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].))
Meta-analyzing diversity
If you’ve just arrived from Tangled Bank, welcome. And be aware that there’s a follow-up post.
A couple of meta-analyses on the menu today.
Devra Jarvis and Bioversity International colleagues, together with numerous co-authors from national programmes around the world, have a paper in PNAS summarizing the results of a 10-year effort to establish the scientific bases of on-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity. ((Jarvis, D.I., Brown, A.H., Cuong, P.H., Collado-Panduro, L., Latournerie-Moreno, L., Gyawali, S., Tanto, T., Sawadogo, M., Mar, I., Sadiki, M., Hue, N.T., Arias-Reyes, L., Balma, D., Bajracharya, J., Castillo, F., Rijal, D., Belqadi, L., Rana, R., Saidi, S., Ouedraogo, J., Zangre, R., Rhrib, K., Chavez, J.L., Schoen, D., Sthapit, B., Santis, P.D., Fadda, C., Hodgkin, T. (2008). A global perspective of the richness and evenness of traditional crop-variety diversity maintained by farming communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0800607105))
Varietal diversity ((The unit of analysis was the farmer-recognized and named variety.)) data on 27 crops grown on 64,000 ha by 2,041 households in 26 communities in 8 countries on 5 continents were pulled together in a stunning feat of synthesis. Are any generalizations possible from such a massive dataset? Well, perhaps surprisingly, yes. Let me pick out the highlights:
- Households growing traditional varieties generally grow more than one (1.38-4.25).
- Households within a community tend to grow somewhat different sets of traditional varieties.
- Larger fields generally have more traditional varieties, but smaller fields tend to be more different in varietal composition.
There’s much more to this rich analysis than that, but the take-home message can be pretty easily stated: crop genetic diversity can still be found on-farm because even neighbouring families choose to grow different traditional varieties, and generally more than one. Especially families tending smaller fields, who will presumably be poorer and living in more marginal conditions. The conoscenti will recognize a familiar meta-narrative, but it is good to have solid data from a wide range of crops and from all over the world.
The next paper I want to talk about looked at genetic diversity in wild clonal species as it relates to their breeding system. ((Honnay, O., Jacquemyn, H. (2008). A meta-analysis of the relation between mating system, growth form and genotypic diversity in clonal plant species. Evolutionary Ecology, 22(3), 299-312. DOI: 10.1007/s10682-007-9202-8))
Summarizing 72 genetic diversity studies, including of a couple of crop relatives, the authors found that populations of self-incompatible clonal species tended to have fewer genotypes, more unequally distributed (i.e., with a few dominant clones), than populations of self-compatible clonal species. It would be interesting to see if this relationship is also present in vegetatively propagated crops. I don’t think the previous dataset would help with that, however. Only two clonal crops were included in the on-farm analysis, cassava and taro. Interestingly, they had the highest average levels of community-level varietal richness (33) compared to seed-propagated species.
Nibbles: cats, pulses, cherries
- The World Cat Congress is on. Hipsters hanging out, smoking dope, listening to jazz, I imagine. Very select, though.
- Canadian boffins evaluate nutritional differences among pulse cultivars. Regular readers recognize leitmotif.
- Celebrity chefs try to save British cherry orchards. Madame Ranevskaya happy to hear it.
More spud news than anyone needs
Today’s crop of heartwarming potato stories come to you from Peru, the Philippines and India. First, Living in Peru has a fluff piece about how Peruvians are not eating enough potatoes, and that something must be done about it. It also says that “Peru has 2,800 of the 3,900 varieties of potatoes that exist in the world today.” I have no idea where they got those figures, whether they are close to the truth, or whether we even know the truth. But I’ll try to dig a little deeper and report back.
Then comes the Philippines Information Authority with news that a new potato variety is to be released in that country, bearing the name of the president. How sweet. The article says that the “original planting material was sourced” from the International Potato Centre (CIP), and previously had the codename “13.1.1”. The variety is blight-resistant and high in solids, and is supposed to be good for organic conditions. Now, it would have been interesting to know a little more about 13.1.1, but some rapid checking revealed nothing. Again, I will dig further.
And finally, news from India that a local farmer’s son, who went to the US for training in plant physiology and pathology, has now come back and set up a tissue culture lab on the family farm. Now that’s what I call technology transfer. But you wonder what kind of a farmer the father is. Not your typical Indian farmer, I’ll wager.
Heritage Roundup
Rebsie Fairholm at Daughter of the Soil has a long post about Association Kokopelli, the French outfit fined for unfair practices because they dared to sell seeds of varieties that their customers actually wanted. ((In some small way I prompted the post, which is nice.)) Rebsie gives some of the history and some of the delights of Association Kokopelli, and suggests various ways in which people can support them. She also raises the spectre of Kokopelli going under again, and of the many varieties they have and make available going extinct.
People who have varieties from Kokopelli can certainly swap them, as suggested. But I’m wondering about a couple of other ideas. First, is there any chance that the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard would accept a black box safety duplicate collection from Kokopelli? Possibly not. But then, what is the extent of duplication between Kokopelli’s list and the list of Seed Savers Exchange. I have no idea. But I do know that SSE’s list is fully computerized, and I would hope that Kokopelli’s is too. First order of business, then, would be to ensure that SSE has all of Kokopelli’s material.
Of course, names are a tad tricky. They always are. Rebsie asks, “Where else but Association Kokopelli can you get Venus’ Nipple tomatoes?”. That depends. Might Venus’ Nipple be the same as Teton de Venus? I doubt it, but you never know. Here in Italy a breast is often una tetta. Not too far from that to Teton. Or is it? Ot it might be plain Venus, which in Europe is available at Vent Marin. And I found that through Tomodori, which seems to aggregate tomato seed offerings from around the web.
One of the beauties of SSE is that seed savers and gardeners can use the autumn catalog to order direct from one another. What makes this possible is the size of the catchment area. The vast majority of SSE members live in the US, and they can use US postage stamps to send out their seeds. That makes life very simple. Europe needs a postal union to make a continent-wide exchange workable. Until then, all we can do is encourage gardeners and seed savers everywhere to swap varieties, keep good records and, in Rebsie’s words:
Sow your heirloom seeds with pride and raise two fingers to the EU seed legislation and the big bloated corporations who feed off it.
P.S. In other heirloom news, Chef Robert shares his love of raddichio, while Rebecca Pastor continues Becky and the Beanstock, an examination of heirloom beans.
P:P:S: Olives and Artichokes, a blog by some transplants from Wales to southwest France, also comments on Kokopelli.