- 10MB worth of proceedings of the Barley Genetics Symposium from ICARDA.
- So, what will this CCAFS do anyway?
- Russia offers VIR to the world. Again.
- Adonis, Sappho and lettuce, all in one post.
- Modern science needs traditional knowledge. And a fish needs a bicycle.
- Global Crop Diversity Trust and Latin American genebanks team up to rescue another bunch of crops: coffee, tomatoes, chillies, beans, squash etc.
- The world’s smallest and rarest wild suid is cute enough, not as cute as pocket pigs.
Brainfood: Chia, Lentils, Bambara groundnut, Cacao, Amaranths, Rwanda, Cherimoya, Conservation, Drought, Plasticity, Phenology
- Extending the range of an ancient crop, Salvia hispanica L.—a new ω3 source. So we can grow it in the US, natch.
- Characterization of the lentil landrace Santo Stefano di Sessanio from Abruzzo, Italy. In the market, some are not what they claim to be; I’m shocked.
- Genetic diversity in Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) as revealed by phenotypic descriptors and DArT marker analysis. They’re pretty diverse, especially in Cameroon/Nigeria, which may be where they were domesticated.
- Genetic diversity and spatial structure in a new distinct Theobroma cacao L. population in Bolivia. They’re different from other cacao populations, and probably indigenous to Bolivia.
- Systematics and taxonomic delimitation of vegetable, grain and weed amaranths: a morphological and biochemical approach. Relationships? It’s complex.
- First and second millennium a.d. agriculture in Rwanda: archaeobotanical finds and radiocarbon dates from seven sites. Earliest pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) in the region, but do they really mean AD?
- The use of consecutive micrografting improves micropropagation of cherimoya (Annona cherimola Mill.) cultivars. It does, what more can I tell you?
- Social and ecological synergy: Local rulemaking, forest livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation. Big meta-analysis reveals complexity and the importance of participation by “local forest users.”
And here are a trio of rhyming couplets, if you see what I mean:
- The relative importance of drought and other water-related constraints for major food crops in South Asian farming systems. Drought and water constraints are widespread in South Asia. Though they contribute no more than 20-30% of current yield gaps, investment in genetic solutions needs to continue. Alas, there are significant Challenges in breeding for yield increase for drought. Nothing that can’t be overcome, though.
- Rethinking species’ ability to cope with rapid climate change. It’s the plasticity, stupid.
- Meta-analyses suggest strong selection on flowering phenology both in plants in general and in chickpea in particular.
Brainfood: Striga, Rice, Fish, Biofortification, Ecosystem functioning, Intercrops
OK, so we’re trying an experiment, siphoning off Nibbles about research, often in peer-reviewed journals, into their own hi-falutin’ cookie jar. We’ll probably publish once a week. And being here doesn’t mean we won’t revisit them later.
- Genetic diversity of a parasitic weed, Striga hermonthica, on sorghum and pearl millet in Mali. The parasite is diverse, but no differences in parasitized fields.
- Genetic differentiation among Sri Lankan traditional rice (Oryza sativa) varieties and wild rice species by AFLP markers. Four major clusters agree with morphology.
- Genetic variation in farmed populations of the gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata in Greece using microsatellite DNA markers. Farmed are less diverse and less heterozygous.
- Restoration of hay meadows on ex-arable land: commercial seed mixtures vs. spontaneous succession. No difference in long-term diversity, but there are other considerations.
- Bio-available zinc in rice seeds is increased by activation tagging of nicotianamine synthase. It works.
- Soil fauna alter the effects of litter composition on nitrogen cycling in a mineral soil. It’s complex; larger fauna affect N dynamics.
- Dry matter yield, nitrogen content, and competition in pea–cereal intercropping systems. Intercrops are more productive and deliver higher forage quality.
So what do you reckon? Is this worthwhile?
Heirloom seeds exposed
The New York Times carried a long article on heirloom seeds on Wednesday. It is both balanced and iconoclastic, but anyone reading in Europe, might, like me, have raised a metaphorical eyebrow at this paragraph:
But the “universities have basically shut down all their programs for home gardeners,” Mr. Gettle said. “Most plant breeders are owned by a few large seed companies. I wish they would develop more things for the home garden.”
You don’t get to be a large seed company by paying any attention to home gardeners who, in any case, say they want to be able to save their own seeds from year to year. Nevertheless, the NYT went on to talk about some of the backyard breeders and small, regional seed companies that are doing precisely that, developing varieties for home gardeners and smaller commercial growers. In the US, and many other places, the market determines what people can get. If the marketing claims made for heirlooms are sketchy, the New York Times will find people to say so. And if large seed companies are failing to satisfy some market segments, other suppliers can try to do better.
European growers and breeders still don’t have that luxury. Directives on conservation varieties do nothing to encourage future breeding efforts, they merely permit old varieties to be marketed under certain conditions. In England and Wales, at any rate, new varieties will still need to be formally listed on the Common Catalogue. As far as I know, the conservation directives so far have been implemented only in Ireland, ((Please correct me.)) and a report assessing the value of the directives, due in late 2010 or early 2011, has not surfaced either.
Anyone in Europe wishing to grow unregistered varieties — whatever their motivation, and no matter how misguided they may be — has to find other channels. Of which, I’m glad to say, there seems to be an increasing number.
Training manual for GIS analysis of agrobiodiversity data
Great to see “Training Manual on Spatial Analysis of Plant Diversity and Distribution” finally out, courtesy of Bioversity International. Well worth the wait, and not just because I get called a pioneer in it. Congratulations to Xavier Scheldeman and Maarten van Zonneveld for addressing a very important need.
This manual has been published as a result of the increasing number of requests received by Bioversity International for capacity building on the spatial analysis of biodiversity data. The authors have developed a set of step-by-step instructions, accompanied by a series of analyses, based on free and publically available software: DIVA-GIS, a GIS programme specifically designed to undertake spatial diversity analysis; and Maxent, a species distribution modelling programme. The manual does not aim to illustrate the use of each individual DIVA-GIS and Maxent command/option, but focuses on using GIS tools to help answer common questions relating to the spatial analysis of biodiversity data. Throughout the manual, the importance of proper sampling is stressed; however, it is beyond the scope of the document to elaborate on sampling theories. The manual also does not discuss the statistical analysis of diversity data in detail; instead, when statistical methods and programmes are mentioned in the text, the reader is referred to alternative reference materials for further information.