Policy

June 17, 2021July 14, 2021

Genetic diversity to get its place in the sun?

Great to see young guns Sean Hoban and Colin Khoury being interviewed by Emily Henderson on why genetic diversity is important and therefore why — and how — we should save it.

Their latest paper came out last month:

Hoban et al. (2021) Global commitments to conserving genetic diversity are now necessary and feasible. Bioscience doi: 10.1093/biosci/biab054. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab054

The bottom line?

There must be a CBD post-2020 framework with a clear, measurable, and numerical genetic diversity goal, of the same standing as species and ecosystems, as well as associated action targets…; inclusion and implementation of practical genetic diversity indicators in the CBD and other global biodiversity commitments (e.g., IPBES, SDG); and increased establishment and scaling up of genetic monitoring programs, with those actors having sufficient resources assisting others.

Seconded.

June 16, 2021June 18, 2021

The future of genebanks…

…according to Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, lately the genebanks manager at IRRI, that is.

The webinar is tomorrow. But you can also read about his vision, if you’re all zoomed out.

He may or may not say something about cryopreservation. In any case, if you’re into that, there is, of course, another webinar, this one next week.

LATER: Actually he did mention cryo, but much else besides. And you can listen to the whole thing.

June 14, 2021June 14, 2021

Brainfood: INCREASE, Bean geneflow, Potato geneflow, Rhodes Grass diversity, Tritordeum, Ivory Coast PGRFA access, Thai rice diversity, Local food, Indian rice breeding, Genetic diversity metric, Grapevine rootstocks

Intelligent Characterization of Lentil Genetic Resources: Evolutionary History, Genetic Diversity of Germplasm, and the Need for Well-Represented Collections. Basically a set of protocols for producing, documenting and maintaining single-seed descended (SSD) pure lines. For beans too. Courtesy of the INCREASE project.
Gene Flow in Phaseolus Beans and Its Role as a Plausible Driver of Ecological Fitness and Expansion of Cultigens. The diversity in the wild-weedy-crop complexes should be studied and conserved.
Natural and Cultural Processes Influencing Gene Flow Among Wild (atoq papa), Weedy (araq papa and k’ipa papa), and Crop Potatoes in the Andean Region of Southern Peru. Indigenous communities seem to be doing just that for potatoes in the Andes.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of a Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana) Collection. From 104 accessions in the ILRI genebank to a core collection of 21 in 2 genetic clusters. No word on SSD.
Tritordeum: Creating a New Crop Species—The Successful Use of Plant Genetic Resources. That would be Hordeum chilense x durum wheat. Quite the wild-weedy complex.
Systems of Genetic Resources Exchange in Côte D’Ivoire and its Evolution: Case Study of Food Crops Such as Yam, Cassava, Rice and Plantain. Lots of material has come into the country from CGIAR centres, except for yams.
Estimation of the Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Thailand’s Rice Landraces Using SNP Markers. Two geographic subgroups within indica. No word on influx of material from CGIAR.
The sustainability of “local” food: a review for policy-makers. Local food does not necessarily mean environmentally, socially or economically sustainable food. I guess that may go for genetic resources too (see above)?
Rice breeding in India: eight decades of journey towards enhancing the genetic gain for yield, nutritional quality, and commodity value. QED.
Global Commitments to Conserving and Monitoring Genetic Diversity Are Now Necessary and Feasible. Phew.
Grapevine rootstocks affect growth-related scion phenotypes. It’s not just about the genetic diversity. But still.

June 4, 2021

Nibbles: Small farms, DivSeek, Wheat gene atlas, Tannin synthesis, Pest/diseases, Food/feed, Korean vault

Small farms are not just beautiful. Yes, the original paper was in Brainfood back in March, but this website seems to be new.
DivSeek has a new strategic plan to “improve the generation and sharing of information about global plant genetic resources”: accelerate, add value, educate. Small farms unavailable for comment.
Speaking of sharing information on global PGR, we need to do that for wheat genes, wheat gene scientists say.
Probably for tannins too, come to think of it.
FAO says climate change will make pests and diseases worse.
FAO also says that livestock are not as bad as many people think.
The sincerest for of flattery on display in South Korea.

May 31, 2021February 10, 2022

Brainfood: Sorghum rescue, Barley mixtures, Agroecology, Tepary genome, DSI x 2, Cryo guac, Seed regulation, Recipe design, White clover diversity, IK wheat, High maize

The recent evolutionary rescue of a staple crop depended on over half a century of global germplasm exchange. Sorghum in Haiti was saved from pest by breeders mixing up material from all over the place.
Does crop genetic diversity support positive biodiversity effects under experimental drought? Not straightforwardly, at least for barley cultivar mixtures in pots.
A Nutrition-Sensitive Agroecology Intervention in Rural Tanzania Increases Children’s Dietary Diversity and Household Food Security But Does Not Change Child Anthropometry: Results from a Cluster-Randomized Trial. Well at least it’s more straightforward than the above.
The tepary bean genome provides insight into evolution and domestication under heat stress. Better heat adaptation than common bean, but less disease and pest resistance.
The international political process around Digital Sequence Information under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the 2018–2020 intersessional period. Can’t take the above for granted.
Practical consequences of digital sequence information (DSI) definitions and access and benefit‐sharing scenarios from a plant genebank’s perspective. Genebanks trying not to take the above for granted.
Cryopreservation of Woody Crops: The Avocado Case. There’s been a breakthrough in shoot tip cryopreservation.
Using Regulatory Flexibility to Address Market Informality in Seed Systems: A Global Study. Regulatory flexibility would certainly be a breakthrough for linking formal and informal seed systems. And, incidentally, not bad for DSI either.
A recipe development process model designed to support a crop’s sensory qualities. When you want to make a recipe for a new ingredient (crop or heirloom variety), start with what makes the ingredient special, not with what might make the end-product special.
Genetic diversity and population structure analysis in a large collection of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) germplasm worldwide. Native and introduced populations are genetically differentiated.
Limited haplotype diversity underlies polygenic trait architecture across 70 years of wheat breeding. Crunch time for UK wheat breeders: continue shuffling within the existing diversity, or expand it?
Molecular Parallelism Underlies Convergent Highland Adaptation of Maize Landraces. Adaptation to high altitude from the SW US to the Andes was due to wild genes from the Mexican highlands.