- Contributions of Zea mays subspecies mexicana haplotypes to modern maize. That’s the highland teosinte, not the lowland from which maize was domesticated, and 10% of the maize genome shows some evidence of introgression from it.
- The ecological importance of intraspecific variation. …is comparable to that of interspecific variation.
- SeedStor: A Germplasm Information Management System and Public Database. Interested in the John Inness Centre’s genebank? Here, go crazy.
- From displacement activities to evidence-informed decisions in conservation. It’s all about impact.
- Breeding next generation tree fruits: technical and legal challenges. Not going to be easy.
- Women’s empowerment through seed improvement and seed governance: Evidence from participatory barley breeding in pre-war Syria. What is done locally may be undone globally.
- Genomic diversity and macroecology of the crop wild relatives of domesticated pea. P. fulvum is a good species, P. sativum subsp. elatius has 5 mainly geographic clusters; genetic diversity likely to be impacted by climate change.
- Demographically idiosyncratic responses to climate change and rapid Pleistocene diversification of the walnut genus Juglans (Juglandaceae) revealed by whole-genome sequences. Every walnut species is different.
- The consequences of replacing wildlife with livestock in Africa. More fires, woody species and methane.
Nibbles: Pacific foodways, Taro in Hawaii, Supply chains double, Millet year, Olam Prize, Cicer breeding, Polly the Pig, Virtual Horticultural Library
- Food sovereignty — or lack of it — in the Pacific.
- That should probably start with taro.
- Could the banks help?
- Or blockchain?
- How about an international year?
- And better seed laws?
- Let’s change the subject…
- ICARDA durum breeders run towards the problem, use wild relatives, win prize.
- Wild relatives are good for chickpea improvement too.
- Don’t worry, if we lose an animal breed, we can always get it back. Kinda sorta.
- Source of information on heirloom varieties. Yes, there’s probably something similar for pigs.
Brainfood: Wheat exudates, Conservation threats, Resilience, Dietary recommendations, Urban green spaces, Dog spread, Wild foods, Ethnic fish, Brazilian cattle, Nocturnal fixation, Agroforestry impacts
- Evolution of the crop rhizosphere: impact of domestication on root exudates in tetraploid wheat (Triticum turgidum L.). Domestication and breeding have led to (probably adaptive) changes in root exudates.
- Threats from urban expansion, agricultural transformation and forest loss on global conservation priority areas. Vertebrate Biodiversity Hotspots are most threatened by all three factors. Plants too?
- Patterns and drivers of biodiversity–stability relationships under climate extremes. Species richness may not be enough to buffer ecosystems from extreme precipitations events. But a different metric would give a different result?
- Evaluating the environmental impacts of dietary recommendations. Adopting nationally recommended diets would help the environment.
- On the Use of Hedonic Price Indices to Understand Ecosystem Service Provision from Urban Green Space in Five Latin American Megacities. There’s an overall strong positive correlation between urban greenery and house prices, but it’s context-specific.
- Disease: A Hitherto Unexplored Constraint on the Spread of Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in Pre-Columbian South America. Yes, why are there no dogs in the Amazon?
- Children and Wild Foods in the Context of Deforestation in Rural Malawi. Fewer wild foods in more deforested sites, and fewer sold by children from better-off households. What of the nutrition outcomes, though?
- Biodiversity defrosted: unveiling non-compliant fish trade in ethnic food stores. About 40% of samples in Liverpool and Manchester mislabelled.
- Population viability analysis of the Crioula Lageano cattle. It’s going to be fine.
- The Kalanchoë genome provides insights into convergent evolution and building blocks of crassulacean acid metabolism. Next stop, CAM rice.
- Contribution of trees to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. It depends. But what would those kids in Malawi say?
European parliamentarians get to grips with crop wild relatives
A European Parliament committee discussing “Genetic diversity, conservation and crops wild relatives”? Yeah, I didn’t think that was possible either, but here’s the evidence. And you can even see and hear the whole thing, in the language of your choice. 1 In the hot seat in front of the committee were: Prof. Nigel Maxted, Senior Lecturer in Genetic Conservation, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, UK; Dr Susanne Barth, Senior Research Officer, Plant Genetics, Teagasc CELUP Crop Research, Ireland; and Dr Nicolas Roux, Senior Scientist, Musa Genetic Resources Team Leader, Effective Genetic Resources Conservation and Use Initiative, Bioversity International, Montpellier, France.
At least one parliamentarian was impressed with what Nigel (right) et al. had to say. Let’s hope that translates into action.
Fascinating session in @EP_Agriculture on Genetic Diversity and Crop Wild Relatives. Dr Nigel Maxted from @birminghamuniv talking about threats to genetic diversity and importance of conserving wild plant species, “we cannot wait we have to conserve them now” pic.twitter.com/Uw8UkySDDa
— Anthea McIntyre (@anthea_mcintyre) December 7, 2017
Agricultural biodiversity neglected in sustainability index
A new measure of the sustainability of food production is out, thanks to The Economist Intelligence Unit 2 and the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition, and making a splash, at least with the countries that come out with a high score. It considers agricultural sustainability, food loss and waste and nutritional challenges at a country level. Among the more than 60 indicators which go into making up the index you’ll find “agricultural diversification” (the share of total agricultural production represented by the top 3 crops) and something called “environmental biodiversity.” This last turns out to be the “Proportion of local breeds classified as being at risk of extinction” which of course is SDG Indicator 2.5.2, as we saw yesterday. That seems to be a little light on agricultural biodiversity (quite apart from the fact that the particular indicator has a lot of missing values). Have the compilers not heard of the Agrobiodiversity Index? Or of the other indicators under SDG Target 2.5?