Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
40 years of AVRDC celebrated. Lots more stuff on vegetables below, so stick around if that grabbed you. Breeding with farmers, an ICARDA manual. Are there any examples with vegetables, I wonder? Let’s Go Local! See the ABC piece before it disappears from the front page. But it’s not just karat bananas that you need, …
We’re of course all holding our breath, are we not, over the imminent appearance of the American Journal of Botany Special Issue on what next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies mean for the plant sciences. A few teasers are already out on the journal’s website, and it looks like the papers will come out in piecemeal fashion …
Continue reading “Next-generation sequencing and genebanks: a teaser”
Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important crop in Ethiopia. Its vital importance in the Ethiopian agriculture emanates from its resistance to drought, salinity, waterlogging and low soil fertility. However, low levels of the amino acids methionine and tryptophan and the presence of the neurotoxin β-N-oxalyl-L-α,β-diaminopropanoic acid (ODAP) in the seeds are the major …
You may remember a little Brainfood item about the Brazilian collection of ornamental bananas. Ok, now thanks to ProMusa you can see some of these cool plants.
Astute followers of the Commenters to our blog will know that James Nguma, an enterprising Kenyan, is looking for scientific names for some trees his group is interested in. ((And doubtless Luigi’s clan is already at work on that.)) James’ comment comes at an opportune moment. Scidev.net summarizes an article by researchers at the World …
Continue reading “From little acorns (and other tree seeds) mighty oaks (and other trees) grow”