- Global dispersal and adaptive evolution of domestic cattle: a genomic perspective. The scope of adaptation is pretty amazing, and has been aided by introgression from wild relatives.
- The genomic natural history of the aurochs. Which is just as well because the initial diversity of the domesticate was probably rather limited, at least in Europe.
- The Population History of Domestic Sheep Revealed by Paleogenomes. Early domesticated sheep genomes were pretty dynamic too, sometimes in parallel with shepherds and sometimes not.
- Late pre-Hispanic fog oasis settlements and long-term human occupation on the Peruvian central coast from satellite imagery. No cattle or sheep in pre-Hispanic lomas, but plenty of camelids and crops.
- American sweet potato and Asia-Pacific crop experimentation during early colonisation of temperate-climate Aotearoa/New Zealand. One of those crops was in Aotearoa by the 14th century, which is amazing.
- Musa species in mainland Southeast Asia: From wild to domesticate. Even the very wild species are affected by human use.
- Landscape genomics reveals genetic signals of environmental adaptation of African wild eggplants. Environment is not the main driver of selection, but still pretty important and thus useful in breeding. Kinda like cattle?
- Current status of global conservation and characterisation of wild and cultivated Brassicaceae genetic resources. Gotta conserve those wild relatives probably though, if they are to be used.
- Genome-wide assessment of genetic variation and population structure in cultivated vanilla from Madagascar. The results of a breeding programme 80 years ago involving wild relatives can be seen in the current structure of diversity.
Nibbles: Diverse diets double, WB nutrition, Biodiversity credits, European ag, Indigenous ag, Asparagus varieties, Kenya genebank, CGIAR genebanks, Svalbard, Sierra Leone genebank
- A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
- And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
- Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
- Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
- Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
- You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
- There’s diversity in asparagus too.
- Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
- Even big international genebanks.
- Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
- But some are in trouble.
- Though others are coming back.
The World Food Prize goes to genebankers
Well, it’s all over now, and very moving it was too. You can read about the 2024 World Food Prize laureates here, and also watch edited highlights of the ceremony.
Wonderful to see Cary and Geoff — and genebanks — properly recognized.
Me? I was taking pics of the agrobiodiversity.
More on the event from here.
The latest on the Carolina African Runner Peanut
Jeremy’s latest newsletter discusses the (partial) revival of the Carolina African Runner Peanut by chefs. We have blogged about that here on before, but this is a useful update.
Believe it or not, there are other food podcasts worth listening to. One of them is Gravy, produced by the Southern Foodways Alliance. Recently I listened to the episode America’s Lost Peanut and the Price of Bringing it Back and I have no hesitation in recommending you do the same. It explores both the delight chefs have found in that Lost Peanut and the difficulties in making the peanut available at a price that non-chefs can afford.
The Carolina Runner peanut first hit modern headlines at the tail end of 2016, when it was exciting enough for me to record a little rumination casting doubt on some of the wilder claims that surrounded its resurrection. I also wrote at some length about the history of the peanut and world affairs. I did not, however, foresee how hard it would be for the Carolina Runner to compete with Virginia peanuts (which have more than a drop of African peanut in their bloodlines). The episode of Gravy explains that the nuts currently have to be shelled by hand, unlike Virginia peanuts that can be fed into huge and expensive machines. A quick look around the internet showed a few hand-operated shellers; is it really that difficult to adapt one to work with Carolina Runners?
Brainfood: Beverage edition
- Crop-to-wild gene flow in wild coffee species: the case of Coffea canephora in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. DNA bits diagnostic of domesticated coffee are finding their way into wild rainforest populations, but not all that much.
- The genome and population genomics of allopolyploid Coffea arabica reveal the diversification history of modern coffee cultivars. Diversity was already pretty low in pre-domestication wild arabica, and continued going downhill after that. Time to re-synthesize the crop, I say.
- Beyond the Orthodoxy: An Overview of the Potential of ‘Other’ Coffee Species for Crop Use and their Associated Challenges. All well and good, but don’t forget there’s more to coffee than just arabica and robusta.
- Advancing Coffee Genetic Resource Conservation and Exchange: Global Perspectives and Strategies from the ICC 2024 Satellite Workshop. Time to properly secure all coffee diversity in genebanks, and that includes sorting out ABS.
- Expanding the cacao group: three new species of Theobroma sect. Herrania (Malvaceae: Byttnerioideae) from the Western Amazon Basin. Plenty of “other” cacao species too, and more coming.
- Seed morphometrics unravels the evolutionary history of grapevine in France. There was wild-domesticate geneflow in early grapevines in France as well as in robusta coffee in the DRC, and you don’t need to trace bits of DNA to prove it.
- Characterization and analysis of a Commiphora species germinated from an ancient seed suggests a possible connection to a species mentioned in the Bible. Thousand-year-old seed is a distinct and possibly long-lost species of myrrh. Which ok is not a beverage but still vaguely liquid, at least initially.
- Sesame, an Underutilized Oil Seed Crop: Breeding Achievements and Future Challenges. Ok, since we’re doing liquid-producing crops, let’s include this review of sesame improvement. Lots of wild species to use. No word on wild-domesticate geneflow though.