- 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.)) 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.
Issues in Agricultural Biodiversity series
An important announcement from Danny Hunter and Michael Halewood of Bioversity.
Since publication of the first book back in 2010 the ‘Issues in Agricultural Biodiversity’ series has grown steadily. We continue to receive encouraging feedback and it is clear that for many in the agrobiodiversity community it is one of the ‘go to’ sources for information. As we move into 2017, we now have our tenth book title in the pipeline and we are hopeful it will be published later in the year to mark this landmark achievement. Ten titles in any book series is a reasonable achievement. But we don’t want to stop there. We want for the series to continue to grow and especially to expand its scope to other still neglected (from the series perspective) elements of agrobiodiversity, including new titles which demonstrate and explore more interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches to the topic and which have much resonance in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
The series is a partnership between Bioversity International and Earthscan from Routledge. One of the advantages of publishing in the series through this partnership is we have an agreement that all books become freely available and open access after 9 months in hard copy.
With the beginning of a new year we would like to renew our call for new proposals. We are interested in proposals which address gaps in the current list of titles and are innovative in scope. These could address the following topics but we are open to all relevant and reasonable suggestions:
- Agrobiodiversity and climate change
- Agrobiodiversity and nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions
- Wild foods, seasonality and food security
- Livestock and animal genetic resources
- Fish, aquatic genetic resources
- Soil biodiversity
- Forests and tree genetic resources and non-timber forest products
- Diverse agricultural systems, biodiversity and ecosystem services
- Indigenous Peoples/Indigenous knowledge systems and agricultural biodiversity
- Agrobiodiversity, human health and wellbeing
- Agrobiodiversity, policy, access and benefit sharing
- Promoting diversity in food systems: Interdisciplinary and cross sectoral approaches
- Biodiversity, food cultures, gastronomy movements and sustainable food tourism
- Diversifying food procurement and school feeding, sustainable and healthy food sourcing
- Agrobiodiversity and sustainable consumption
- Markets for diverse species
- Agrobiodiversity and short supply chains
- Innovative planning and policies for agrobiodiversity-rich sustainable food systems
- Gender and agricultural biodiversity
- Urban-rural, city-regions and the role of agricultural biodiversity
- Agrobiodiversity and integrated landscape approaches
We warmly welcome your suggestions. If you have any questions just drop us a line. Finally, please do share this call as widely as possibly with your networks, colleagues and friends.
For anyone seeking further information please contact Danny Hunter (d_DOT_hunter_AT_cgiar_DOT_org) or Michael Halewood (m_DOT_halewood_AT_cgiar_DOT_org) at Bioversity International.
Nibbles: Coffee & chocolate redux, American Indian food, Crop seed size, Oca breeding club, Black chicken, Deadly lychees, Arctic potatoes, Eat this animal-derived food
- Genetics will save coffee.
- And probably chocolate too, but not alone: new podcast from Simran Sethi.
- Must be catching.
- Native American foodways get a resource guide.
- Cultivated plants have larger seeds than wild relatives. Well I never.
- Wanna breed oca?
- A chicken after my own black heart.
- Even tasty fruits can be deadly.
- Commonwealth Potato Collection goes to Svalbard.
- Got milk! Jeremy’s latest pod.
Brainfood: Wheat elements, Coconut movement, Wild lettuce, Pacific yams, Wild VIR oats, PREDICTS, Potato leaves, Perennial wheat, Wheat adoption
- Genetic Nature of Elemental Contents in Wheat Grains and Its Genomic Prediction: Toward the Effective Use of Wheat Landraces from Afghanistan. Only one significant marker, for Zn.
- Strategies for exchange of coconut germplasm in Brazil. Zygotic embryos in Petri dish containing Y3 culture medium without sucrose can last a couple of days without bacterial infection.
- Phylogenetic relationships within Lactuca L. (Asteraceae), including African species, based on chloroplast DNA sequence comparisons. The African species are probably not Lactuca at all.
- The Pacific yam (Dioscorea nummularia Lam.), an under-exploited tuber crop from Melanesia. It can be improved through crossing with itself, or with other species.
- Eco-geographical assessment of Avena L. wild species at the VIR herbarium and genebank collection. Some more collecting to be done.
- The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project. Including 15,000 plants. No word on whether any of them Avena.
- Your Poison in My Pie—the Use of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Leaves in Sakartvelo, Republic of Georgia, Caucasus, and Gollobordo, Eastern Albania. Only used as first vegetable in spring in isolated high mountain areas in the southern Balkans.
- Toward a taxonomic definition of perennial wheat: a new species ×Tritipyrum aaseae described. Not entirely clear why naming it as a new species is necessary, but it’s still pretty cool.
- Dynamics of variety change on wheat farms in Pakistan: A duration analysis. For marginal farmers, it’s about yield, for others, quality. No word on how perennial wheat might do.