collection, based on data in Genesys (you’ll see it better if you click on it):

The top 10 accessions in fact come from Benin, India (2), Mali, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, the US (3) and Zaire, so the latter is probably unlikely. Unfortunately, only the Mali and Benin accessions are georeferenced, but look at the nighbourhood of one of them, TVu-8810 from Benin, shown here in red:

Worth collecting a bit more around the village of Borgou?

December 13, 2011December 13, 2011

Nibbles: Cannabis, Biochar, Hessian fly, Conference, Anti-conference, Mexican seeds

Plant domain name changes hands for “high” price.
Biochar reduces emissions of greenhouse gases from glacial soils. Probably cures dandruff too.
We love resistance to wheat hessian fly, as an example of the value of agricultural biodiversity. Now it gets really interesting.
18th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference, University of Hull. h/t CAPRi Deadline for submissions is Thursday! Hurry!
But wait! “‘Sustainable Development’ Is Often Used Gratuitously”.
Local seed saving in Mexico.

December 11, 2011December 15, 2011

Nibbles: Brand new tool, Baseline, Orange cassava, Food non-crisis, ILRI on the frontline, WorldFish

In recognition of the fact that I’ve spent the past week at CIMMYT up to my ears in the CGIAR, an all-CGIAR edition!

CCAFS unleashes hell. Well, Climate Analogues anyway. No, wait…
How does CCAFS measure impact anayway? Well, by documenting progress in adaptation relative to a baseline, of course. What I want to know is how the baseline captures within-crop diversity.
Meanwhile, HarvestPlus is having another impact of its own. Well, I guess we’ll really have to wait for the health studies to be sure, but anyway.
And speaking of impact, IFPRI now says that surveys show that the food crisis was not really a crisis for the poor, where simulations say it was. Now what?
ILRI remembers the visit of Angela Merkel, and, probably unrelatedly, discovers the joys of fermentation.
WorldFish got a brand new website. Does Climate Analogues work for fish?

December 6, 2011December 6, 2011

Tracking down White Park cattle

This call for information from Lawrence Alderson at Rare Breeds International just came through on DAD-Net. Minus the link, which I’ve added. Can anyone help?

The White Park is an ancient British breed of cattle. It was recorded at Dynevwr in the reign of Rhodri Fawr at least 1,150 years ago, and anecdotally maybe 1,000 years earlier than that. It is a distinctive long-horned animal, porcelain white with coloured points except for the tail which is white. It now is valued as a heritage breed, noted for its high-quality marbled beef and its efficiency of conversion of coarse herbage. It is endangered but has been exported to several countries including USA, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Germany.

A current project coordinated by Rare Breeds International is studying the degree of divergence between national populations. It already has demonstrated that descendants of cattle exported 50 years ago still have the same DNA profile as the current population in UK. In the course of this research RBI has discovered references in the twentieth century (1930s to 1990s) to White Park animals (also referred to as Park or English Park, and Ancient White Park in North America) in several zoological gardens in Europe, including Copenhagen, Prague, Riga, London and Berlin. We are interested to pursue further this thread of research to explore the possibility that the White Park was found more widely in zoological gardens. We request anyone with relevant information to contact RBI at rbisecretariat@mail.com and will be most grateful for your assistance.

December 5, 2011December 5, 2011

Brainfood: Early farmers, Ecological restoration, IPRs, Soil bacterial diversity, Perenniality, Carrot diversity, Earthworm mapping

Ancient DNA from an Early Neolithic Iberian population supports a pioneer colonization by first farmers. People, not just crops, moved.
Genetic consequences of using seed mixtures in restoration: A case study of a wetland plant Lychnis flos-cuculi. After a few generations of use for seed production, it’s best to abandon ex situ stocks and go back to the wild populations.
Creative Commons licenses and the non-commercial condition: Implications for the re-use of biodiversity information. It’s complicated. I wonder if the multi-headed hounds who guard the gates to GBDBH are aware of this. Here’s a blog post.
Is diversification history of maize influencing selection of soil bacteria by roots? Kinda.
A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2012. Perennial cereals make the cut.
How pristine are tropical forests? An ecological perspective on the pre-Columbian human footprint in Amazonia and implications for contemporary conservation. It doesn’t matter.
Genetic diversity of carrot (Daucus carota L.) cultivars revealed by analysis of SSR loci. Western and Asian groups, the latter more diverse, because of landraces. But 88 accessions does seem a bit few. And no wilds.
Mapping of earthworm distribution for the British Isles and Eire highlights the under-recording of an ecologically important group. 28 species! But many gaps. No diversity map. Will send them DIVA-GIS for Christmas.