Threats

January 15, 2021January 18, 2021

Working to understand and conserve genetic diversity

Just catching up on a couple of useful resources.

The Genetics Composition working group [of the Group on Earth Observations’s Biodiversity Observation Network] aims to develop, test and improve approaches for assessing and interpreting genetic diversity.

You can join it here. And thus contribute to the Genetic diversity targets and indicators proposed for the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. About which you can read more on the work blog, as it happens. The working group seems to have some overlap with the Conservation Genetic Coalition, which came out with its formal “Statement on genetic diversity in CBD” just before Christmas.

Meanwhile, over at USDA, there are posters on crop diversity and genebanks in multiple languages.

Gotta wonder whether any of this will reach the policy-makers, but one can hope, can’t one?

January 14, 2021January 15, 2021

Nibbles: Benchmarking, Unintended consequences, Kenyan seeds, WFP, China genebank, Evolutionary plant breeding, Citrus, Maize, Lotus silk, Azolla, Spanish genebank

How committed are 350 food companies to food system transformation? Well, take a wild guess…
Mind you, transformation is tricky.
A climate-smart seed system for Kenya? Would be transformative for sure.
Great that WFP got the Nobel Peace Prize, but they’re only part of the food system picture.
Another part is genebanks, as China recognizes.
One way to use all that material in genebanks is through evolutionary plant breeding.
Citrus: How it started. How it’s going. Meme alert.
Maize was taken back to Mexico from South America in ancient times. And those early farmers really knew how to process it for maximum benefit, something we’re forgetting.
A deep dive into lotus silk.
An even deeper dive into Azolla-covered paddies.
Esteban Hernández of the Andalusian genebank gets his 15 minutes.

January 13, 2021January 15, 2021

Brainfood: Topical forages, Ne, Pearl millet nutrition, Sorghum strategy, Tillering rice, Exchanging wheat, Recollecting wheat, Yeast domestication, Amazonian maize, Synthesizing groundnut, Strawberry dispersal, Soya structure, Remote change, Green Revolution, Unintended consequences

Tropical forage technologies can deliver multiple benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa. A meta-analysis. Including improved germplasm, which had on average 2.6 times higher herbage productivity than local controls.
Effective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees. Which is good because you can estimate it fairly easily. Well, kinda. It’s important because it’s one of the Genetic diversity targets and indicators proposed for the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Exploring the genetic variability and diversity of pearl millet core collection germplasm for grain nutritional traits improvement. 15 of 212 accessions are good for multiple nutrients.
Global Status of Sorghum Genetic Resources Conservation. The two biggest collections are updating their data.
Genomic basis of geographical adaptation to soil nitrogen in rice. Rice lost high tillering in high N conditions, but can get it back to cope with low N conditions.
The Economic Impact of Exchanging Breeding Material: Assessing Winter Wheat Production in Germany. It really pays for breeders to exchange material.
Comparative analysis of the gene pool structure of Triticum aethiopicum wheat accessions conserved ex situ and recollected in fields after 85 years. Vavilov’s collections are more diverse.
Evidence for Two Main Domestication Trajectories in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Linked to Distinct Bread-Making Processes. Being adapted for industrial and artisanal baking respectively.
Entrelaçado, a rare maize race conserved in Southwestern Amazonia. Gap-filling pays off. Hope we can re-collect it in 85 years’ time.
ValSten: a new wild species derived allotetraploid for increasing genetic diversity of the peanut crop (Arachis hypogaea L.). Playing God with peanuts.
Long-distance dispersal of the beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, from North America to Chile and Hawaii. For the birds.
Genetic architecture of wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.) populations originating from different East Asian regions. At least 3 separate groups, and the collection stored in Korea is pretty representative.
Supporting habitat conservation with automated change detection in Google Earth Engine. Fancy math can detect land use change quickly and accurately.
Health Impacts of the Green Revolution: Evidence from 600,000 births across the Developing World. Modern varieties reduced infant mortality by 2.4–5.3 percentage points (from 18%), with stronger effects for male infants and among poor households. Why we do all of the above?
Articulating the effect of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals. Yeah, not so fast…

January 4, 2021December 23, 2020

Brainfood: Perennial staples, Mainstreaming NUS, African veggies, Domestication, Gut microbiota, Yam domestication, Breeding strategies, Breeding history, Coffee diversity, Social networks, Vanuatu diets, Milpa, Decolonizing ABS, Restoration, Soil biodiversity double, Bambara groundnut seeds

Perennial Staple Crops: Yields, Distribution, and Nutrition in the Global Food System. Most perennial staple crops are not as well known or widely grown as annual staple crops, but maybe should be.
Determining appropriate interventions to mainstream nutritious orphan crops into African food systems. Look to the supply of seeds.
Diversity and conservation of traditional African vegetables: Priorities for action. Focus on conserving diversity West Tropical Africa and southern Cameroon. And then look to the supply of seeds everywhere, presumably.
The origins of agriculture: Intentions and consequences. Domestication happened pretty much all by itself, through co-evolution.
The role of the microbiota in human genetic adaptation. Co-evolution happened with the gut microbiota as well as with plants.
Genome analyses reveal the hybrid origin of the staple crop white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata). Unclear if people were involved.
Crop adaptation to climate change as a consequence of long‑term breeding. Better to focus on the slow but steady accumulation of small effects. By people, presumably.
Trends of genetic changes uncovered by Env- and Eigen-GWAS in wheat and barley. Maybe you don’t even need to measure the results of those small effects.
Genetic Diversity of Coffea arabica. We need to catalogue all germplasm collections, together with their marker profiles, and make material and data easily available. Easier said than done.
Farmers’ social networks and the diffusion of modern crop varieties in India. Caste affects adoption of new varieties.
From garden to store: local perspectives of changing food and nutrition security in a Pacific Island country. Those that have access to stores, and therefore enough food, don’t have a well balanced diet, and those that don’t have store have a better balanced diet but occasionally not enough food. No word on modern varieties.
The role of the milpa in food and nutritional security in households of Ocotal Texizapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Who needs stores?
Dilemmas of protection: decolonising the regulation of genetic resources as cultural heritage. But are the above natural or cultural resources?
A meta-analysis contrasting active versus passive restoration practices in dryland agricultural ecosystems. Just add water.
Soil biodiversity enhances the persistence of legumes under climate change. If you want to keep legumes, and thus diversity, in your vegetation under climate change, better maintain soil biodiversity. Or add water, presumably.
Soil microbial legacy drives crop diversity advantage: linking ecological plant‐soil feedback with agricultural intercropping. Same as above, but for intercropping.
Effect of high temperature drying on seed longevity of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) accessions. Initial drying at 45°C/35% RH for 8 days before moving to a more conventional 17°C/15% RH can be good for some accessions, but which?

December 14, 2020November 25, 2020

Brainfood: COVID & seeds, Livestock integration, Farm diversity, Diet diversity, Genetic diversity, Cassava landraces, Wild coffee, Variety registration, Kava kastom, Neolithic Europe

Viewpoint: COVID-19 and seed security response now and beyond. Think before you spread seeds around.
Integrated crop-livestock system with system fertilization approach improves food production and resource-use efficiency in agricultural lands. Integrating livestock in soybean production is good for the amount of energy produced per unit of nutrient applied, if that’s what floats your boat.
Holistic agricultural diversity index as a measure of agricultural diversity: A cross-sectional study of smallholder farmers in Lilongwe district of Malawi. An interesting way of measuring overall farm diversity. But is there a link with dietary diversity?
Dietary diversity scores, nutrient intakes and biomarkers vitamin B12, folate and Hb in rural youth from the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study. Dietary diversity is linked to better micronutrient status. But is there a link with genetic diversity?
Evaluating surrogates of genetic diversity for conservation planning. There’s nothing quite as good as neutral markers, alas.
Phenotypic diversity assessment within a major ex situ collection of wild endemic coffees in Madagascar. Never mind the species or genetic diversity, look at the trait variability.
Understanding cassava varietal preferences through pairwise ranking of gari‐eba and fufu prepared by local farmer–processors. Landraces are sometimes better than improved varieties.
Do the importations of crop products affect the genetic diversity from landraces? A study case in garlic (Allium sativum L.). Apparently not, surprisingly enough.
Overcoming barriers to the registration of new varieties. DUS needs genomics. But what about registering landraces? Do we need a completely separate system for that?
Legal geographies of kava, kastom and indigenous knowledge: Next steps under the Nagoya Protocol. One approach implementing Nagoya at the community level. But is it scalable?
New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry in Atlantic NW Europe. There was a long period of contact between local hunter-gatherers and incoming farmers, resulting in a transitional farmer-herder stage.