Genetic diversity

July 28, 2011July 29, 2011

Unlocking a presentation on unlocking agriculture’s past

The talk that Jacob is planning to give later today at the National Geographic store in Madrid (and you can follow online) is now available on Slideshare.

Unlocking Agriculture's Past

View more presentations from Jacob van Etten

LATER: I forgot to use a hashtag, but you can see my live-tweeting of Jacob’s talk by searching for his name. Maybe Jacob can tell us if the video will be available in due course. And no, he didn’t answer my online question about the difference between oca and potato. Wimp.

July 28, 2011August 31, 2011

Nibbles: Frogs, Sacred forests, Heirloom onions, Lobster, Przewalski’s horses, Marco Polo sheep

Eating frog legs is bad. France surrenders.
Oxford boffins to map world’s sacred forests.
Lafort onion: from the Wellesbourne genebank to Irish Seed Savers to urban kitchen garden.
Lobster 101.
A wild relative in trouble any way you slice it.
And one that gets around. Didn’t we blog about this before? Yep.

July 25, 2011July 22, 2011

Brainfood: Chinese landscapes, Agroforestry seed, Italian lentils, Carrot heterosis, Taro in islands, Indian wheat, AnGR ex situ, Woodland shrines, Vitamin A, Caraway, Adansonia, Neotropical blueberries, Yeast genetics, Rotations

Agricultural landscapes and biodiversity in China. Traditional farming practices good for biodiversity, modern bad. Therefore need intensification, to take pressure off natural habitats. But no, wait, that usually means monocultures and chemicals, which are bad. Oh crap. No mention of genebanks.
Innovation in input supply systems in smallholder agroforestry: seed sources, supply chains and support systems. Decentralized commercial system probably best for getting quality agroforestry seed to smallholders. Unfortunately, nobody listening.
Characterization of Italian lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) germplasm by agronomic traits, biochemical and molecular markers. I object in principle to any paper that says a particular landrace is “the best.”
The relationship between heterosis and genetic distances based on RAPD and AFLP markers in carrot. It is positive. Was this really not known before in carrots? What am I missing?
Genetic diversity of taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) in Vanuatu (Oceania): an appraisal of the distribution of allelic diversity (DAD) with SSR markers. 10 villages, 344 landraces, 324 distinct multilocus genotypes, genetic pattern reflects social networks. Situation in Andaman Islands not quite so interesting.
A study of genetic diversity among Indian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars released during last 100 years. More diversity after Green Revolution than before, but steadily decreasing.
Ex situ conservation genetics: a review of molecular studies on the genetic consequences of captive breeding programmes for endangered animal species. Restricted access, and you know what? I couldn’t care less.
Consequences of wooded shrine rituals on vegetation conservation in West Africa: a case study from the Bwaba cultural area (West Burkina Faso). I expect there are some, but with restricted access, what’s the point of even linking?
Evaluating sweet potato as an intervention food to prevent Vitamin A deficiency. To have an effect, you’d have to replace all the other types with orange-fleshed ones. Well, almost. Wonder whether it will be presented at the “International Scientific Symposium on Food & Nutrition Security Information: From valid measurement to effective decision-making” early next year.
Evaluation of variability of morphological traits of selected caraway (Carum carvi L.) genotypes. They’re actually breeding this stuff in Poland. But they had to get their germplasm from botanical gardens around Europe.
Variation in baobab seedling morphology and its implications for selecting superior planting material. There is some.
Edible Neotropical blueberries: antioxidant and compositional fingerprint analysis. The 5 species involved have different ones.
Population genomics and speciation in yeasts. There’s a question as to whether yeast species in fact exist in any meaningful sense.
Cereal–forage rotations effect on biochemical characteristics of topsoil and productivity of the crops in Mediterranean environment. Continuous cereal stressed the soil.

July 25, 2011July 25, 2011

Nibbles: IBC18, Sustainable intensification, Macadamia, Endangered turtle, Transgenic grass skirts

More on #IBC18 from AoB. Web 2.0 as it should be.
EurActive.com with massive dossier on sustainable intensification in Europe. Not much diversification there, though, except for intercropping.
Boffins look for wild macadamias with thinner shells for wimpy consumers. Well, not just that.
The ancient Maya mixed up their turtles.
Grass skirts latest GMO fear.

July 21, 2011July 21, 2011

Unlocking agriculture’s past to feed the future world

That’s the title of a talk our friend and occasional contributor Jacob van Etten will give in the National Geographic store in Madrid next week, on the 28th to be precise. If you can’t be there in person, you can follow Jacob online. And if that doesn’t work, no doubt he’ll tell us here how it all went. I just hope he explains to National Geographic the difference between a potato and an oca. In fact, why not open with that, Jacob? That’ll grab their attention.