In situ

March 16, 2020

Questioning the questioners

Farmer input is essential to tackling global challenges of climate change, rural poverty and nutrition. A new data collection tool aims to build the biggest open-access dataset of its kind for development and research.

That sounds great. Nice to see, in particular, clusters of survey questions on dietary diversity and wild foods.

But where are the questions on intraspecific crop diversity? Surely it’s interesting to ask farmers how many different landraces/varieties of each crop they grow? Am I missing something among the over 700 questions?

Ok, there’s an additional module on adoption of modern varieties. But is that really enough? Looking forward to hearing from my friends at the Alliance.

March 16, 2020March 16, 2020

Brainfood: Gap analysis, Faba re-collecting, Selfing, Perennials, Seed longevity, QMS, Fish cryo, Chicken domestication, Wheat evolution, Crossing over, Heat stress, Spinach, Mungbean, Wild chickpea, Satoyama

A gap analysis modelling framework to prioritize collecting for ex situ conservation of crop landraces. Kinda proud it only took me 30 years to get this done. For comparison, this is where we were 15 years ago. Seems like a lifetime. Well, a career.
Serendipitous In Situ Conservation of Faba Bean Landraces in Tunisia: A Case Study. Comparison between newly collected and genebank materials reveals overlap. The above is thus unnecessary. Life comes at you fast.
Why Self-fertilizing Plants Still Exist in Wild Populations: Diversity Assurance through Stress-Induced Male Sterility May Promote Selective Outcrossing and Recombination. Stress makes plants incels.
Roadmap for Accelerated Domestication of an Emerging Perennial Grain Crop. Instead of making wheat perennial, make a perennial wild relative of wheat domesticated.
An SNP based GWAS analysis of seed longevity in wheat. Could increase seed longevity by just over 10%. Hardly seems worth it.
Quality Management Practices of Gene Banks for Livestock: A Global Review. 30% of 90 genebanks have a QMS, 15 involving formal certification, but mainly for material entering, not leaving.
Cryopreservation of fish gametes: A remarkable tool for breeding conservation. No doubt QMS coming soon.
The wild species genome ancestry of domestic chickens. Not just Red Junglefowl, Charles.
Genome‐wide sequence information reveals recurrent hybridization among diploid wheat wild relatives. Kinda like chickens? No, not really, but almost.
Molecular and genetic bases of heat stress responses in crop plants and breeding for increased resilience and productivity. We’re this close. This close to a breakthrough, I tell you.
A review on the genetic resources, domestication and breeding history of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). Gonna need more wild relatives.
Mungbean Genetic Resources and Utilization. Gonna need more wild relatives.
Population genetic variability and distribution of the endangered Greek endemic Cicer graecum under climate change scenarios. Serendipity has its limits.
Counting on Crossovers: Controlled Recombination for Plant Breeding. Increasing recombination could be especially useful when doing crosses with wild relatives (see above).
Nature-oriented park use of satoyama ecosystems can enhance biodiversity conservation in urbanized landscapes. Abandoned satoyama can still do some good.

March 11, 2020March 11, 2020

Nibbles: Simran on Svalbard, Egyptian cotton, AgroecologyNow, Breeding trifecta, Rum, Potato double, Banana map, Climbing beans, Vegetable relatives, Cashew industry, Mongolian herders

Simran Sethi’s Svalbard speech. See everything below for other examples of the importance of agricultural biodiversity.
Egypt did not take good care of its cotton germplasm, and it went badly for them.
AgroecologyNow has regular updates. Great name, by the way.
Breeding for salt tolerance.
Breeding for photosynthetic rate.
Breeding as both science and art? Not entirely convincing, but ok.
Making the most of sugarcane. Yeah, you guessed it, rum. There’s certainly an art to that.
Not sure what brought on another humble-bragging potato piece, but I’m not complaining. Two pieces, in fact.
Hey, we’re going to have a world banana map soon. Yes, another one. But this one will be different…
Beans are climbing the list of important African crops. See what I did there?
Vegetables have wild relatives too.
Arizona has some interesting foods, old and new. Including vegetables.
Cashew is the new avocado.
Blockchain for Mongolian cashmere? I can’t rule it out.
Sorghum is set to take over the South. Of the US, that is.

March 9, 2020March 11, 2020

Brainfood: Squash diversity, Cryo, Wild wheat, Maize evolution, Yak genome, Flagships, Nutrient production, Bhutanese quinoa, USDA Sweetpotato, European GIAHS, Pulses, Apulian onions

Phylogeographic and population genetic analyses of Cucurbita moschata reveal divergence of two mitochondrial lineages linked to an elevational gradient. And nuclear genes show there’s a distinct population in Yucatan.
Advances in cryopreservation of in vitro-derived propagules: technologies and explant sources. Beyond shoot tips.
Characterization of two leaf rust-resistant Aegilops tauschii accessions for the synthetic wheat development. Hyper-resistant, no less.
The Genomic Basis for Short-Term Evolution of Environmental Adaptation in Maize. Adaptation of the phenology of tropical types to temperate conditions can happen quickly. So bring in those exotics, they’ll cope soon enough.
The sequence and de novo assembly of the wild yak genome. Let the intensive yak production systems proliferate.
Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum. Focusing on 500-odd charismatic mammals, birds and reptiles can account for 80-90% of the species that can be covered in an optimization not constrained by such flagships. But how many CWR? Or, looking at it from the other side, what if CWR were the flagships? Yeah, right, right?
Spatiotemporal trends in adequacy of dietary nutrient production and food sources. Global production can provide everyone with all nutrients except vitamin A, but 120 countries are not self-sufficient. Another way we’re all interdependent. But at least we have trade. Right?
First adaptation of quinoa in the Bhutanese mountain agriculture systems. Someone mention interdependence?
Phenotypic Variation in Leaf Morphology of the USDA, ARS Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) Germplasm Collection. Everything is Normal.
Characterization of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in Europe. They’re ok but there could be more.
Evaluation of pulse crops’ functional diversity supporting food production. Three groups of pulses: producers (biomass and seeds), competitors (against weeds) and fixers (N).
Assessment of Genetic Diversity of the “Acquaviva Red Onion” (Allium cepa L.) Apulian Landrace. It’s a well-defined variety that is noticeably sweeter than others.

March 3, 2020March 9, 2020

Nibbles: Seed systems, Rice landraces, Amazonian seeds, Pathogens, Domestication, Vavilovian mimicry, Mexican maize

The Resilient Seed Systems Shared Action Framework is out.
15 rice varieties are protected through Geographic Indication in India.
Kids’ book about native seeds.
Hacking the arms race between crops and pathogens.
Domestication entailed a change in adaptation from megafauna to people as dispersal agents. Here’s the correct link to the study.
Weed of rice became more rice-like due to hand weeding.
Maize is being abandoned in its heartland. And yet there are calls for a milpa in every home.