History

April 13, 2021April 13, 2021

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.

April 5, 2021April 3, 2021

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?

March 30, 2021

Nibbles: Superfoods, Value chains book, North American ag origins, Origins of beer, Community seed banks, Seed diversity

What’s the next global “superfood”? Most likely it’s the next local “superfood”. Jeremy interviews economist Trent Blare.
And here’s a book that expands on that podcast.
Speaking of podcasts, here’s one that dissects the Eastern Agricultural Complex, at least in the last 20 mins. The rest is informative and fun too, though. Spoiler alert: it’s the food storage. Any superfoods in there though?
Always fun to read about the history of beer.
Project on community genebanks launched by government genebank.
Seeds of all sizes and shapes in genebanks.

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021

Brainfood: On farm, Barahnaja, Vegetable landraces, Okra core, Carrot breeding, Soybean breeding, Afghan wheat, Phytochemistry, Cassava diversity, Dietary diversity double, Pollination trade

On-Farm Crop Diversity for Advancing Food Security and Nutrition. Lots of solid context, plus fun and unusual boxes on fe’i bananas, African greens and Vietnam seed clubs.
Mainstreaming Barahnaja cultivation for food and nutritional security in the Himalayan region. Could be another box in the above.
Vegetable Landraces: The “Gene Banks” for Traditional Farmers and Future Breeding Programs. Unusual way to put it, but you can see what they mean.
The World Vegetable Center Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) Core Collection as a Source for Flooding Stress Tolerance Traits for Breeding. It’s the longer vegetative phase that possibly helps with flooding tolerance.
Strategies to Identify and Introgress Production and Quality Traits from Genetic Resources to Elite Carrot Cultivars. But maybe it’s not core collections that you need.
Genomic dissection of widely planted soybean cultivars leads to a new breeding strategy of crops in the post-genomic era. Here’s another core collection, this time of popular cultivars rather than landraces, as a basis for a strategy called Potalaization which seems to amount to starting your breeding programme with a wide genetic base.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Analysis of Triticum aestivum L. Landrace Panel from Afghanistan. You could select a core collections based on ecogeography. Mainly.
Spatial and evolutionary predictability of phytochemical diversity. Interestingly, the same goes for phytochemical diversity in Swiss grasslands.
DNA fingerprinting reveals varietal composition of Vietnamese cassava germplasm (Manihot esculenta Crantz) from farmers’ field and genebank collections. From 1570 clones to 31 unique genotypes. No need for a core collection then.
Dietary diversity of rural Indonesian households declines over time with agricultural production diversity even as incomes rise. Indonesians need to go back to growing more vegetables. See some of the previous papers for examples. You’re welcome.
The interplay between food market access and farm household dietary diversity in low and middle income countries: A systematic review of literature. Or their market access could be improved, though it’s unclear whether that would improve their diets.
Virtual pollination trade uncovers global dependence on biodiversity of developing countries.
Many diets depend on other people’s pollinators, though.

March 23, 2021March 23, 2021

Genebanks on the air

Field, Lab, Earth, the podcast of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America has a couple of episodes out on the history of crop diversity conservation. The first is an interview with Dr Helen Anne Curry on genebanks.

And the second is a talk entitled “Varietal Timelines and Leadership Challenges Affecting the Legacy of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov” with Dr Joel Cohen. It’s freely available until 5 April.