- An insular in situ Coffea arabica resource from Rapa Nui (Easter Island): SSR uniformity and biochemical evaluation of material consistent with the Typica lineage. Coffee growing on remote Rapa Nui appears to represent a remarkably uniform population closely related to the historic Typica lineage. Not diverse doesn’t necessarily mean not interesting.
- Farmer knowledge, management practices, and seed morphological diversity of sword bean (Canavalia gladiata) in Côte d’Ivoire. Growers recognize, manage and maintain morphological variation in sword bean, a legume that could be more utilized.
- Consistency of farmer-named sweet potato cultivars and their physicochemical and color differentiation within a production region. While local naming systems are generally meaningful, they don’t always map perfectly onto measurable physicochemical and colour traits.
- Harnessing the Genetic Diversity of the Colombian Central Collection of Potatoes to Dissect Pigmentation Genomics in Andigenum Landraces. Colombia’s collection helps explain colourful potatoes.
- Novel food ingredients from Cyperus rotundus: an ancient famine food and the world’s most pernicious weed comes back to the table. One of the world’s most notorious weeds may also be an overlooked food crop, and a potential source of novel food ingredients. An opportunity weed?
- Market remoteness and the production–diet association in smallholder food systems: Evidence from rural Nepal. Growing a diverse range of crops does not always translate into a more diverse diet. In Nepal, the relationship depends strongly on market access, highlighting the importance of infrastructure alongside agricultural diversification. Ok, forget the nut grass then, at least far from markets.
- Pollinators support the nutrition and income of vulnerable communities. Pollinator diversity makes important contributions to both dietary quality and household incomes among vulnerable communities.
- Seed ageing increases the influence of native microorganisms on germination. As seeds deteriorate, their naturally associated microorganisms play an increasingly important role in determining whether they successfully germinate. Of course microorganism diversity had to get a look-in too.
A brief history of gap analysis for crop diversity conservation
Many thanks to long-time friend-of-the-blog Dr Colin Khoury for this latest contribution.
Conservation gap analysis using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools relies on several sources of biological and environmental data, including in situ species occurrences and climatic and other environmental variables used to conduct species distribution modeling, as well as passport data from ex situ collections. While species distribution modeling and associated methods had been in development since at least the 1970s (see Rebelo, 1994 and Booth et al., 2013), the widespread use of these tools was not possible until such biological and environmental data were more easily and widely accessible, for example through GBIF, WorldClim, and Genesys.
Genebank scientists, often in collaboration with academic researchers, began to apply available GIS-based tools to PGRFA conservation around the turn of the century, proceeding to develop new methods, software, and datasets (for early examples, see Guarino, 1995; Greene and Guarino, 1999; Guarino et al., 2002). Global climate datasets were compiled at relatively high spatial resolution (e.g., Hijmans et al., 2005), providing key inputs for species distribution modeling. Current distribution models for plant genetic resources began to be calculated, for example for wild relatives of potatoes and peanuts, while future distributions under climate change also began to be modeled, for example for wild peanuts, potatoes, and cowpeas. Field collecting was informed through these tools, for example for wild clover and wild chile pepper expeditions.
The focus on wild relatives of food and agricultural crops was not haphazard. These species were receiving increasing conservation attention at the time in recognition of their value as genetic resources for crop breeding, and because many wild relatives were known to be threatened in their natural habitats and were underrepresented in ex situ repositories. International conservation targets for crop wild relatives had been set at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (for 2011 to 2020 and again for 2020 to 2030) and in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (for 2015 to 2030). At the same time, species distribution modeling methods had primarily been developed for wild species, i.e. taxa whose distributions are mainly driven by climatic, edaphic, and other environmental factors, rather than human preferences (which are more difficult to model), therefore the application of these methods to crop wild relatives was relatively straightforward and a logical starting point for the agricultural research community.
Programs such as DIVA-GIS and FloraMap were created to make the methods more accessible to researchers and practitioners without extensive GIS experience and computing power. Such efforts continue, for example by CAPFITOGEN.
Through an international genebank initiative called the Global Public Goods Project II, run from 2007-2010, the distributions of the wild relatives of ten CGIAR mandate crops were mapped, with priorities for further collecting for ex situ conservation identified. A major milestone of that project was the publication of a standardized, replicable gap analysis methodology for the ex situ conservation of crop wild relatives, which made use of herbarium and other biodiversity observations acquired through GBIF and other sources, as well as genebank passport data, and which embraced recent advancements in species distribution modeling methods.
Continue reading “A brief history of gap analysis for crop diversity conservation”
Nibbles: Kenyan crops, Omani mangoes, Wheat mixtures, Wagyu origins
- Kenyan farmers are rediscovering indigenous crops.
- Oman discovers it has lots of mango diversity, and moves to conserve it.
- Swedish student discovering varietal mixtures.
- Discover how a locally adapted cattle population in Japan became a globally recognized premium brand by maintaining distinctive genetic and breeding characteristics. Lessons there for all of the above perhaps?
Brainfood: Animal genetic resources
- Beyond the binary: Queer inclusion and invisible labour in Samoa’s fisheries value chains. Fisheries in Samoa depend on significant but largely unrecognized labour by LGBTQ+ people, particularly fa’afafine and fa’afatama, whose contributions are overlooked by policies based on rigid gender categories.
- Genetic and morphological diversity of indigenous chicken of Kenya: A Review. Kenya’s indigenous chickens are adapted to diverse environments, resilient to disease, and important for rural livelihoods.
- Uncovering the lives of rock doves (Columba livia) in Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus. Rock doves lived alongside people in a major Late Bronze Age port city, revealing a more complex relationship than simple domestication in which doves exploited urban environments while providing food and other resources.
- Farmed Escapees Threaten MHC Diversity in Wild Atlantic Salmon. Escaped farmed Atlantic salmon can erode the diversity of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes in wild populations through interbreeding, which could reduce the long-term resilience and adaptability of wild salmon.
- Creation of intermuscular bone-free genetic mutants in grass carp and multiomics reveals molecular regulatory basis. Genome editing was used to produce grass carp lacking the numerous fine intermuscular bones that reduce consumer appeal, opening new possibilities for breeding more marketable fish while deepening understanding of skeletal biology.
Nibbles: Cayman coconuts, Wild beans, Breeding Bambara, Aussie genebank, UAE law, EBI, Amazonian ag
- The Cayman Islands bets on a genebank of coconut diversity.
- The Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT’s genebank bets on growth cabinets to save picky wild bean.
- IITA bets on stakeholders to build a better Bambara groundnut. And its genebank, presumably.
- The Australian Seed Bank Partnership bets on, well, seeds.
- The UAE bets on a PGRFA law.
- Ethiopia bet on a national genebank 50 years ago.
- People have been betting on the chagra in the Amazon for 4,500 years.