- What is the best beef in Europe?
- When was the first yoghurt of the Neolithic?
- How do you measure smallholder resilience? Or vulnerability, for that matter…
- How does this Kenyan seed story differ from this Malian one?
- How do you address iron deficiency in Rwanda?
- What’s the value of a genebank?
- There’s a downside to plant-derived smoke?
- So what’s the latest paradigm shift on that ancient-people-in-the-Amazon thing?
- How are the Spanish people coping with the crisis?
- How come those transcribed podcasting, medal winning conservationists still don’t get it?
- What are Ethiopians doing in Amazonia?
Brainfood: Molecular adaptation, Chicken genetic resources databases, Cacao diversity, Pistacia molecular diversity, Glycene diversity, Sheep breeding, Bt cotton, Argan oil
- Broad-scale adaptive genetic variation in alpine plants is driven by temperature and precipitation. AFLP variation linked to precipitation and temperature across 13 Alpine species.
- Current state of knowledge on indigenous chicken genetic resources of the tropics: domestication, distribution and documentation of information on the genetic resources. There are three relevant databases on chickens, and yet…
- Genetic diversity and parentage in farmer varieties of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) from Honduras and Nicaragua as revealed by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. 70 SNPs enough to confirm 5 morphological groups, but also pick up the odd synonym.
- Molecular diversity and phylogenetic relationships of Pistacia vera, Pistacia atlantica subsp. mutica and Pistacia khinjuk using SRAP markers. The species are pretty good.
- Biofortified, selenium enriched, fruit and cladode from three Opuntia Cactus pear cultivars grown on agricultural drainage sediment for use in nutraceutical foods. It pays to grow prickly pear on crappy soil.
- Hotspots of diversity of wild Australian soybean relatives and their conservation in situ. Looks like it’s Kimberley.
- Community-based alternative breeding plans for indigenous sheep breeds in four agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia. They’re ok, but you do have to keep good records.
- Diverse genetic basis of field-evolved resistance to Bt cotton in cotton bollworm from China. Gene jockeys need to go back to drawing board. No, wait.
- Bioactive compounds and nutritional significance of virgin argan oil–an edible oil with potential as a functional food. Jolly high in just about everything that’s good for you, more research needed, yada yada yada.
Nibbles: Pests & Diseases, Cichorium, Agroforestry etc, Heritage oranges, Shepherds, ITPGRFA news
- Diversity protects against pests and diseases, especially when it is needed most.
- Amateur enthusiast cracks chicory biodiversity.
- Conservation Agriculture With Trees; it’s the new big thing in Africa.
- Saving the last orange grove in Orange County from destruction.
- Shepherds of the world; a slideshow from The Guardian.
- And — Oh Boy! — you can jump through some hoops to get a newsletter on the International Treaty of Plant Genetic Reso0urces for Food and Agriculture.
Brainfood: Barcoding, DArT for beans, SNOPs for Cacao, Aquaculture impacts, Cassava GS, Cereals in genebanks, Symbiosis
- A critical review on the utility of DNA barcoding in biodiversity conservation. Not bad, but not by itself.
- A whole genome DArT assay to assess germplasm collection diversity in common beans. It works, and can distinguish Andean from Mesoamerican accessions.
- Optimization of a SNP assay for genotyping Theobroma cacao under field conditions. It works, and is being used in Ghana.
- A Global Assessment of Salmon Aquaculture Impacts on Wild Salmonids. Meta-analysis shows farming salmon and trout in an area has in general been bad for their wild relatives there.
- Genome-wide selection in cassava. High correlations between SNPs and several phenotypic traits of interest to breeders mean that selection time could be cut by half. Could.
- Cereal landraces genetic resources in worldwide GeneBanks. A review. We don’t have enough data. On so many different levels.
- Coevolutionary genetic variation in the legume-rhizobium transcriptome. Wait, does this mean we should be conserving Rhizobium too?
Nibble: South Sudan seed fair, Seed cinema, Dandelion diversity, Nature’s value graphic, Cocaine synthesis, Livestock farming, Visualizing conservation trade-offs, Vertical farms, Sequence fungi
- A seed fair in South Sudan. Good idea, but why only certified seed?
- Maybe they should watch Seeds of Freedom. Well, maybe.
- Genetic diversity is important! Settle down, we’re talking dandelions.
- Nature’s value includes crops. Phew. Dandelion is a crop, isn’t it?
- Talking about value… She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie…
- And again. Award-winning research on livestock farming’s value to developing countries. And its dark side.
- Both of which could of course be usefully visualized by the people involved.
- Vizualise this! Nightmare skyscraping vertical farms, for real.
- Today’s jetpack request comes from Sophien Kamoun, stimulated by ravishing fungi.