- Indigenous communities can have genebanks too.
- That would make them part of the informal seed system.
- Meanwhile, in the formal sector, the banana international genebank’s information system gets a graphical upgrade.
- And the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, as formal as they come, gets an exhibition centre.
- Orphan crops are called orphan because they are in general better served by the informal than the formal seed system.
Nibbles: Svalbard, Amazon fires, China genebank, Gardening, CPVO
- Nice genebanks mashup from the always-excellent Mongabay.
- Analyzing social media to understand how forest governance is perceived. I want to do it for genebanks now…
- …Genebanks such as China’s wild plants genebank, for example.
- Thomas Fairchild was a genebanker of sorts 300 years ago.
- Once genebanks have been used by breeders, and varieties released (at least in Europe), you’ll be able to find them in the CPVO Variety Finder. I’m sure Fairchild would be impressed.
Brainfood: WCR, Parasites, Wild tomato, Wild olive, MAGIC, ART cooking, Payments for conservation, ICARDA barley, Canary barley, Enset, Mexican relicts, Data management, Bumblebee map
- Resistance and Tolerance to Root Herbivory in Maize Were Mediated by Domestication, Spread, and Breeding. Domestication and spread decreased maize resistance to Western corn rootworm, but breeding increased it.
- Does genetic diversity protect host populations from parasites? A meta‐analysis across natural and agricultural systems. Yes, but it depends. Western corn rootworm unavailable for comment.
- Genome of Solanum pimpinellifolium provides insights into structural variants during tomato breeding. Lots of variants in regulatory genes for agronomic traits, compared to domesticated lines.
- Genomic evidence for recurrent genetic admixture during the domestication of Mediterranean olive trees (Olea europaea L.). There was a domestication bottleneck back in the day, but that was almost wiped out by later repeated introgression from the wild relative as the crop spread. So quite different from the above maize and tomato cases?
- Multi-parent populations in crops: a toolbox integrating genomics and genetic mapping with breeding. Not just good for QTL mapping any more, but you need a whole package of stuff for them to be useful to breeding programmes.
- Current uses of Andean Roots and Tuber Crops in South American gourmet restaurants. None of the chefs interviewed knew of mauka, but it’s not their fault.
- Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services: An overview of Latin American experiences, lessons learned and upscaling challenges. Conserving in situ 100 varieties on 5 hectares each would cost US$70,000 p.a. Maybe useful for mauka? But will chefs pay?
- Genetic and agro-morphological diversity in global barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) collection at ICARDA. Under heat stress, though, which is the important bit left out of the title. Unclear if any of the material was from the Canaries (see below), but I can find out if anyone’s interested. Come to think of it, I’m kinda interested myself…
- An Evolutionary Approach to the History of Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Cultivation in the Canary Islands. You can apparently infer historical extents of cultivation on different islands in the archipelago, as well as the timing of separation of populations, which is pretty amazing. No word on representation in rock art though (see below).
- Enset (Ensete ventricosum) and the Archaeology of Southwestern Ethiopia. Information comes mainly from megalithic and rock art sites, which is pretty amazing. No word on genetic relationships, at least in this paper. Do you need me to link to previous Brainfoods on enset? No, of course you don’t, you know how to search the archive. You just put your lips together, and
whistleblow (kudos to whoever quotes the reference in the comments first). - Relict Plant Communities at Prehispanic Sites in Oaxaca, Mexico: Historical Implications. Ancient native Mexicans really liked succulents around their settlements. Well, who wouldn’t, when all is said and done?
- To clean or not to clean: Cleaning open‐source data improves extinction risk assessments for threatened plant species. Clean. Always clean. And then clean again.
- Global Patterns and Drivers of Bee Distribution. Hope they cleaned the data or this unusual double-humped diversity pattern could be in trouble, and that would be a pity.
Brainfood: Extension, Wheat adoption, Bean ideotypes, Chilli evaluation, Rice domestication, Mungbeans from space, Biodiversity accounting, Cassava futures, Maize haplotypes, Heterosis, Cryo
- Does it matter who advises farmers? Pest management choices with public and private extension. Yes, at least in Switzerland. Public = prevention, private = cure. Well colour me surprised.
- Ethiopia’s transforming wheat landscape: tracking variety use through DNA fingerprinting. Only 28% of farmers correctly named their wheat varieties, many of which were from CGIAR breeding programmes.
- Analysis of the Similarity between in Silico Ideotypes and Phenotypic Profiles to Support Cultivar Recommendation—A Case Study on Phaseolus vulgaris L. Italian farmers not great at keeping track of new varieties either, but who needs names when you have fancy maths?
- Morphological, Sensorial and Chemical Characterization of Chilli Peppers (Capsicum spp.) from the CATIE Genebank. From 192 accessions to this little beauty from Panama.
- Two divergent chloroplast genome sequence clades captured in the domesticated rice gene pool may have significance for rice production. Rice is from Mars, rice is from two Venuses.
- Identification of Mung Bean in a Smallholder Farming Setting of Coastal South Asia Using Manned Aircraft Photography and Sentinel-2 Images. From 10-m imagery for pity’s sake! Amazing stuff. Soon we’ll be able to distinguish landraces from modern varieties, right? Right?
- Linking biodiversity into national economic accounting. Yikes, biodiversity makes no contribution to agricultural development at all?
- High sink strength prevents photosynthetic down-regulation in cassava grown at elevated CO2 concentration. Could result in higher yields, but effect will vary among varieties.
- Discovery of beneficial haplotypes for complex traits in maize landraces. Landrace diversity for early plant development, robustness and growth form that could be useful in Europe made accessible.
- Understanding the classics: the unifying concepts of transgressive segregation, inbreeding depression and heterosis and their central relevance for crop breeding. It’s the dispersion of favorable alleles between parents.
- Challenges and Prospects for the Conservation of Crop Genetic Resources in Field Genebanks, in In Vitro Collections and/or in Liquid Nitrogen. Everything that can be in cryo should be in cryo, and some things that currently can’t too.
Nibbles: Climate change vid, Lemongrass, Millets, GHUs, US potatoes
- Nice video on Future Climate for Africa.
- Indian forest communities diversify with lemongrass to help out with their climate change resilience.
- Have they tried millets, though? According to Millet Finder, millet products are taking over the world, so marketing should be no problem.
- If they don’t have seeds, they can get them from genebanks, via Germplasm Health Units, of course. The impact pathways of genebanks goes through GHUs.
- The Russet Burbank sure has had a big impact.