Wild relatives of apples, cherries, almonds and grapes are to be found in this landscape, apparently. More later on my trip.
A brave new world for crop wild relatives
Thanks to Dr Brian Ford-Lloyd of the University of Birminghan in the UK for the following contribution.
A ground breaking publication in Nature Genetics points to the future for the genetic evaluation of crop wild relative germplasm. A group of Chinese scientists have used Illumina Next Generation Resequencing to produce whole genome sequences of 17 wild species of soybean. Only 17 wild species? But this is just the start for evaluating crop wild relatives on a completely different level than before — adding a different perspective to the analysis of genetic diversity, the identification of important adaptive differences between species, and locating novel allelic variation that can be used in crop improvement. One important result from the work is that they uncovered genetic variation in the wild species that has been clearly lost in cultivated material.
Nibbles: Horticulture, Phylogeny, Wheat stripe, Chaffey, Shrubs, AnGR, Spirulina, Capparis, Cricetus, Biofortification
- Online map of horticultural projects. Mash it up with the CGIAR map, anyone?
- Evolution and taxonomy of crop groups: Annonaceae and Allium.
- Dealing with wheat stripe in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Some good news there.
- Nigel Chaffey does his usual thing. Inimitable.
- Today’s thing on what Africa needs for this Greener or Double Green or whatever Revolution everyone wants it to have.
- Latest from FAO on what’s happening in livestock genetic resources conservation around the world.
- And the latest wonder food. I’ll pass, thanks.
- Improving capers through radiation. One of those things where you have to wonder whether it’s really all worth it.
- The genetic diversity of the Polish common hamster. Wait, what?
- Biofortified crops to the rescue. Again. Gotta wonder about overexposure. The backlash, when it inevitably comes, is going to be a doozy.
Nibbles: Maasai, Arbutus, Yak, China, USA
- ILRI video on helping herders with that climate change thing.
- Nutritional composition of Strawberry tree fruits.
- The genetic history of the yak.
- Chinese food archaeology: noodles and fruits.
- Colonial food in early America.
Nibbes: Opium, Crop Wild Relatives, Coconuts, Multicropping, Plant Health, Genebank portal
- Sustainable alternative to opium. Still waiting for my man.
- “Crop Wild Relative community calls for united global efforts“. Good to know.
- Small-scale coconut growers to benefit from Kasaragod Declaration?
- Australian farmer doubles number of species, doubles yield shock.
- Plant health clinics take expertise where it is needed most. Now for the mobile edition …
- Crowdsourcing improvements to a portal to genetic information. Now there’s an idea.