- Toward improving photosynthesis in cassava: Characterizing photosynthetic limitations in four current African cultivars. The landraces are better at photosynthesis than the improved cultivars. Maybe because the aim of producing the latter was pest and disease resistance rather than yield.
- Ecogeography of teosinte. Only 11% in protected areas.
- A map of climate change-driven natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana. Summer is coming.
- Urban backyards as a new model of pineapple germplasm conservation. Two thirds of citizen scientists did a really good job.
- Identification of unknown apple (Malus × domestica) cultivars demonstrates the impact of local breeding program on cultivar diversity. 330 unknown highly diverse trees in northern Minnesota, 264 unique genotypes, 76 matched to 20 named cultivars from local breeding program at the University of Minnesota, or imported Russian cultivars.
- Development of national crop wild relative conservation strategies in European countries. 30 countries: 13 in preparation stage, 14 with drafts, and 3 not yet started.
- Current knowledge and breeding perspectives for the spider plant (Cleome gynandra L.): a potential for enhanced breeding of the plant in Africa. I actually like the bitterness of the leaves.
- Condiments before Claudius: new plant foods at the Late Iron Age oppidum at Silchester, UK. Benefits of a customs union, I guess.
- Adaptation of S. cerevisiae to Fermented Food Environments Reveals Remarkable Genome Plasticity and the Footprints of Domestication. Genetics linked to lifestyle differences.
- Plant spectral diversity integrates functional and phylogenetic components of biodiversity and predicts ecosystem function. About 50% of variation in productivity in the Cedar Creek biodiversity experiment explained by spectral diversity.
African crops in Suriname
If you liked a Brainfood item about African crops in Suriname, you’ll love this interview with Edith Adjako, a woman of Maroon descent, recorded by one of the authors, Tinde van Andel.
Food Forever opportunity
The Crop Trust, as a provider of the Food Forever Initiative’s secretariat function, is seeking a Campaign Manager to coordinate the Initiative’s activities aimed at driving the changes needed to make our food systems more sustainable and prosperous. This multi-stakeholder effort is focused on raising awareness for the importance of protecting agricultural biodiversity worldwide, and build support for SDG Target 2.5.
Do you have what it takes or know someone who does? Share the Food Forever vacancy announcement with those who might be qualified and interested! The deadline to submit applications is 8 June 2018.
The timeless story of Glass Gem corn
This article was originally published in 2013 and has been updated because the story is timeless.
Migrating farmers
So apparently agriculture came into a new area with migrating farmers, rather than as a meme, in Southeast Asia as well as in Europe and South Asia. Or so ancient human DNA from Vietnam shows.
This three-pronged mixture of indigenous hunter-gatherers, early farmers, and a later wave of migrants parallels the prehistory of Europe, also illuminated by ancient DNA in recent years. There, migrating farmers brought agriculture from the Near East to Europe, where they mixed with local hunter-gatherers about 7000 years ago. Then later waves of Bronze Age migrants—in Europe’s case, herders from the Central Asian steppe—moved in and established the population structure scientists see today. (Researchers, including Reich, have also documented a similar pattern in South Asia.)
Always thought that was most likely. People will move before they’ll tell neighbours their secrets.