- Unlocking big data doubled the accuracy in predicting the grain yield in hybrid wheat. Breeding programmes and genebanks need to pool their data. That’s kind of what the Plant Treaty’s GLIS is for, isn’t it?
- Resequencing of 672 Native Rice Accessions to Explore Genetic Diversity and Trait Associations in Vietnam. Another example of the above: an indica sub-population in Vietnam is pretty unique and seemingly untapped in breeding.
- Quantifying apple diversity: A phenomic characterization of Canada’s Apple Biodiversity Collection. And another: 20,000 apples phenotyped to within an inch of their lives to show, among many other things, that new varieties have been getting lower in phenolics.
- Towards a Joint International Database: Alignment of SSR Marker Data for European Collections of Cherry Germplasm. I swear I didn’t plan this…
- Morphological and eco-geographic diversity analysis of maize germplasm in the high altitude Andes region of Ecuador. Loja province is a bit of a maize diversity hotspot, and you don’t need big data to prove it.
- The transition to agricultural cultivation of neo-crops may fail to account for wild genetic diversity patterns: insights from the Cape Floristic Region. Taking a new species into cultivation can lead to a genetic bottleneck, and you don’t need big data to prove it.
- Fish domestication in aquaculture: 10 unanswered questions. Same as above for fish, but oddly genetic diversity doesn’t feature among the questions. Maybe the answer would have been too obvious?
- Transition From Wild to Domesticated Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) Revealed in Ceramic Temper at Three Middle Holocene Sites in Northern Mali. How wild pearl millet was taken into cultivation can be followed in time because bits of the plants were added to clay to prevent the pots cracking during firing in ancient times. The opposite of big data, but still pretty cool.
- Africa’s evolving vegetable seed sector: status, policy options and lessons from Asia. Seed companies in Africa need capacity, policies, extension, and marketing. And data, I would add.
- Are the modern-bred rice and wheat cultivars in India inefficient in zinc and iron sequestration? Eat more vegetables? Don’t need data to figure that out.
- A history of Australian pasture genetic resource collections. 85,000 accessions qualifies as pretty big. Not sure about the data though.
Nibbles: Early ag, Iberian aurochs, MusaNet, Disney tomatoes
- How people used cereals before agriculture in the Fertile Crescent (roughly speaking).
- Fast forward two thousand years and meet Elba, the shepherdess of Courel. And some aurochs.
- Nine thousand years later, MusaNet revamps its website…
- …and coconut revamps its conservation strategy.
- And finally, here are some post-agricultural tomatoes.
Maize comic in the offing
Well this looks super-cool.
Nibbles: Harvest time, Wheat evaluation, Olive diversity, Maize museum, MAKEathon, Community seed banks
- Why bulls and cereals go together.
- Finding out which old wheats go together with good bread.
- How in situ and ex situ conservation can come together for olives in Catalonia.
- 60 maize landraces come together in a cool display.
- Coming together for African yam bean, starting on 7 July.
- How national genebanks and community seed banks can come together.
Nibbles: Linguistic diversity, Filipino rice, Cashew, Brassica domestication
- The need to save languages.
- Saving rice diversity in the Philippines.
- Cashews saving farmers in Guinea-Bissau.
- Understanding Brassica rapa diversity in order to save it.