- Large‐scale genome‐wide association study, using historical data, identifies conserved genetic architecture of cyanogenic glucoside content in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) root. Two loci explain about a third of variation in HCN content.
- Strategic use of Iranian bread wheat landrace accessions for genetic improvement: Core set formulation and validation. Not much structure, but some accessions are good for multiple traits.
- Population studies of the wild tomato species Solanum chilense reveal geographically structured major gene-mediated pathogen resistance. Not all populations of a crop wild relatives will be equally useful in breeding.
- Genetic diversity of Ethiopian sorghum reveals signatures of climatic adaptation. 12 sub-populations, with about 10% of the variation explained by either agroecology or geography.
- Common bean SNP alleles and candidate genes affecting photosynthesis under contrasting water regimes. And all in just 158 Portuguese accessions.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Algerian Endemic Plant Species Avena macrostachya Bal. ex Cross. et Durieu. Collecting sites need to be visited again. I can vouch that doing so would be very interesting.
- Conservation priorities for African Vigna species: Unveiling Angola’s diversity hotspots. It’s a huge collecting gap.
- Remote sensing enabled essential biodiversity variables for biodiversity assessment and monitoring: technological advancement and potentials. The Remote Sensing enabled Essential Biodiversity Variables are a work in progress. Would like to see it applied to those Vignas.
- Genomic consequences of apple improvement. …are relative genetic uniformity.
- Genome-Wide DArTSeq Genotyping and Phenotypic Based Assessment of Within and Among Accessions Diversity and Effective Sample Size in the Diverse Sorghum, Pearl Millet, and Pigeonpea Landraces. Optimal sample size for regeneration of genebank accessions varies from 50-200 among crops.
- Not so robust: Robusta coffee production is highly sensitive to temperature. Looking at historical production data from 800 farms in SE Asia suggests optimal temperature is below 20°C, a lot lower than suggested by the species’ home range in the Congo Basin.
- Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE. Bronze Age Levantines ate bananas and soya, according to dental calculus. No word on coffee.
- Archaeological Central American maize genomes suggest ancient gene flow from South America. Pre-domesticated maize was taken to South America, where is was finished off away from introgression from pesky wild relatives, and then taken back home.
- Fruits of the Veld: Ecological and Socioeconomic Patterns of Natural Resource Use across South Africa. South Africans collect and eat a lot of wild fruits, but could plant and eat them more.
- Exploring the Biodiversity of Red Yeasts for In Vitro and In Vivo Phenotypes Relevant to Agri-Food-Related Processes. Which is interesting because they can delay food spoilage and also provide nutritional supplements. Though personally I’d prefer veld fruits.
Brainfood: Topical forages, Ne, Pearl millet nutrition, Sorghum strategy, Tillering rice, Exchanging wheat, Recollecting wheat, Yeast domestication, Amazonian maize, Synthesizing groundnut, Strawberry dispersal, Soya structure, Remote change, Green Revolution, Unintended consequences
- Tropical forage technologies can deliver multiple benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa. A meta-analysis. Including improved germplasm, which had on average 2.6 times higher herbage productivity than local controls.
- Effective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees. Which is good because you can estimate it fairly easily. Well, kinda. It’s important because it’s one of the Genetic diversity targets and indicators proposed for the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
- Exploring the genetic variability and diversity of pearl millet core collection germplasm for grain nutritional traits improvement. 15 of 212 accessions are good for multiple nutrients.
- Global Status of Sorghum Genetic Resources Conservation. The two biggest collections are updating their data.
- Genomic basis of geographical adaptation to soil nitrogen in rice. Rice lost high tillering in high N conditions, but can get it back to cope with low N conditions.
- The Economic Impact of Exchanging Breeding Material: Assessing Winter Wheat Production in Germany. It really pays for breeders to exchange material.
- Comparative analysis of the gene pool structure of Triticum aethiopicum wheat accessions conserved ex situ and recollected in fields after 85 years. Vavilov’s collections are more diverse.
- Evidence for Two Main Domestication Trajectories in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Linked to Distinct Bread-Making Processes. Being adapted for industrial and artisanal baking respectively.
- Entrelaçado, a rare maize race conserved in Southwestern Amazonia. Gap-filling pays off. Hope we can re-collect it in 85 years’ time.
- ValSten: a new wild species derived allotetraploid for increasing genetic diversity of the peanut crop (Arachis hypogaea L.). Playing God with peanuts.
- Long-distance dispersal of the beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, from North America to Chile and Hawaii. For the birds.
- Genetic architecture of wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.) populations originating from different East Asian regions. At least 3 separate groups, and the collection stored in Korea is pretty representative.
- Supporting habitat conservation with automated change detection in Google Earth Engine. Fancy math can detect land use change quickly and accurately.
- Health Impacts of the Green Revolution: Evidence from 600,000 births across the Developing World. Modern varieties reduced infant mortality by 2.4–5.3 percentage points (from 18%), with stronger effects for male infants and among poor households. Why we do all of the above?
- Articulating the effect of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals. Yeah, not so fast…
Brainfood: WCR, Parasites, Wild tomato, Wild olive, MAGIC, ART cooking, Payments for conservation, ICARDA barley, Canary barley, Enset, Mexican relicts, Data management, Bumblebee map
- Resistance and Tolerance to Root Herbivory in Maize Were Mediated by Domestication, Spread, and Breeding. Domestication and spread decreased maize resistance to Western corn rootworm, but breeding increased it.
- Does genetic diversity protect host populations from parasites? A meta‐analysis across natural and agricultural systems. Yes, but it depends. Western corn rootworm unavailable for comment.
- Genome of Solanum pimpinellifolium provides insights into structural variants during tomato breeding. Lots of variants in regulatory genes for agronomic traits, compared to domesticated lines.
- Genomic evidence for recurrent genetic admixture during the domestication of Mediterranean olive trees (Olea europaea L.). There was a domestication bottleneck back in the day, but that was almost wiped out by later repeated introgression from the wild relative as the crop spread. So quite different from the above maize and tomato cases?
- Multi-parent populations in crops: a toolbox integrating genomics and genetic mapping with breeding. Not just good for QTL mapping any more, but you need a whole package of stuff for them to be useful to breeding programmes.
- Current uses of Andean Roots and Tuber Crops in South American gourmet restaurants. None of the chefs interviewed knew of mauka, but it’s not their fault.
- Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services: An overview of Latin American experiences, lessons learned and upscaling challenges. Conserving in situ 100 varieties on 5 hectares each would cost US$70,000 p.a. Maybe useful for mauka? But will chefs pay?
- Genetic and agro-morphological diversity in global barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) collection at ICARDA. Under heat stress, though, which is the important bit left out of the title. Unclear if any of the material was from the Canaries (see below), but I can find out if anyone’s interested. Come to think of it, I’m kinda interested myself…
- An Evolutionary Approach to the History of Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Cultivation in the Canary Islands. You can apparently infer historical extents of cultivation on different islands in the archipelago, as well as the timing of separation of populations, which is pretty amazing. No word on representation in rock art though (see below).
- Enset (Ensete ventricosum) and the Archaeology of Southwestern Ethiopia. Information comes mainly from megalithic and rock art sites, which is pretty amazing. No word on genetic relationships, at least in this paper. Do you need me to link to previous Brainfoods on enset? No, of course you don’t, you know how to search the archive. You just put your lips together, and
whistleblow (kudos to whoever quotes the reference in the comments first). - Relict Plant Communities at Prehispanic Sites in Oaxaca, Mexico: Historical Implications. Ancient native Mexicans really liked succulents around their settlements. Well, who wouldn’t, when all is said and done?
- To clean or not to clean: Cleaning open‐source data improves extinction risk assessments for threatened plant species. Clean. Always clean. And then clean again.
- Global Patterns and Drivers of Bee Distribution. Hope they cleaned the data or this unusual double-humped diversity pattern could be in trouble, and that would be a pity.
Nibbles: Tea podcast double, African soil map, Chinese seeds
- Tea, anyone? Jeremy delves into how Brits made tea, and vice versa.
- More tea? Lawrie Taylor looks at the dark side.
- Want to know what the soil is like on African tea farms? Try iSDAsoil. Let the mashing up with crop accession locality data begin…
- Want to know what happened to those other seeds that came out of China?
Brainfood: Extension, Wheat adoption, Bean ideotypes, Chilli evaluation, Rice domestication, Mungbeans from space, Biodiversity accounting, Cassava futures, Maize haplotypes, Heterosis, Cryo
- Does it matter who advises farmers? Pest management choices with public and private extension. Yes, at least in Switzerland. Public = prevention, private = cure. Well colour me surprised.
- Ethiopia’s transforming wheat landscape: tracking variety use through DNA fingerprinting. Only 28% of farmers correctly named their wheat varieties, many of which were from CGIAR breeding programmes.
- Analysis of the Similarity between in Silico Ideotypes and Phenotypic Profiles to Support Cultivar Recommendation—A Case Study on Phaseolus vulgaris L. Italian farmers not great at keeping track of new varieties either, but who needs names when you have fancy maths?
- Morphological, Sensorial and Chemical Characterization of Chilli Peppers (Capsicum spp.) from the CATIE Genebank. From 192 accessions to this little beauty from Panama.
- Two divergent chloroplast genome sequence clades captured in the domesticated rice gene pool may have significance for rice production. Rice is from Mars, rice is from two Venuses.
- Identification of Mung Bean in a Smallholder Farming Setting of Coastal South Asia Using Manned Aircraft Photography and Sentinel-2 Images. From 10-m imagery for pity’s sake! Amazing stuff. Soon we’ll be able to distinguish landraces from modern varieties, right? Right?
- Linking biodiversity into national economic accounting. Yikes, biodiversity makes no contribution to agricultural development at all?
- High sink strength prevents photosynthetic down-regulation in cassava grown at elevated CO2 concentration. Could result in higher yields, but effect will vary among varieties.
- Discovery of beneficial haplotypes for complex traits in maize landraces. Landrace diversity for early plant development, robustness and growth form that could be useful in Europe made accessible.
- Understanding the classics: the unifying concepts of transgressive segregation, inbreeding depression and heterosis and their central relevance for crop breeding. It’s the dispersion of favorable alleles between parents.
- Challenges and Prospects for the Conservation of Crop Genetic Resources in Field Genebanks, in In Vitro Collections and/or in Liquid Nitrogen. Everything that can be in cryo should be in cryo, and some things that currently can’t too.