- Evaluation of thermal, chemical, and mechanical seed scarification methods for 4 Great Basin lupine species. They all need different things.
- Exploring novel genetic sources of salinity tolerance in rice through molecular and physiological characterization. A lot of salt-tolerant Bangladeshi landraces cluster together in an aromatic group close to japonica.
- No loss of genetic diversity in the exploited and recently collapsed population of Bay of Biscay anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus L.). Effective population size has remained steady, irrespective of census population size.
- Molecular characterization of accessions of a rare genetic resource: sugary cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) from Brazilian Amazon. Two distinct genetic groups.
- Presence of vetches (Vicia spp.) in agricultural and wild floras of ancient Europe. One of the proto-IndoEuropean roots for the collective name of these things translates as “avoid”.
- Salt tolerance in wild relatives of adzuki bean, Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi et Ohashi. Two crossable wild relatives had different salt tolerance mechanisms.
- The ‘Botanical Gardens of the Dispossessed’ revisited: richness and significance of Old World crops grown by Suriname Maroons. Some crops are only used in rituals now. But even that’s pretty cool, and better than nothing.
- The AVRDC–The World Vegetable Center mungbean (Vigna radiata) core and mini core collections. 1481 (20% of total) accessions chosen by geography and phenotype, then 289 by SSRs.
- Sequencing wild and cultivated cassava and related species reveals extensive interspecific hybridization and genetic diversity. And you can also use the results for rubber!
Conference on eating weeds ramps up
The International Symposium on Biodiversity and Edible Wild Species will be held on 24-27 October 2016 in Antalya, Turkey and will be organized by the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies in collaboration with the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project (GEF/UNEP/FAO) and BFN Turkey.
All abstracts must be sent in no later than 31 July 2016, so get cracking.
Nibbles: Drying seeds, Saving citrus, Shakespeare’s food, Ganja double, TPP, Aurochs art, Coffee diversity, Biofortification, Training, Breeding booklet
- Zeolite finds its genebank niche. Remember when we blogged about it?
- The USDA citrus genebank at Riverside gets the podcast treatment.
- Shakespeare, because it’s the 400th anniversary of his death: food and animals.
- Weed, because weed: taxonomy and breeding. Could literally apply to any other crop on earth.
- What will the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) do to farm-saved seeds?
- Bring back the aurochs!
- Barista Magazine on coffee diversity. In other news, there’s a Barista Magazine.
- The chemistry of banana carotenoids.
- Master of Arts in Food Studies in San Francisco! What’s not to like.
- From plant to crop: The past, present and future of plant breeding. Nice booklet.
Nibbles: Deforestation, Mint patent, Weed footprint, Heirloom breeds & vars, Superfood hype latest
- If we eat more meat, only 15% of possible scenarios lead to a maintenance of forest area.
- Oregon mint breeders ready to come to blows.
- The dark side of yesterday’s sustainable ganja Nibble.
- The Smithsonian does heirlooms.
- Enough with the superfoods already.
Nibbles: Vavilov double, Huge avocado, African urban ag, Agarwood threat, Double coffee, Sequencing beer, Sloane ranges, Chinese bees, Gendered breeding, Access to seeds/meds, Genebank funding, Quinoa prices, Organic ganja
- VIR on Atlas Obscura, with pic goodness courtesy of yours truly. And on the same site, something Vavilov would have approved of: a very diverse Tajik apple orchard.
- A new avocado to conjure by.
- Urban agriculture won’t cut the mustard.
- Trees that named Fragrant Harbour disappearing.
- The downside of coffee. But never fear, there’s a strategy coming!
- The beernome!
- Happy birthday Sir Hans Sloane, for many botanical reasons!
- Chinese pollinators in trouble. Enough of the exclamation marks.
- Do you have any examples of “plant or animal breeding that has successfully incorporated gender considerations into its strategies and end products”? Contact these people.
- Can seeds learn from meds, policy-wise?
- Bioversity DG lobbies for genebanks.
- Get your fill of quinoa, courtesy of Jeremy.
- Sustainable pot. ‘Cause that’s the California Way, man.