- Agricultural Biodiversity Maintenance in a Coastal Socio-Ecological System: the Pearl Lagoon Basin, Nicaragua. Roads are not always bad for agrobiodiversity.
- Signatures of Environmental Adaptation During Range Expansion of Wild Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Candidate genes for increased water use efficiency identified.
- Genetic Improvement of Berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum) in India: Current Status and Prospects. Including using wild relatives, which was surprising to me.
- Generation and characterization of a foxtail millet (Setaria italica) mutant library. Who needs landraces.
- Storing and sharing: A review of indigenous and local knowledge conservation initiatives. Ex situ predominates, and local custodians are often excluded. Where have I heard this before?
- Prospects of orphan crops in climate change. They’re great. But didn’t we already know this?
- Energy and nutrient production in Ethiopia, 2011-2015: Implications to supporting healthy diets and food systems. I guess maybe we didn’t know it. Production has increased, but at the expense of diversity, and nutrient deficits remain.
- Hotspots of human impact on threatened terrestrial vertebrates. 1200 species impacted by threats over >90% of their range. I wonder how many livestock wild relatives.
- Testcross performance of doubled haploid lines from European flint maize landraces is promising for broadening the genetic base of elite germplasm. “Idle genetic diversity from gene banks” gets busy.
- High-throughput method for ear phenotyping and kernel weight estimation in maize using ear digital imaging. Apply to above?
- Genetic analysis of Okra Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus disease resistance in wild relative of okra Abelmoschus angulosus Wall. ex Wight & Arn.Smacks of desperation.
- Metabolite profiling characterises chemotypes of Musa diploids and triploids at juvenile and pre-flowering growth stages. Unsurprisingly follows the genetics.
- Late Pleistocene human genome suggests a local origin for the first farmers of central Anatolia. Not much migration after all.
- Following Vavilov’s expeditions, Sardinia (Italy). Lots of changes in 90 years. There’s a shocker.
- Analyses of African common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) germplasm using a SNP fingerprinting platform: diversity, quality control and molecular breeding. Lots of naming inconsistencies among breeding materials. Another shocker.
- Potential of Aegilops sp. for Improvement of Grain Processing and Nutritional Quality in Wheat (Triticum aestivum). Not just Fe and Zn.
Breeding Africa’s next super-vegetables
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The main benefit?
Consortium companies will be able to view a broad array of PYT [preliminary yield trials] entries in the field at least 12 months before the material is made public. Participants may have early access to screening protocols or other kinds of scientific information developed at WorldVeg, provided the sharing of such information does not conflict with existing WorldVeg agreements or policies.
Remember that WorldVeg sits on a huge reservoir of diversity, and has talented plant breeders that make the most of it.
LATER: Looking forward to seeing an African vegetable among these.
LATER STILL: Maybe we need a SeedTracker for vegetables?
Brainfood: Forage seeds, Meat is murder, Medieval farming, Bean breeding, Moth bean genomics, Red List definitions, Amaranth domestication, Seed networks, Local adaptation, Social norms, Food demand, Grasspea future, Strawberry evolution, Maracuoccio
- Medium-term seed storage of diverse genera of forage grasses, evidence-based genebank monitoring intervals, and regeneration standards. One size does not fit all.
- Sustainability gridlock in a global agricultural commodity chain: Reframing the soy–meat food system. Divide and conquer.
- Farm establishment, abandonment and agricultural practices during the last 1,300 years: a case study from southern Sweden based on pollen records and the LOVE model. Medieval Swedes got high.
- A review of breeding objectives, genomic resources, and marker-assisted methods in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Oh dear, a worldwide catalogue of germplasm needed.
- Construction of genetic linkage map and genome dissection of domestication-related traits of moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia), a legume crop of arid areas. No word on whether a catalogue is needed.
- Resources and opportunities for re-establishing Lathyrus cicera L. as a multipurpose cultivated plant. I’d try it. But do a catalogue first.
- Ex situ seed banks and the IUCN Red List. When is extinct not extinct?
- Convergent seed color adaptation during repeated domestication of an ancient new world grain. Grain amaranth selected 3 times independently from same wild precursor, but always for the same colour.
- Modeling epidemics in seed systems and landscapes to guide management strategies: The case of sweetpotato in Northern Uganda. Spread of disease depends on where it starts. Watch out for places with lots of out-nodes.
- A Molecular View of Plant Local Adaptation: Incorporating Stress-Response Networks. Adaptation here does not necessarily mean no adaptation there. Interesting for breeders?
- Using social norms to encourage healthier eating. To get kids to eat broccoli, tell them their favourite youtuber does. Probably generalizable.
- Nutrition Transition and the Structure of Global Food Demand. Lower growth in overall food demand than in the past, but a doubling of demand for animal calories.
- Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.): orphan crop, nutraceutical or just plain food? Needs to shed its bad image.
- Origin and evolution of the octoploid strawberry genome. All four parents tracked down.
Nibbles: Homeric food, Two atlases, Cacao breeding, Smart foods, Lancet/EAT, Wild grapes, Landrace maize, Training breeders, Apios, Sustainable use, Cost of nutrition
- Did Homeric heroes eat a lot of meat? The answer will surprise you. A thread.
- Social food atlas to be launched.
- Atlas of West African food systems already launched. Very different thing.
- Saving chocolate through biotech.
- What makes foods smart?
- Pros and cons of the Lancet/EAT thing. And more.
- Waking up the wine industry to the beauty grapevine wild relatives.
- The magos of maize, from Mexico to the US, and back again.
- Plant breeding training in Africa.
- Pre-colonial North America: not wilderness, not dense forest, and not just the Three Sisters, lots of Apios too. Lots.
- Food AND biodiversity.
- Nutritious OR affordable.
What is the State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture?
Spoiler alert: It’s not good.