- Rust continues to never sleep.
- The discussion of whether there were coconuts on the Pacific coast of Panama prior to the Conquista continues on the Coconut Google Group.
- ICARDA and CIMMYT continue to love the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
- Climate change continues to be implicated in past societal collapses.
- NPR continues to plug those millets.
- Cautionary tale of Vavilov and Lysenko continues to be told, thankfully.
- The rise and rise of the drone continues. See what I did there?
- The relentless popular culture journey of citrus continues.
- And that of argan begins.
Brainfood: Cotton domestication, Niche modelling, Finger millet double, Bird flu, Lake Chad millet, USDA Ethiopian sorghum, Phast phenotyping, Corchorus genomes
- Genome-wide divergence, haplotype distribution and population demographic histories for Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense as revealed by genome-anchored SNPs. Parallel domestication.
- Integrating species distribution modelling into decision-making to inform conservation actions. You need really nice maps.
- Establishing a core collection of finger millet (Eleusine coracana [L.] Gaertn.) ex situ holdings of the Ethiopian genebank. Particularly interesting for the discussion of what to do with the core, now that it exists.
- Characterization of Some Ex Situ Conserved Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.[/efn_note] Germplasm Accessions in Sri Lanka. Unlike this one.
- Global mapping of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 and H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4 viruses with spatial cross-validation. It’s the intensively raised chickens.
- Unexpected pattern of pearl millet genetic diversity among ethno-linguistic groups in the Lake Chad Basin. Different linguistic groups have genetically distinct pearl millet, but only on the western side of the lake.
- Genomic characterization of a core set of the USDA-NPGS Ethiopian sorghum germplasm collection: implications for germplasm conservation, evaluation, and utilization in crop improvement. 7,217 accessions from Ethiopia, 374 in the core subset, representing 11 highly admixed and very diverse populations.
- High-throughput phenotyping and QTL mapping reveals the genetic architecture of maize plant growth. Brave new world.
- Comparative genomics of two jute species and insight into fibre biogenesis. There are a few but interesting genetic differences between the 2 species of Corchorus cultivated for fibre. No word on the differences between fibre and vegetable varieties, if any.
Brainfood: Managing seeds, Botanical gardens, Potato genomics, Marketing Amazonian fruits, Camel diversity, Potato mineral diversity, Turkish cats, Göbekli Tepe, Kuznets curve
- SeedUSoon: A New Software Program to Improve Seed Stock Management and Plant Line Exchanges between Research Laboratories. Great name.
- Building a Global System for the conservation and use of all plant diversity. Botanical gardens learning from crop genebanks?
- Understanding potato with the help of genomics. Crop genebank learning from genomics.
- What are the socioeconomic implications of the value chain of biodiversity products? A case study in Northeastern Brazil. Two Amazonian fruits, very different markets.
- Weak Genetic Structure in Northern African Dromedary Camels Reflects Their Unique Evolutionary History. Severe bottlenecks and long-distance movement makes for quite a genetic mess.
- Genetic variation for tuber mineral concentrations in accessions of the Commonwealth Potato Collection. Is considerable, and might be useful in breeding. I’m shocked.
- The Domestic Livestock Resources of Turkey: Social Aspects, Genetic Resources and Conservation of Companion Animal Cats (Felis Catus). The nondescript cats are not in danger.
- Feasting, Social Complexity, and the Emergence of the Early Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia: A View from Göbekli Tepe. Agriculture as a result of religious feasting. No word on the role of cats.
- Economic Development and Forest Cover: Evidence from Satellite Data. More money = more deforestation.
Filipino rice landraces documented
Congratulations to all concerned for the launch of the catalogue of Philippine Traditional Rice Varieties. I’m reliably informed it will be available online soon. In the meantime, I’ve had the privilege of consulting a PDF, and I can confirm that it is really as cool as it sounds.
Nibbles: Trees on farms, Biodiversity hotspots, Coconuts, Banana genebank, Fiddleheads, Hybrid wheat, Buckler prize, ITPGRFA hatchet job
- Trees are good for African farmers.
- A basic universal income for people in biodiversity hotspots. Agrobiodiversity hotspots too?
- Coconut History 101.
- 30 years of bananas in Belgium.
- Eat up all your fiddleheads.
- Hybrid wheat is coming at last.
- Ed Buckler wins big. Unclear if he’ll be allowed to tweet about it.
- Nonsense piece on the ITPGRFA.