- The Food Systems Dashboard is a new tool to inform better food policy. 140 indicators from over 30 sources. Launching soon. Always good to have the data.
- Using Living Germplasm Collections to Characterize, Improve, and Conserve Woody Perennials. Nice review of the conservation of your favourite fruits in field genebanks (about 6% of the total number of crop accessions).
- Moving threatened plants: Story and practice. It sounds easy but it isn’t.
- Seed Germination after 30 Years Storage in Permafrost. Drying, drying, drying.
- Why Seed Physiology Is Important for Genebanking. Well, don’t you want to know why a seed lot is showing no or low germination after 30 years in permafrost? Or, alternatively, how long another one will continue to show good germination? Thought so.
- Habitat management alternatives for conservation forests in the temperate zone: Review, synthesis, and implications. 4 intervention alternatives: minimal, traditional, non-traditional and species-based. But we need long-term studies to really know what works best. Presumably longer than 30 years. This is an old paper, but it came up again because of this very thorough Twitter thread.
- High richness of exotic trees in tropical urban green spaces: Reproductive systems, fruiting and associated risks to native species. Go native. At least in Brazil. Someone should mash up with all the papers above.
- Mashes to Mashes, Crust to Crust. Presenting a novel microstructural marker for malting in the archaeological record. Look for cell wall breakdown in the grain’s aleurone layer.
- Powerful detection of polygenic selection and environmental adaptation in US beef cattle. Local adaptation is being eroded.
- Genomic-Led Potato Breeding for Increasing Genetic Gains: Achievements and Outlook. The future is true seed-propagated F1 diploid hybrids produced by crossing inbred diploid lines. Oh, plus gene editing here and there.
- Reply to: Evaluating two different models of peanut’s origin. Did the polyploidization event which gave rise to Arachis hypogaea occur ~450,000 years ago or <10,000 years ago? The authors who said the former double down.
- Lost and Found: Coffea stenophylla and C. affinis, the Forgotten Coffee Crop Species of West Africa. Let the interbreeding commence.
- The proportion of soil-borne pathogens increases with warming at the global scale. Be afraid.
Nibbles: Fusarium, Lactobacillus, Lycopersicon, Digitaria, Morus
- The latest on TR4 resistant banana varieties in Australia.
- Lactobacillus is in fact 25 genera.
- Greenhouse tomatoes pretty diverse after all?
- Digitaria: from weed to forage.
- London’s mulberries.
Brainfood: Bull, Durum, W2Px2, Urban hort, Maya ag, Nepal PGR, Bean GWAS, Pig landrace, DSI
- Reconstitution and modernization of lost Holstein male lineages using samples from a gene bank. Because all today’s bulls tracing back to exactly 2 born in the late 1880s is really not a very good thing.
- Comparative population genomic analyses of the reconstructed local breed “Nero di Parma” with other commercial and autochthonous Italian pig breeds. I like the idea of reconstructing a breed, but this one needs some more work or it will end up as the above.
- Durum wheat in the Mediterranean Rim: historical evolution and genetic resources. What have the Romans ever done for us? Well…
- Drinking biodiversity: a choice experiment on Franciacorta sparkling wines. Willingness to pay for biodiversity friendliness of high value products has its limits.
- Benefits of conserving agricultural genetic resources in Finland: Summary of the recent Finnish research and setting it in the international context. Still, there is some willingness to pay.
- The hidden potential of urban horticulture. Yes, even in Sheffield.
- Maize Politics and Maya Farmers’ Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Yucatán, 1450–1600. The sustainability of milpa depends on politics. ‘Twas ever thus.
- Genomics-assisted breeding for pigeonpea improvement. How do you know when you have enough genomics data?
- Agrobiodiversity and its Conservation in Nepal. 25,000 accessions around the world. But are they enough?
- Genetic Associations in Four Decades of Multi-environment Trials Reveal Agronomic Trait Evolution in Common Bean. 2 large genomic regions have been ruthlessly selected in relentless pursuit of the ideotype. Doesn’t sound like enough.
- Implications of biological information digitization: Access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources. “The solution lies in an international institution stepping forward, with a bold vision and strong mandate, capable of resolution.” Good luck with that.
Nibbles: Apple diversity, Nutrition, Cali crops, Sourdough 101, Orphans, Nomenclature, Wheat genome, CWR Week, Replanting
- The decline and fall of Golden Delicious.
- Jess Fanzo on the nutritional triple threat.
- Stunning map of California’s farms.
- A sourdough library. Have you listened to Jeremy’s podcast on the subject?
- Remembering forgotten crops.
- How to name plants.
- Tricky genome outwitted.
- Crop Science Society of America is celebrating Crop Wild Relative Week September 22-29.
- Chinese rural trees in cities.
Brainfood: Potato errors, Cryo maize, Fish ABS, Salamander poaching, Better niches, Diverse urban farms, Old growth, Space seeds, Breeding networks, Mating systems
- Genetic Identity in Genebanks: Application of the SolCAP 12K SNP Array in Fingerprinting and Diversity Analysis in the Global In Trust Potato Collection. 11 mismatches between 250 original samples and their putative in vitro counterparts.
- Maize seed cryo-storage modifies chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein, aldehyde and phenolics levels during early stages of germination. But do the effects last?
- Sharing aquatic genetic resources across jurisdictions: playing ‘chicken’ in the sea. Fish resources need cooperative governance too.
- Imminent extinction in the wild of the world’s largest amphibian. Because it’s a luxury food, believe it or not.
- Community structure informs species geographic distributions. Include coexisting species in niche models for better results.
- Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture. Planting soybeans, maize and vegetables around rice was bad for pests and good for profits in Shanghai.
- Where are Europe’s last primary forests? Mountains, mainly.
- Seeds in space. Orbiting Svalbard, anyone?
- Resistance Genes in Global Crop Breeding Networks. Networks for cassava, potato, rice, and wheat “are clustered due to phytosanitary and intellectual property regulations, and linked through CGIAR hubs.”
- Plant Mating Systems Often Vary Widely Among Populations. One estimate is never enough.