Threats

April 25, 2026April 26, 2026

Uprooting crop diversity

Moving house is never any fun, but it’s particularly tricky for collections of crop diversity. You have to get the new facilities all ready, hundreds or even thousands of seed packets or test tubes or indeed live plants need to be kept safe and sound during the process, and then re-established in their new digs, and possibly new people may need to be hired and trained. Safe to say, you probably want to avoid relocating genebanks unless absolutely necessary, which is why it’s not all that common.

Surprising then to come across two examples within a few days.

The Domaine de Vassal grapevine collection in France ¹ is being moved to save it from the encroaching waters of the Mediterranean. Or maybe it was a problem with the lease? Anyway, it’s been in the works for at least 10 years, but it does seem to be finally happening. Despite, ahem, some reservations.

The rub with the new proposed site is that only a portion of its soil is sand-based. The collection is destined for a hillside of limestone-clay soils where the vines would be grafted onto rootstock.

“A heresy!” Deiss protested, saying grafting compromises the authenticity of the vines.

In contrast, USDA’s National Soybean Germplasm Collection on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus ² was supposed to be relocated in fiscal 2026, that was stopped by various stakeholders, but the whole thing is back on the agenda for fiscal 2027. The issue seems to be where the collection can be conserved most cost-effectively, but there may also be a bit of local politics involved as well. Predictably, I suppose.

“Having that vast collection so accessible to U. of I. researchers directly benefits Illinois farmers,” said Abigail Peterson, director of agronomy for the Illinois Soybean Association. “Whether it’s a new disease or soy oleic, I think the germplasm collection is the only avenue to explore and develop new traits. It’s just a huge tool in our toolbox.”

Good luck to the people involved in both cases. Whatever happens, I’m sure we all hope the collections remain safe and available for the long term.

April 20, 2026April 20, 2026

Brainfood: Animal diversity edition

Livestock grazing boosts plant diversity in the Greater Serengeti–Mara Ecosystem. Livestock can be good for biodiversity conservation. But can its diversity be conserved too? Let’s see.
Conservation and Management of Animal Genetic Resources in the Context of African Livestock Production Systems: The Case for In Situ and Ex Situ Conservation. “The multi-stakeholder breeders-researchers-decision-makers approach remains the most robust solution for sound management and preservation of biological units.” What, no farmers and local communities? No, that’s unfair: community-based conservation is discussed. But it doesn’t feel as central to the whole thing as it should be, somehow.
Genetic Diversity, Adaptation, Wild Introgression, and Coat Color Mutation of Golden Yak. After all, local communities have maintained the golden yak reasonably well.
Caprine dairy exploitation on the Iranian Plateau from the seventh millennium BC. Not to mention goats in Iran, and for thousands of years…
Old goats: 3,000 years of genetic connectivity of the domestic goat in Ireland. …and in Ireland, though for not quite as long, admittedly.
Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic. And local communities have been managing dog populations since way before farming even.
The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2000 years ago. Also, local communities managed early cats separately in the Levant and Egypt. Much later than dogs, but that’s cats for you.
A microbiome catalog of Chinese traditional artisanal cheeses provides insights into functional and microbial diversity. And don’t forget to conserve the associated microbiome too. I wonder what golden yak cheese is like.

April 2, 2026March 31, 2026

Nibbles: Crop mapping, Climate change impacts, Rice cheese, Andean blueberry, Rare apples, Hungarian genebank, Old seed collection

AI doesn’t recognize tropical agriculture very well.
So presumably it can’t easily be used in assessing climate change impacts in agricultural heritage systems? FAO has some ideas on how to do it.
Maybe rice heritage systems can be used to make cheese.
I bet Andean blueberry (Vaccinium floribundum) goes great with rice cheese.
But if not, heritage apples will probably do.
The Hungarian genebank is hoping to inject heritage grains into non-heritage agricultural systems. AI and FAO unavailable for comment.
Maybe AI can help with the mystery of this old seed collection at the Natural History Museum, London.

March 30, 2026March 31, 2026

Brainfood: Rice breeding, Cowpea diversity, Sorghum pangenome, Faba bean genome, Banana wild relative, Cassava breeding, Seed laws, Microbiome double

Linking genetic gains to food security outcomes: An assessment of IRRI’S rice breeding efforts in the Philippines and Indonesia. Plant breeding is a marathon, not a sprint.
Scaling up orphan crop research: genebank genetics highlight geographic structure in cultivated cowpea from 10 617 global accessions. Fortunately, there are “opportunity crops” like cowpea, and their genebank collections are being sequenced to help breeders.
A sorghum pangenome reference improves global crop trait discovery. A pangenome also helps with that marathon, like carb loading.
Allelic variation at a single locus distinguishes spring and winter faba beans. Even a better reference genome can help.
Going wild in banana breeding enables Fusarium-resistant hybrids with improved fruit quality. Wild relatives are like those drinks stations.
Genetic diversity assessment of hydrogen cyanide, total carotenoid content, and dry matter content in biofortified cassava using trait-linked SNP markers. Even next-door breeding programmes can be very different, and thus help each other across the finish line.
Cross-scale chronological analysis of Southeast Asia’s seed regulations and emerging challenges for seed commons. Seed regulations don’t always help breeders on their marathon.
Impacts of climate extremes on plant pathogens, microbiomes and plant health. Breeders may need some help from the microbiome on that run.
Dominance and natural suppression of bacterial plant pathogens across global soils. But the soil microbiome will have troubles of its own.

March 13, 2026March 12, 2026

Nibbles: Agricultural expansion maps, Brassica diversity, Not against the grain, South African seedbanks, Safer peanuts, Diné seedbank

Agriculture is bad for natural ecosystems. But great for maps, you have to admit.
Greens are good for you. And this is a great roundup of the latest scholarship on brassica evolution, domestication and diversity. You’ll find most of the paper quoted in past Brainfoods.
Grains are great. Especially with greens.
Thank goodness for household seed banking. Especially in conjunction with the formal kind.
All so we can breed a better peanut. And cut down more natural ecosystem?
No, there’s community genebanks for that too…