Genetic diversity

January 29, 2011January 28, 2011

Agrobiodiversity conservation going mainstream?

I don’t know about you, but I’m surprised when, on the same day mind you, the Costa Rica News has a piece about a new citrus genebank at CATIE and Balkans.com an article about the genetic relationship between Turkish and Hungarian apricot cultivars. Pleasantly surprised.

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011

Nibbles: Indigenous Peoples, Bananas, Ants

Got something to say to the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples? Call for Sessions.
“[B]anana variety diversity contributes positively to reducing yield losses caused by biophysical constraints.” IFPRI paper, so you know you can believe it.
Weaver ants drafted to protect African fruit and nut crops. Again.

January 19, 2011January 19, 2011

Nibbles: IK, Fragaria, Citrus, Millet breeding, Vitis, Agricultural biodiversity, Satellite imagery, Subsistence

Indigenous knowledge of agrobiodiversity makes the news in Indonesia.
Reconstructing the strawberry.
And reconstructing the history of cultivated citrus fruits.
ICRISAT millet breeders get an a new toy.
Plenty of diversity in the cultivated grape still. And it’s going to need it.
Biodiversity (and agrobiodiversity?) needed for farm productivity. Well I never! But more mixed results available too. What’s a poor boy to think?
SPOT 5 imagery can be used to identify crops. In Texas. But in Tanzania?
Agricultural biodiversity and subsistence traditions, Part 2. In the Ozarks. But in Omo? (And here’s Part 1.)

January 17, 2011January 17, 2011

The Genomics of Genebanks Workshop at PAG deconstructed

Greg Baute has a post up at his blog on the Genomics of Genebanks Workshop held last week at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference. Interesting observations on core collections, comparing past genebank collections to current diversity in the field, and the role of crop wild relatives in breeding. I particularly liked Cameron Peace’s advice on how to get the most from collections of wild relatives of fruit trees. Maybe we’ll hear more about that at Davis in March.

January 13, 2011January 13, 2011

Of cattle and people. And barley

Dienekes, a blogger who specializes in molecular anthropology, has a quick note today on a paper on the molecular genetics of cattle in Europe. The main story is one of distinction between North and South.

Apparently, the expansion of the dairy breeds have created, or largely maintained, a sharp genetic contrast of northern and southern Europe, which divides both France and Germany. It may be hypothesised that the northern landscapes, with large flat meadows, are suitable for large-scale farming with specialised dairy cattle (Niederungsvieh, lowland cattle), whilst the mixed-purpose or beef cattle (Höhenvieh, highland cattle) are better suited to the smaller farms and hilly regions of the south. However, it is also remarkable that in both France and Germany the bovine genetic boundary coincides with historic linguistic and cultural boundaries. In France, the Frankish invasion in the north created the difference between the northern langue d’oïl and the southern langue d’oc. The German language is still divided into the southern Hochdeutsch and northern Niederdeutsch dialects, which also correlates with the distribution of the Catholic and Protestant religions. On a larger scale, it is tempting to speculate that the difference between two types of European cattle reflects, and has even reinforced, the traditional and still visible contrast of Roman and Germanic Europe.

It doesn’t seem that the strong latitudinal genetic differentiation in cattle is matched by one in human populations. Here the pattern is much more gradual and clinal. ((Maybe there’s more interbreeding among human populations than between cattle breeds?)) However, there may be a similar “sharp genetic contrast of northern and southern Europe” (or at least between the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe) for barley. ((Yeah, I know it’s an old paper, but it’s the only map of barley genetic diversity in Europe I could find online at short notice. No doubt our readers will send in better examples.))

I’d dearly love to have the time to find out whether other livestock and crops show a similar pattern.