- Simran Sethi’s Svalbard speech. See everything below for other examples of the importance of agricultural biodiversity.
- Egypt did not take good care of its cotton germplasm, and it went badly for them.
- AgroecologyNow has regular updates. Great name, by the way.
- Breeding for salt tolerance.
- Breeding for photosynthetic rate.
- Breeding as both science and art? Not entirely convincing, but ok.
- Making the most of sugarcane. Yeah, you guessed it, rum. There’s certainly an art to that.
- Not sure what brought on another humble-bragging potato piece, but I’m not complaining. Two pieces, in fact.
- Hey, we’re going to have a world banana map soon. Yes, another one. But this one will be different…
- Beans are climbing the list of important African crops. See what I did there?
- Vegetables have wild relatives too.
- Arizona has some interesting foods, old and new. Including vegetables.
- Cashew is the new avocado.
- Blockchain for Mongolian cashmere? I can’t rule it out.
- Sorghum is set to take over the South. Of the US, that is.
Genetic diversity indicators go wild
A little follow-up on my post from a few days back on the post-2020 biodiversity framework. A letter to Science suggests that the genetic level of variation is being neglected, in particular for wild species.
The post-2020 framework should explicitly commit to maintaining genetic diversity within all species and to implementing strategies to halt genetic erosion and preserve adaptive potential of populations of both wild and domesticated species. The framework should also define indicators of progress toward this goal. Such indicators could include collecting data on the number of species, populations, or metapopulations that are large enough to maintain genetic diversity as well as those that are not. A widely used measure in this context is the “genetically effective population size,” which quantifies the rate at which a population loses genetic variation. When the effective size is measured as 500 “ideal individuals,” the population is considered “genetically safe.” We therefore suggest monitoring the number of populations above and below the genetically effective size of 500. The effective size is assessed from genetic or demographic data and is usually much lower — by about an order of magnitude — than the total number of mature individuals. Another indicator could be the number of species or populations in which genetic diversity is being monitored by national agencies or universities using DNA-markers. A third indicator could be measuring rates of loss of distinct populations within species.
Interesting to see that the crop diversity conservation community is slightly ahead of the curve on this.
Panic in the air
Wide variety within the #Panicum collection held at #FutureSeeds, the new #genebank of the @BiovIntCIAT_eng. We are testing these materials (130 out of 400+) under several projects and programs #Red_de_Forrajes @SomosAGROSAVIA @Livestock_CGIAR #Grasstocash @giz_gmbh pic.twitter.com/WCRhuLvoVX
— Juan Andres Cardoso (@grass_scientist) March 10, 2020
500-odd accessions in the genebank in Cali, Colombia, according to Genesys, but alas only about 20 geo-referenced. Nice drone shot, though.
Brainfood: Squash diversity, Cryo, Wild wheat, Maize evolution, Yak genome, Flagships, Nutrient production, Bhutanese quinoa, USDA Sweetpotato, European GIAHS, Pulses, Apulian onions
- Phylogeographic and population genetic analyses of Cucurbita moschata reveal divergence of two mitochondrial lineages linked to an elevational gradient. And nuclear genes show there’s a distinct population in Yucatan.
- Advances in cryopreservation of in vitro-derived propagules: technologies and explant sources. Beyond shoot tips.
- Characterization of two leaf rust-resistant Aegilops tauschii accessions for the synthetic wheat development. Hyper-resistant, no less.
- The Genomic Basis for Short-Term Evolution of Environmental Adaptation in Maize. Adaptation of the phenology of tropical types to temperate conditions can happen quickly. So bring in those exotics, they’ll cope soon enough.
- The sequence and de novo assembly of the wild yak genome. Let the intensive yak production systems proliferate.
- Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum. Focusing on 500-odd charismatic mammals, birds and reptiles can account for 80-90% of the species that can be covered in an optimization not constrained by such flagships. But how many CWR? Or, looking at it from the other side, what if CWR were the flagships? Yeah, right, right?
- Spatiotemporal trends in adequacy of dietary nutrient production and food sources. Global production can provide everyone with all nutrients except vitamin A, but 120 countries are not self-sufficient. Another way we’re all interdependent. But at least we have trade. Right?
- First adaptation of quinoa in the Bhutanese mountain agriculture systems. Someone mention interdependence?
- Phenotypic Variation in Leaf Morphology of the USDA, ARS Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) Germplasm Collection. Everything is Normal.
- Characterization of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in Europe. They’re ok but there could be more.
- Evaluation of pulse crops’ functional diversity supporting food production. Three groups of pulses: producers (biomass and seeds), competitors (against weeds) and fixers (N).
- Assessment of Genetic Diversity of the “Acquaviva Red Onion” (Allium cepa L.) Apulian Landrace. It’s a well-defined variety that is noticeably sweeter than others.
Nibbles: Seed systems, Rice landraces, Amazonian seeds, Pathogens, Domestication, Vavilovian mimicry, Mexican maize
- The Resilient Seed Systems Shared Action Framework is out.
- 15 rice varieties are protected through Geographic Indication in India.
- Kids’ book about native seeds.
- Hacking the arms race between crops and pathogens.
- Domestication entailed a change in adaptation from megafauna to people as dispersal agents. Here’s the correct link to the study.
- Weed of rice became more rice-like due to hand weeding.
- Maize is being abandoned in its heartland. And yet there are calls for a milpa in every home.