- “It’s embarrassing if your lab is the only one that isn’t sharing data.” One would hope so, but…
- CRISPR snips out virus from banana genome.
- CIP-related potato varieties are planted on about 1.43 Mha, or 19% of total area.
- Saving Peru’s agricultural biodiversity is more than just about markets.
- I suspect the same is the case for Madagascar’s wild coffees.
- Studying evolution experimentally. Using mice. Plants would have been cooler.
- More on Access to Seeds Index: “Seeds of Nope” seems unnecessarily negative, though.
Crop wild relatives get special treatment
…this Special Volume of Plant Genetic Resources, Characterization and Evaluation is very timely as CWR science finally moves beyond the theoretical to the increasing applied, to meet breeders and consumers growing demands. It includes prioritized CWR inventories at different geographical levels viz. national (Bissessur et al., 2019; Dickson et al., 2019), regional (Allen et al., 2019; Fitzgerald et al., 2019) levels. Tools to facilitate conservation planning have also been developed (Magos Brehm et al., 2019; Holness et al., 2019), and regional conservation strategies and approaches have been developed (Allen et al., 2019; Kell et al., 2016).
Ok, the whole thing is not open access, but at least the introduction to the Special Issue is. And since I’m on the subject, there’s a nice summary just out of the state of wild Coffea in Madagascar. Coincidentally, one of the paper in the special issue is on the CWR of Mauritius, among which Coffea features very prominently.
The wild coffee species that grow in northern Madagascar are genetically similar to Coffea species found on Grande Comore in the Comoros – a volcanic archipelago off the east coast of Africa, near Mozambique. Other species have spread from Madagascar to Mauritius and Reunion Island.
Brainfood: Sinotato, Photophenomics, Bangladesh lentils, Vernalization gene, Droning on, Pathogen identification, Human domestication, Citrus cryo, Purple rain, Teff diversity, Mining biodiversity lit, Wild dates, Buckwheat improvement, Panicum genome
- Potato and Food Security in China. Huge expansion, mainly due to product diversification, but still room for growth. But how will it end? Like bananas?
- Converging phenomics and genomics to study natural variation in plant photosynthetic efficiency. Chlorophyll fluorescence technologies are revolutionizing phenotyping. Now everyone will want another gadget.
- Is DNA fingerprinting the gold standard for estimation of adoption and impacts of improved lentil varieties? It’s not about yield.
- A florigen paralog is required for short-day vernalization in a pooid grass. Nope, I can’t say it better than the press release: Ancient gene duplication gave grasses multiple ways to wait out winter.
- Drones for Conservation in Protected Areas: Present and Future. Sure, why not. On-farm too?
- Genome-Enhanced Detection and Identification (GEDI) of plant pathogens. Sort of barcoding for bugs.
- Self-domestication in Homo sapiens: Insights from comparative genomics. There’s a domestication syndrome for humans too.
- Cryopreservation of Citrus limon (L.) Burm. F Shoot Tips Using a Droplet-vitrification Method. Well, at least two varieties work.
- Farmers Drive Genetic Diversity of Thai Purple Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Landraces. Well, who else?
- Genetic Diversity of Ethiopian Tef [(Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] Released and Selected Farmers’ Varieties along with Two Wild Relatives as Revealed by Microsatellite Markers. The landraces are distinct from the released varieties, and more diverse.
- Biodiversity Observations Miner: A web application to unlock primary biodiversity data from published literature. Nice enough, but you need to upload a PDF corpus. Why not let it loose on the internet?
- Cross-species hybridization and the origin of North African date palms. I always knew that P. theophrasti would come in useful.
- Revisiting the versatile buckwheat: reinvigorating genetic gains through integrated breeding and genomics approach. Start with a database, core collection, and wild relatives. Gratifyingly old-fashioned.
- The genome of broomcorn millet. That would be Panicum miliaceum.
Nibbles: A2S2019, ICRISAT seeds, High protein rice, American grapes, Religion & diet, Australian NUS
- Access to Seeds comes out with 2019 edition. Not much change, alas. LATER: Ok, I stand corrected. And spanked.
- Maybe this ICRISAT online seed tool will help with that access.
- How many people will have access to this high protein rice?
- Indigenous American grape species: more than just rootstocks.
- The religion of diets.
- Bush tucker is a religion for some.