- Multidisciplinary evidence for early banana (Musa cvs.) cultivation on Mabuyag Island, Torres Strait. Early as in 2000 years ago, which isn’t all that early compared to PNG. But opens possibility of mainland Aborigines being agriculturalists too, at least in the wet tropical NE.
- Climate shaped how Neolithic farmers and European hunter-gatherers interacted after a major slowdown from 6,100 BCE to 4,500 BCE. There was the most interaction between the two groups where Middle Eastern crops came to the limit of their climatic adaptation.
- The first evidence for Late Pleistocene dogs in Italy. Those hunter gatherers had dogs.
- Three thousand years of farming strategies in central Thailand. Millet first, then rice, but initially still rainfed. No word on whether anyone had dogs.
- Parallel Seed Color Adaptation during Multiple Domestication Attempts of an Ancient New World Grain. 3 grain amaranth domesticated species from one wild ancestor, with selection for white seeds in common.
- Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Breeding from 1891 to 2010 Contributed to Increasing Yield and Glutenin Contents but Decreasing Protein and Gliadin Contents. No evidence of increasing immunostimulatory potential in German wheat varieties.
- ‘MN‐Clearwater’, the first food‐grade intermediate wheatgrass (Kernza perennial grain) cultivar. Perennial is good, sure, but is it low in gluten?
- Screening of wild potatoes identifies new sources of late blight resistance. All plants in about 10% of 384 wild potato accessions were resistant.
- An Aridamerican model for agriculture in a hotter, water scarce world. 17 genera have highest potential to be used in polyculture to improve agricultural resilience, human health, and community prosperity in the face of climate change.
- Ex situ management as insurance against extinction of mammalian megafauna in an uncertain world. Fancy maths can tell you were genebanks could do the most good.
- Machine learning: A powerful tool for gene function prediction in plants. Very fancy maths can help you predict phenotype from genotype, and much more besides.
- Zoonotic host diversity increases in human-dominated ecosystems. Oh we are in so much trouble.
- Global changes in crop diversity: Trade rather than production enriches supply. Well, actually, a bit of both.
Genebank data update
I’ve decided to promote a couple of Nibbles from Monday to a full post. Because they’re important and I don’t want them to get overlooked, and I just don’t know how many people actually work through all the Nibbles. Maybe I should have led with these.
Anyway, the thing is, the USDA’s National Plant Germplasm System has just launched its new GRIN-Global webpage. ((Coincidentally, it also has an updated Wikipedia entry.)) Through it, you can search for, and order, material from any of the system’s constituent genebanks. Of which there are, you know, a lot.
Now, don’t @ me if what you see there is not exactly the same as what’s in Genesys. They’ve been somewhat preoccupied in Beltsville, but we hope to get an update of their data very soon now. ((All other recent uploads and refreshes are here; note the recent addition of 7000-odd rice accessions from the Myanmar national genebank.))
Meanwhile, the potato-breeding machine that is Cultivariable has started publishing his latest evaluation data on (some of) the USDA’s potato germplasm (click on “Evaluation Year” and choose “2020”).
But will it find its way into any of the above-mentioned databases?
Maybe.
Nibbles: Hambre, Potato song, Blockchain, Pacific crops, Botanic gardens
- Vavilov in Spanish.
- Song about the potato Solanum ajanhuiri from Aymara to Spanish to English.
- Using blockchain to trace biofortified seeds. Maybe.
- Vincent Lebot on the opportunity that Covid-19 represents for traditional Pacific crops. Silver lining.
- Botanic gardens to the rescue. Wouldn’t that be cool.
The end of Cornucopia
Sad news from Jeremy’s latest newsletter:
When I read this piece about One Tasmanian’s 54-year obsession to catalogue all of the world’s edible plants to end malnutrition all I could think was, “has he never heard of Stephen Facciola’s Cornucopia? I should introduce them.”
A bit of due diligence later, I discovered Facciola had died a little more than a month ago. Stephen Facciola’s edible world is better than any obituary you’re liable to read.
The Tasmanian’s name is Bruce French, and you can see the fruits of his labours online at Food Plants International.
Nibbles: African veggies, Commodities, Grasslands, Spices, TZ coconuts, Jordan genebank, Mosquito domestication, Jamon, GRIN-Global, Cultivariable
- All-Africa Summit on Diversifying Food Systems with African Traditional Vegetables to Increase Health, Nutrition and Wealth. New dates! 25-28 January 2021.
- “How do you like Cocoa and Coffee? Saving crops, protecting culture, sustaining livelihoods.” Online event, 8 September. Register here.
- How the US prairies got wheat, a soil classification, tree shelter belts and weeds from the Russian steppes, thanks to Mennonite farmers and emigre Jewish scientists. Entertaining podcast on what sounds like a fascinating book. Oh and there’s a video too. Nice Vavilov anecdote.
- History of Spices 101.
- Quick summary of coconut research and development in Tanzania.
- A genebank gets off the ground in Jordan.
- How the mosquito Aedes aegypti got domesticated. Yeah, domesticated.
- Texas and Georgia move into jamón ibérico: acorns off the menu, “pecans, peanuts and sunflower” on. Hilarity ensues.
- The USDA National Plant Germplasm System gets a new database. Go crazy.
- Meanwhile, Cultivariable publishes his latest evaluation data on the USDA potato germplasm (see “Evaluation Year”). Will it find its way into the above-mentioned database?