Wild relatives

August 7, 2014

Vavilov all over

Just a quick reminder that the BBC’s wonderful From Roots to Riches programme, charting the history of botany, tackles Nikolai Vavilov today. Coincidentally, one of Vavilov’s stamping grounds, Central Asia, has been featuring prominently at the 2014 Festival of Fruit, on now in Portland. Megan Lynch has been tweeting the hell out of it. Well worth following.

https://twitter.com/may_gun/status/497136905624899584

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

Brainfood: Luffa diversity, Pyrennean landraces, Sorghum diversity, Eucalypt diversity, French wheat, Genomic breeding, Hotspots, Protected areas, Apple diversity

Population structure and diversity in cultivated and wild Luffa species. Luffa hermaphrodita is the closest wild species.
Factors Enhancing Landrace in Situ Conservation in Home Gardens and Fields in Vall de Gósol, Catalan Pyrenees, Iberian Peninsula. It’s not just about landrace performance.
Sorghum Genetic Resources: Conservation and Diversity Assessment for Enhanced Utilization in Sorghum Improvement. 236,000 accessions, 38,000 at ICRISAT alone, of which 3 have proved useful. Wait, what?
Genetic Diversity in Eucalypts. It’s high, and needs to be used.
Explaining the decrease in the genetic diversity of wheat in France over the 20th century. Because breeding.
Animal-breeding schemes using genomic information need breeding plans designed to maximise long-term genetic gains. You can’t just wing it.
Remaining natural vegetation in the global biodiversity hotspots. 15%, and fragmented.
Targeting Global Protected Area Expansion for Imperiled Biodiversity. Increasing protected area coverage to Aichi targets would do little to achieve threatened species coverage in situ, at least for vertebrates.
Phenotypic evaluation and characterization of a collection of Malus species. German apple collection characterized the old school way, and none the worse for that.

July 28, 2014July 29, 2014

Brainfood: Greek olives, Slovak grapes, Wild cotton, Livestock breeding, Urban veggies, Dismal millet, Beautiful plumage, Nutritious millet, Kiwifruit double

Genetic structure of the Greek olive germplasm revealed by RAPD, ISSR and SSR markers. Reflects usage.
Genotyping of Vitis vinifera L. within the Slovak national collection of genetic resources. Unclear whether it reflects usage.
Molecular confirmation of species status for the allopolyploid cotton species, Gossypium ekmanianum Wittmack. It has been hiding in collections as “wild” G. hirsutum, but it really isn’t.
North American animal breeding and production: meeting the needs of a changing landscape. We’ll need a better fit of genotype to production environment, better meat quality, better animal health and decreased residual feed intake; climate change will make it more difficult, but it will still be possible, especially using new genomic tools.
Urban agriculture: a global analysis of the space constraint to meet urban vegetable demand. We’re going to need bigger cities, to grow enough vegetables in them, to feed them. No, wait…
Niche Markets for Agrobiodiversity Conservation: Preference and Scale Heterogeneity Effects on Nepalese Consumers’ WTP for Finger Millet Products. That’s Willingness to Pay. And there is a bit of the population with enough of it to suggest that a price premium could translate into more acreage. And maybe more public investment.
Selection and Crossbreeding in Relation to Plumage Color Inheritance in Three Chinese Egg Type Duck Breeds (Anas platyrhynchos). Hybrids are better layers, but then you can lose the desired plumage. Here’s how to have your beautiful duck and eat it too.
Micronutrient Density and Stability in West African Pearl Millet — Potential for Biofortification. There is some, but there would be more if some Indian material was used in breeding too.
Genetic diversity in kiwifruit polyploid complexes: insights into cultivar evaluation, conservation, and utilization. Interploid crosses can increase genetic diversity. The red-fleshed cultivars are genetically distinct. Red? Really?
Natural hybridization, introgression breeding, and cultivar improvement in the genus Actinidia. We should collect new material in natural hybrid zones.

July 27, 2014July 25, 2014

Nibbles: Pig genes, Eating pork, Mesoamerican crops, Apple family farming, Global food security, Wild food in Europe, Student crop videos, Important plants, Teff, Finger millet, Pacific NW grains, African veggies, Genius mangoes

Asian genes in European pigs are a good thing.
How about American pigs though?
Great Spanish language cacao infographic. And more along the same lines.
Innovative apple family farming in the Tyrol.
Not sure that will be much use in terms of global food security, as per this recent review, but you never know. Because, you know, climate change?
Well, there’s always wild food. Though in some places more than others.
Student videos on the origin of food plants.
But did any of them change their lives?
Oxfam thinks teff can change lives.
Different part of same continent, different grain to revitalize.
Different continent, different grains to revitalize.
Bah, who needs cereals when you have indigenous vegetables?
Wait, what? Seedless mangoes? Why is this not first-page news?

July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

Nibbles: BBC series, Pacific breadfruit & yams, Sustainable diets, Cuba atlas, MSB standards, Biofortification on radio, German food scandals, Mexican foods, Non-PC food, CWR interviews, Old Irish sources, ITPGRFA funding, Crop Trust presentations, ISHS, Neural crest and domestication, Wheat genome

That BBC mega-doc on botany just started.
PGR News from the Pacific: breadfruit and yams. My former colleagues keeping busy.
How sustainable is your diet? Here comes the data.
Cool historical atlas of Cuba has some agricultural stuff.
The Millennium Seed Bank’s Seed Conservation Standards, final draft.
Kojo Nnamdi Show on biofortification.
German sausage and beer industries hit by scandal. What the hell will Luigi survive on?
Maize beer, maybe. And amaranth.
Thankfully neither of which have objectionable names.
Nigel Maxted of University of Birmingham on crop wild relatives.
His mate and mine Ehsan Dulloo of Bioversity, on the same thing.
Ancient Irish apples, both wild and cultivated.
Seed Treaty is short of funds, but they are working on it.
The Crop Trust is on Slideshare!
Banana symposium coming up in August.
A theory of mammal domestication.
First stab at the bread wheat genome. A tour de force.