Category: Genetic diversity

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More on meta-analyzing diversity

You may remember a post a few days ago summarizing something of a milestone paper by Bioversity scientists and partners which analyzed ten years’ worth of data on the diversity of 27 crops on farms in 8 countries around the world. As you’ll see if you revisit the original post, there’s been interesting discussion of the paper in the comments section. But I’ve been engaging the writers by email as well and it might be worth recounting the gist of that conversation.

The main point, I guess, is that they consider the crux of the paper as not so much the discussion of how/why diversity is being maintained on farm, as the fact that the richness/evenness relationship makes it possible to estimate one from the other (though separately for different kinds of crops). They see this as establishing really quite a novel framework for discussing — and generating hypotheses about — crop diversity.

It seems to me the discussion has started already.

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Grape genomes galore

A little over six months ago researchers reported a high quality DNA sequence for the Pinot-Noir grape. ((Not, you will note, Merlot, which would have been way too easy.)) Now comes news that the USDA is planning to do a genetic analysis of more than 2000 additional grape varieties in its collection. These will not be full sequences. Rather, researchers will be looking for SNPs, ((Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, pronounced “snips”.)) places where the DNA sequence differs by just one letter between two individuals. These SNPs are most useful as markers that can be used to identify areas of the DNA that may harbour important traits. Breeders and researchers can use them to track the inheritance of specific traits; USDA singles out disease resistance and berry colour. And that will speed up the breeding of new grape varieties.

I know hardly anything about the world of grape breeding, but someone out there may be able to tell me: when was the most recent introduction of a newly bred variety that gained any traction within the world of wine-making? ((I’m told this type of question is called a bleg; using a blog to beg for an answer (not money).))

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Plants and health

Yes, yet another thematic trifecta. I swear I don’t go out looking for these, they just pop up every once in a while. CABI’s excellent blog had a piece today about CABI’s own fungal genetic resources collection and its value as a source of useful compounds. It includes Fleming’s original penicillin-producing strain so it does have form in that regard. Then Seeds Aside has a post on variation among olive varieties in a gene for an allergenic protein found on the pollen grain. And finally, over at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a thumbnail sketch of the redoubtable Phebe Lankester, who wrote extensively on both botany and health — and occasionally on the link between the two — in the latter part of the 19th century. ((Ann B. Shteir. (2004) “Lankester, Phebe (1825–1900).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58526, accessed 10 April 2008].))