Information

April 15, 2016April 15, 2016

Getting schooled in GRIN-Global

Everything in between, you say? How about information management? That’s at the beginning, at the end, and in between.

gringlobal

This GRIN-Global course is taking place at CIAT, another CGIAR centre. I told you there’s a lot going on in those international genebanks.

April 14, 2016April 30, 2021

A PGRFA course to take note of

A shout-out to everyone at the Wageningen UR course “Contemporary approaches to genetic resources conservation and use.” I was with them yesterday, and a great bunch they are too.

This is a very well put together and expertly taught, in large part by CGN staff, three-week introductory course, particularly strong on the policy aspects. It is offered every year. There were about 20-25 participants on this occasion, from all over the world, including four from CG Centre genebanks (ICRISAT and IITA).

April 11, 2016April 14, 2016

Brainfood: African greens, Latin American pigs, Japanese fruits, Cassava selection, Sunflower breeding, Angolan vegetables, Californian backyard maize, Mesoamerican priorities, Genetic stocks

Molecular Markers for Genetic Diversity Studies in African Leafy Vegetables. Not surprisingly, only 3% of 33 studies since 1998 are on Cleome, more than half on cowpea. And a quarter used RAPDs. Orphan crops, anyone? These one don’t even get a table summarizing and comparing findings across species.
Conservation priorities of Iberoamerican pig breeds and their ancestors based on microsatellite information. Depending on how you crunch the genetic numbers, Iberoamerican pig breeds could conceivably best be looked after by conserving their ancestral Iberian pig breeds. But it’s not just about the genetics, is it?
Native fruit tree genetic resources in Japan. Only a Castanea was domesticated in pre-modern times, and they’re all endangered in post-modern times.
Perceptual selection and the unconscious selection of ‘volunteer’ seedlings in clonally propagated crops: an example with African cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) using ethnobotany and population genetics. It’s seedlings that look most like existing varieties that farmers try to keep.
Changes in sunflower breeding over the last fifty years. From yield under optimal conditions to disease resistance, from oil quantity to quality. But international collaboration still needed.
Angolan vegetable crops have unique genotypes of potential value for future breeding programmes. Unique material documented, and hopefully made available for use.
Maize Germplasm Conservation in Southern California’s Urban Gardens: Introduced Diversity Beyond ex situ and in situ Management. Migrants bring along their crops.
An assessment of the conservation status of Mesoamerican crop species and their wild relatives in light of climate change. Priority areas for on farm and in situ conservation don’t by and large coincide with protected areas.
A Proposal Regarding Best Practices for Validating the Identity of Genetic Stocks and the Effects of Genetic Variants. Just do it.

April 1, 2016

Nibbles: Chinese genebanks, Rough times at Roughwood, EU seed laws, Cacao & coffee migrations, CIMMYT pix

China’s largest genebank just got a little bit larger. And some context.
Small Pennsylvania genebank may get a lot smaller.
Denmark shows the way on seed saving in Europe.
Chocolate really got around.
Coffee didn’t do too badly either. But home is where the heart is.
More pix of wheat wild relatives than you can shake a stick at.

March 30, 2016April 14, 2016

Nibbles: BananaGuard, Wheat has a blast, Grow your own antibiotic, Bhutanese cypress, Natural history collections, Genebanks big & small, Better grasslands, Local foodways

Who needs resistant banana varieties when you have synthetic biology? And more.
More trouble for wheat, and climate change is to blame. Maybe Vavilov can help there too?
DIY penicillin.
Saving the sacred cypress. Try saying that quickly.
What have herbaria ever done for us? Apart from giving us endless joy, you mean?
The Indian and other ‪genebanks‬ securing the future of food. But see also our earlier post on Dr Tyagi’s paper.
Aboriginal community gets a genebank.
We need better grass. No, not that kind of grass. Well, not only that kind of grass.
A pean for African food cultures. And Pacific ones too.