Threats

August 2, 2017

Xylella spreads shock

A few days ago the European Commission published its “List of demarcated areas established in the Union territory for the presence of Xylella fastidiosa as referred to in Article 4(1) of Decision (EU) 2015/789” and the news is not good for Corsica, the Balearics and assorted other areas.

A good summary of the story ¹ so far, and what’s in store for us, can be found on Small Things Considered in the form of a translation from the Catalan of a blog post by Mercè Piqueras.

A conference on European research into Xylella fastidiosa is to be held in Palma de Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, in 13-15 November 2017. Experts on Xylella from Europe and other parts of the world will participate in the meeting. These include Alexander Purcell, Rodrigo Almeida and Mathieu Vanhove, from the University of California-Berkeley, Carlos Chacón, from the University of Costa Rica, and Helvecio De La Coletta-Filho, from the Instituto Agranomico-Centro de Citricultura, Brazil.

Meanwhile, nurseries are mounting their own private Brexit.

August 2, 2017August 2, 2017

Nibbles: Seed saving, Craft saving, Talking sweet potatoes, Breeding eggplants, Cat domestication, Cary on Svalbard, US apple book, US strawberries, Forages newsletter, Banana double

94% is the new 75%. Here’s some of the survivors.
But how many crafts have we lost?
Win a prize for communicating about sweet potatoes.
Pre-breeding eggplants using their wild relatives.
Two waves of cat domestication.
Svalbard double.
350 buck’s worth of apple history.
10 cent’s worth of strawberry history.
Latest newsletter from those nice forages genetic resources conservation folks.
Bananas good and bad news.

July 31, 2017July 31, 2017

Brainfood: Soybean wild relatives, Durum diversity double, Intensifying livestock, Organic soil, Fodder millet, Brachiaria phylogeny, Use bottlenecks, Another spud, Sclerotinia stem rot, Canola resynthesized

Characterizing the allopolyploid species among the wild relatives of soybean: Utility of reduced representation genotyping methodologies. Allopolyploids are more than the sum of their diploid progenitors, but also less.
Genetic Diversity within a Global Panel of Durum Wheat (Triticum durum) Landraces and Modern Germplasm Reveals the History of Alleles Exchange. Modern varieties have a lot of rare alleles, and Ethiopian landraces may be the results of a separate domestication. But I’m not sure you can call this a core collection. Incidentally, genotyped by 35K Affymetrix Axiom wheat breeders array1 at TraitGenetics (Gatersleben, Germany).
Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits. Farmers know what they’re talking about. No word on any overlap with above. Incidentally, genotyped on the Infinium 90K wheat chip at TraitGenetics (Gatersleben, Germany). There’s a coincidence!
The role of livestock intensification and landscape structure in maintaining tropical biodiversity. If we want to keep more livestock while maintaining biodiversity, we should spare forests and avoid using agrochemical inputs. Assuming that dung beetles can stand in for tropical biodiversity as a whole.
Organic farming enhances soil microbial abundance and activity — A meta-analysis and meta-regression. Especially legumes in crop rotations and organic inputs.
Identification of promising sources for fodder traits in the world collection of pearl millet at the ICRISAT genebank. From over 300 to about a dozen.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Brachiaria Species and Breeding Populations. Fancy molecular markers agree with morphology.
Bottlenecks in the PGRFA use system: stakeholders’ perspectives. Need better policies, capacity and access.
Solanum jamesii: Evidence for Cultivation of Wild Potato Tubers by Ancestral Puebloan Groups. But does it make good chips?
Resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in wild Brassica species and the importance of Sclerotinia subarctica as a Brassica pathogen. Thanks to the U. of Warwick genebank.
Genetic changes in a novel breeding population of Brassica napus synthesized from hundreds of crosses between B. rapa and B. carinata. Any of them resistant to Sclerotinia?

July 24, 2017July 17, 2017

Brainfood: Kolli Hills diversity, Fergana diversity, Chinese rice terraces, ICRISAT prebreeding, Spanish CWR collecting, Edible flowers, Diversification, Prices vs volatility

An ethnographic exploration of perceptions of changes in dietary variety in the Kolli Hills, India. Cassava cash cropping has had unforeseen effects on dietary diversity.
Mapping and assessing crop diversity in the irrigated Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan. More crops on the edges.
An Analysis on Crops Choice and Its Driving Factors in Agricultural Heritage Systems—A Case of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System. Established for “red rice”, but that’s not enough.
Prebreeding Using Wild Species for Genetic Enhancement of Grain Legumes at ICRISAT. It’s not easy, but it’s been worth it.
A Multispecies Collecting Strategy for Crop Wild Relatives Based on Complementary Areas with a High Density of Ecogeographical Gaps. Collecting in Spain in “…top 10 selected complementary areas would allow the capture of 59 of the 88 targeted taxa and 31% of the 683 different taxa-ELC category combinations identified in the ecogeographical gaps.”
Antioxidant power, anthocyanin content and organoleptic performance of edible flowers. Tycoon Blue will be quite the marketing challenge.
Diversifying Food Systems in the Pursuit of Sustainable Food Production and Healthy Diets. And nary an edible flower mentioned.
Cereal price shocks and volatility in sub-Saharan Africa: what really matters for farmers’ welfare? Prices.

July 18, 2017July 18, 2017

Measuring the success of botanical gardens

Good to see Botanic Gardens Conservation International first technical review online, entitled Defining the botanic garden, and how to measure performance and success.

The definition part turns out to be a compendium of “criteria useful in defining a botanic garden.” The performance measures are rather long lists of indicators in the following areas, ranked by the percentage of correspondents who agreed with each measure:

Plant conservation
Scientific research
Collections
Horticulture
Public engagement and education
Sustainability and ethics
Business management and governance

Here’s the overall list:

Is there anything genebanks could learn from these?