- Chemical and microbial properties of Chinese traditional low-salt fermented whole fish product Suan yu. “The values of Enterobacteria and Pseudomonads were under the detection limits in six different brands” is about the best that can be said for it.
- Tapping into yeast diversity. Some new, diverse wild lineages in China may tell us important things about yeast ecology, evolution and domestication.
- Genome size variation among sex types in dioecious and trioecious Caricaceae species. Lots of retrotransposons, and sex chromosomes in some species.
- The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication. The diet preceded the crops.
- Genetic diversity and population structure in the rare Algodones sunflower (Helianthus niveus ssp. tephrodes). Low diversity overall, but some populations quite distinct. Which tells you about how to conserve it.
- Albania, the domestication country for pomegranate (Punica granatum L.). Well, maybe.
- Mixtures of genetically modified wheat lines outperform monocultures. Two transgenes are better than one.
- Climate change impacts on crop productivity in Africa and South Asia. -8% overall. The surprise? Sorghum declines more than maize in Africa, less in S Asia.
Nibbles: Audacity of hops, Potato catalogues, Heirloom apples, Heirloom wheat, UK systematics, Millennial olives, CIAT celebrates, IITA in the news, Agrobiodiversity marketing awards, Insects in orchards, Quinoa
- U. of Minnesota has a poster of the pedigree of hop varieties which I covet.
- Cool catalogue of the native potatoes of a bit of Ecuador. Via Red Electronica de la Papa.
- Stark photos of a few heirloom apples, with descriptions.
- Meanwhile, Brockwell Bake sows some heritage wheats. With stark photo
- Report on the state of UK capacity in taxonomy. How many countries have reports on the state of their taxonomy? Anyway, here’s some of that capacity at work.
- Farrago on some old olives in Jerusalem.
- CIAT celebrates 45 years of existence.
- Meanwhile, IITA pushes soil fertility management and cassava.
- Arca-Deli Awards awarded.
- Defra’s latest Biodiversity News has stuff on the importance of insect biodiversity to pest control and pollination in orchards.
- The International Year of Quinoa, which is next year, has a website, and all sorts of associated social networking goodness. And here’s a nice little student video on the crop, for a somewhat different perspective.
Nibbles: Using genebanks, Fonio collecting, Bean breeding, Caribbean PGR networking, Cotton breeding, Conflict prevention, Beer foam characterization, Soil microbes, 7ITS
- IRRI DG on the Kasalath story and its wider implications.
- French collect fonio. Glad someone is.
- CIAT bean breeder complains about having too much diversity to play with.
- Caribbean needs a regional genebank, catalogue of germplasm. What, still?
- Improving cotton in Texas one (or two) chromosomes at the time.
- Managing livestock-predator conflicts. The name of the game is prevention.
- Candidate gene for improved beer foam identified. I knew all that genomics stuff would come in useful eventually.
- Diverse root biome helps plants survive drought.
- Gear up for the 7th International Triticeae Symposium, or 7ITS as it is widely, if unfortunately, known.
Nibbles: Potato/banana, European landrace project, GCARD2, Ankole in Uganda, Crowdsourcing gadgets, Cacao renewal, African food, Australian beans
- BBC pounces on CCAFS report previously trumpeted by Bioversity. Bottom line: adaptation may mean changing crops. Bottom bottom line: Will they have enough diversity?
- PGR Secure newsletter is out.
- GCARD2 rumbles on.
- The ankole cow is threatened. What, still?
- Tracking ash dieback. And since we’re talking gadgets…
- Old cacao trees being replaced in Nigeria. No word on what’s happening to the diversity they represent. Maybe it’s ex situ already? Maybe it’s not significant? I dunno, I would just like to be told.
- Slow Food documents African foods. Thankfully no ugali.
- Aussies put together cool bean collection.
Brainfood: Pedodiversity, Rice and CC, Bean domestication, Cassava mealybug, Grape relationships, Habitat conservation, Extinction and CC, Local provenance, Speciation, Breeding for climate change, Melon diversity, Eucalypt mating, Diverse croppping systems
- Archive and refugia of soil organisms: applying a pedodiversity framework for the conservation of biological and non-biological heritages. They want to set up a network of soil reserves. To conserve the likes of dung beetles, among other things (see last week’s Brainfood). Someone will no doubt mash this up with nature reserves and other protected areas in due course.
- Climate warming over the past three decades has shortened rice growth duration in China and cultivar shifts have further accelerated the process for late rice. One degree increase in temperature translates to about a 4 day shortening of growth period. But the problem would not be so bad if short-duration cultivars were not being increasingly used. No, I don’t fully get it either, but it seems interesting.
- Multiple origins of the determinate growth habit in domesticated common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). The gene in question, part of the domestication syndrome, has been messed about in a variety of distinct and independent ways.
- The Cassava Mealybug (Phenacoccus manihoti) in Asia: First Records, Potential Distribution, and an Identification Key. Bad news for “the southern end of Karnataka in India, the eastern end of the Ninh Thuan province in Vietnam, and in most of West Timor in Indonesia.” No resistance. Yet.
- Genetic relationship between Chinese wild Vitis species and American and European Cultivars based on ISSR markers. It is limited. That goes for the wilds too.
- Synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem service supply, biodiversity, and habitat conservation status in Europe. What’s good for the environment is good for the environment. Or if you prefer the non-smartass version, get it from the horse’s mouth…
- Development of best practices for ex situ conservation of radish germplasm in the context of the crop genebank knowledge base. See the results for yourself.
- How does climate change cause extinction? Not so much because of intolerance to high temperatures as due to disruption of relationships with other species, as it turns out. But it’s a small sample.
- Testing the “Local Provenance” Paradigm: A Common Garden Experiment in Cumberland Plain Woodland, Sydney, Australia. No difference between locally sourced and more “exotic” provenances. Bang goes that paradigm.
- Mapping the genomic architecture of ecological speciation in the wild: does linkage disequilibrium hold the key? Clever shortcut allows identification of key genes separating phenotypically distinct but admixing species. I think. It’s complicated.
- Breeding Strategies for Adaptation of Pearl Millet and Sorghum to Climate Variability and Change in West Africa. Anything that keeps diversity in the system, basically.
- Estimation of phenotypic divergence in a collection of Cucumis melo, including shelf-life of fruit. Old-fashioned morphological characterization of small Indian collection confirms distinction between botanical varieties. Not many people hurt.
- Pollen diversity matters: revealing the neglected effect of pollen diversity on fitness in fragmented landscapes. Fragmentation means lower pollen diversity in Eucalyptus sp., means lower progeny fitness, and not just because of inbreeding.
- Increasing Cropping System Diversity Balances Productivity, Profitability and Environmental Health. So let me get this straight. You mean to tell me that a little bit of industrial agriculture (synthetic inputs) can combine with a little bit of ecoagriculture (cropping diversity) to give you something that’s kinda better than both?