- USDA vegetable crop curator tells it like it is.
- $5 million to find more Striga resistance genes in sorghum.
- Wild potato herbarium specimens find good home.
- How two New World strawberries got together in the Old World and then spread all over the world.
- Hallucinogenic honey: what could possibly go wrong?
- First farmers gave a fig.
- The other of all agrobiodiversity map mashups.
- Cool school project on crop diversity in Europe.
- In other news, “Columbusing” is a thing.
- Private sector investment in conservation: Turning “small and new” into “big and familiar.”
Brainfood: Banana diversity, Cacao and CC, Coffee and CC, Zosya diversity, Certification, Genetic surrogates, Potato diversity, Food sovereignty, Swiss wheat, Seed storage, Golden potato
- Diversity and morphological characterization of Musa spp. in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. New cultivars still being discovered.
- A review of research on the effects of drought and temperature stress and increased CO2 on Theobroma cacao L., and the role of genetic diversity to address climate change. We have the diversity. But for how long?
- Climate change adaptation of coffee production in space and time. Gonna need Plans B and C. But do we have the diversity?
- Evaluation and Breeding of Zoysiagrass Using Japan’s Natural Genetic Resources. Stick to morphology.
- Where are commodity crops certified, and what does it mean for conservation and poverty alleviation? Less for poverty alleviation than for conservation. But more and better spatial data needed, especially on organic certification.
- Environmental and geographic variables are effective surrogates for genetic variation in conservation planning. Phew!
- Genome diversity of tuber-bearing Solanum uncovers complex evolutionary history and targets of domestication in the cultivated potato. More diversity in the landraces compared to wild species than in any other crop, few genes involved in early improvement, and different loci for adaptation to uplands and lowlands; also, wild relatives involved in diversification of long-day types.
- Agricultural biodiversity is sustained in the framework of food sovereignty. Peasants feed the world.
- Crop domestication facilitated rapid geographical expansion of a specialist pollinator, the squash bee Peponapis pruinosa. Bee follows crop follows people.
- Unlocking the diversity of genebanks: whole-genome marker analysis of Swiss bread wheat and spelt. Early breeders missed some stuff.
- A probabilistic model for tropical tree seed desiccation tolerance and storage classification. Predict storage behaviour from morphology.
- Potential of golden potatoes to improve vitamin A and vitamin E status in developing countries. Here we go again.
Nibbles: CWR, Vavilov, Russian wheat, Spinifex, Copal, Pacific veggies, ITPGRFA, GHUs, Brewing, Sustainable meat, Livestock domestication
- FoodTank does crop wild relatives.
- “The inveterate collector who understand the poetics of diversity had left behind a new plant unknown to science.”
- That “inveterate collector” would probably approve of this.
- A VERY tasty grass.
- Chew on that spinifex while burning this stuff for the full botanical multi-sensory experience..
- Pacific people told to cultivate their gardens for health and nutrition. And climate change adaptation.
- Progress on Farmers’ Rights. Incremental, but still.
- The unsung heroes of germplasm distribution get together.
- Reviving the fortunes of NY hops through fancy breeding.
- Too much plant protein is going to animals, so let’s give them insects instead.
- Because animals are bad for equality anyway.
Brainfood: Landrace adaptation, Scarascia Mugnozza, Scuba rice, Pineapple pollen, Wild French carrots, Saudi chickens, Fava diversity, Banana ripening, Wild wheat, Bavarian vetch
- Towards the Genomic Basis of Local Adaptation in Landraces. Genomic scans for adaptation will solve everything.
- International Instruments for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: An Historical Appraisal. The Italian connection.
- Genetic potentiality of indigenous rice genotypes from Eastern India with reference to submergence tolerance and deepwater traits. There’s much polymorphism at Sub1 linked microsatellite loci.
- Cryopreservation of pollen of wild pineapple accessions. Complementarity rules!
- Genetic diversity and taxonomic aspects of wild carrot in France. Someone’s a splitter.
- Characterisation of Saudi native chicken breeds: a case study of morphological and productive traits. All like it hot.
- SSR analysis of genetic diversity and structure of the germplasm of faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Separate Middle Eastern and N+E African groups. Pass the chianti.
- Natural variation in banana varieties highlights the role of melatonin in postharvest ripening and quality. So does that mean that you could market some varieties as a jetlag cure?
- Genetic Characterization of Genetic Resources of Aegilops tauschii, Wheat D Genome Donor, Newly Collected in North Caucasia. Confirmation of two genepools within the species.
- Do seed transfer zones for ecological restoration reflect the spatial genetic variation of the common grassland species Lathyrus pratensis? Not in Bavaria.
Nibbles: Halloween roots, Fred’s great potatoes, Ellis on TV, CIP genebank online, Weird potato, Weird watermelon, Paul Gepts, Caucasian sheep, Livestock hybrids, COP23
- Halloween is an agricultural thing. Basically.
- Frederick the Great had a thing for potatoes. Among other things.
- CIP genebank manager on TV. He has a thing for potatoes too. As you can tell from his new website.
- Pop quiz: Can you find this N American potato in the CIP genebank?
- The extraordinary story of the ancient Native American crookneck watermelon. Bet it goes well with S. jamesii.
- Paul Gepts gets award. No word on his thoughts on potatoes, but he does like beans.
- Transhumance lives in the Caucasus.
- What in tarnation is a zubron?
- Making the case for climate action on agriculture at COP23. And vice versa.