- Collecting and regenerating populations of the Allium ampeloprasum complex from Greece. There’s some good news, and some bad news.
- Genomic prediction models trained with historical records enable populating the German ex situ genebank bio-digital resource center of barley (Hordeum sp.) with information on resistances to soilborne barley mosaic viruses. Good news if you want to get usable data on genebank accession from old experiments.
- Using Genome-Wide Predictions to Assess the Phenotypic Variation of a Barley (Hordeum sp.) Gene Bank Collection for Important Agronomic Traits and Passport Information. Good news if you thought the above was good news.
- Reproductive compatibility in Capsicum is not necessarily reflected in genetic or phenotypic similarity between species complexes. Bad news for the genepool concept.
- Trends in Varietal Diversity of Main Staple Crops in Asia and Africa and Implications for Sustainable Food Systems. Bad news, especially for Asia, if you like to see diversity on farm.
- Broadening the genetic base of cultivated chickpea following introgression of wild Cicer species-progress, constraints and prospects. Good news if you like to see diversity in chickpea breeding.
- DeepCob: Precise and high-throughput analysis of maize cob geometry using deep learning with an application in genebank phenomics. Great news if you’ve got a whole bunch of maize cobs to measure.
- Demonstration of local adaptation of maize landraces by reciprocal transplantation. Good news if you think landraces are locally adapted.
- Exaptation Traits for Megafaunal Mutualisms as a Factor in Plant Domestication. Good news if you want to learn a new word. Fascinating stuff, all kidding apart.
- Morphological and reproductive characterization of nascent allotetraploids cross-compatible with cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.). Good news if you like the idea of re-running domestication and there’s no suitable megafauna available.
- Parallel and Intertwining Threads of Domestication in Allopolyploid Cotton. Good news if you’re interested in the domestication, spread, and introgression of the 2 New World cottons.
- Can public universities play a role in fostering seed sovereignty? The good news is the answer is yes.
- Ecosystem integrity is neither real nor valuable. The good news is this may be a straw man. Interesting argument, though.
- Prospects and limitations of genomic offset in conservation management. Good news if you abandon the concept of ecosystem integrity.
- Higher yields and more biodiversity on smaller farms. Good news if you still think small is beautiful.
- Do small food businesses enable small farms to connect to regional food systems? Evidence from 9 European regions. More good news for small farms.
- Global Legal Constraints: How the International System Fails Small-Scale Farmers and Agricultural Biodiversity, Harming Human and Planetary Health, and What to Do About It. Bad news for the agri-food-industrial complex, come the revolution.
Nibbles: Honeybees, Jeremy on farro, PNG ag origins, Filipino rice, Overproduction
- The myth of honeybee extinction in the wild.
- Myths about farro.
- The myth of agricultural determinism.
- The myth of landrace uselessness.
- The greatest myth of all?
Nibbles: Real farming, Ancient farming, Organic farming, Open farming, Innovative farming, African maize farming
- Colin Tudge and Jeremy rethink agriculture.
- Wait, so it’s not about producing an energy surplus?
- Maybe the rethink can include Seed Ambassadors?
- Seeds4All is quite the thought.
- Who needs a rethink when there’s a whole book on how plant breeding can contribute to sustainable agriculture?
- Well, it can certainly pay off, at least money-wise. But does that need a rethink?
Plants and humans under the microscope
I may have already blogged about the Plant Humanities Lab, but almost certainly not enough. It really is very cool.
Easiest way to learn about it is to read this Twitter thread from Alex Humphreys.
These two modes of behavior drove the design of the site.
Guided tours became the site's Plant Narratives. Unguided exploration became the Plant Search. Let's take each in turn. Plant Narratives first. 6/x pic.twitter.com/qqQZWJrV1y— Alex Humphreys (@abhumphreys) April 1, 2021
Here’s the ThreadReader version if you don’t want to sully yourself on Twitter.
Brainfood: Chinese pig breeds, Benin wild fruit, Wild lettuce, Sugarbeet breeding, Teosinte introgression, Peach genome, Wild chickpea, Garlic metabolites, CWR seeds, Macadamia genotyping, Banana database, Indigenous foodways
- Identifying the unique characteristics of the Chinese indigenous pig breeds in the Yangtze River Delta region for precise conservation. Genotyping shows which pig breeds are best.
- Diversity in tree and fruit traits of Strychnos spinosa Lam. along a climatic gradient in Benin: a step towards domestication. Phenotyping shows which fruit populations are best.
- Lactuca georgica, a new wild source of resistance to downy mildew: comparative study to other wild lettuce relatives. Phenotyping shows which lettuce species are best.
- Genetic diversity is enhanced in Wild × Cultivated hybrids of sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris L.) despite multiple selection cycles for cultivated traits. Genotyping shows cultivated x wild sugarbeet hybrids are best.
- Selective sorting of ancestral introgression in maize and teosinte along an elevational cline. Genotyping shows where cultivated x wild maize hybrids do best.
- Genomic analyses provide insights into peach local adaptation and responses to climate change. Genotyping shows which peach genes are best.
- Identification of Novel Sources of Resistance to Ascochyta Blight in a Collection of Wild Cicer Accessions. Genotyping and phenotyping shows which wild chickpea populations are best.
- Comprehensive Metabolite Profiling in Genetic Resources of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Collected from Different Geographical Regions. Metabotyping shows which geographic regions are best for garlic.
- Fertile Crescent crop progenitors gained a competitive advantage from large seedlings. Seed phenotyping shows which grasses were best for domestication.
- Comparison of long-read methods for sequencing and assembly of a plant genome. Genotyping shows which genotyping is the best.
- A digital catalog of high‐density markers for banana germplasm collections. Genotyping shows which banana genebank accessions are best.
- “The Old Foods Are the New Foods!”: Erosion and Revitalization of Indigenous Food Systems in Northwestern North America. Who needs genotyping and phenotyping anyway?