Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

August 2, 2017

Xylella spreads shock

A few days ago the European Commission published its “List of demarcated areas established in the Union territory for the presence of Xylella fastidiosa as referred to in Article 4(1) of Decision (EU) 2015/789” and the news is not good for Corsica, the Balearics and assorted other areas.

A good summary of the story ((Which we’ve blogged about a couple of times here.)) so far, and what’s in store for us, can be found on Small Things Considered in the form of a translation from the Catalan of a blog post by Mercè Piqueras.

A conference on European research into Xylella fastidiosa is to be held in Palma de Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, in 13-15 November 2017. Experts on Xylella from Europe and other parts of the world will participate in the meeting. These include Alexander Purcell, Rodrigo Almeida and Mathieu Vanhove, from the University of California-Berkeley, Carlos Chacón, from the University of Costa Rica, and Helvecio De La Coletta-Filho, from the Instituto Agranomico-Centro de Citricultura, Brazil.

Meanwhile, nurseries are mounting their own private Brexit.

August 1, 2017August 1, 2017

Wheat is somewhat ignored, in some places

That’s according to Bill Gates, on his visit to The Bread Lab. May come as a surprise to CIMMYT and ICARDA, and to their partners at TraitGenetics. Or to the bunch of Italian farmers Jeremy interviewed for the latest Eat This Podcast. Or to everyone at the Land Institute and elsewhere working on perennial wheat. Maybe Mr Gates meant at his Foundation.

July 31, 2017July 31, 2017

Brainfood: Soybean wild relatives, Durum diversity double, Intensifying livestock, Organic soil, Fodder millet, Brachiaria phylogeny, Use bottlenecks, Another spud, Sclerotinia stem rot, Canola resynthesized

Characterizing the allopolyploid species among the wild relatives of soybean: Utility of reduced representation genotyping methodologies. Allopolyploids are more than the sum of their diploid progenitors, but also less.
Genetic Diversity within a Global Panel of Durum Wheat (Triticum durum) Landraces and Modern Germplasm Reveals the History of Alleles Exchange. Modern varieties have a lot of rare alleles, and Ethiopian landraces may be the results of a separate domestication. But I’m not sure you can call this a core collection. Incidentally, genotyped by 35K Affymetrix Axiom wheat breeders array1 at TraitGenetics (Gatersleben, Germany).
Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits. Farmers know what they’re talking about. No word on any overlap with above. Incidentally, genotyped on the Infinium 90K wheat chip at TraitGenetics (Gatersleben, Germany). There’s a coincidence!
The role of livestock intensification and landscape structure in maintaining tropical biodiversity. If we want to keep more livestock while maintaining biodiversity, we should spare forests and avoid using agrochemical inputs. Assuming that dung beetles can stand in for tropical biodiversity as a whole.
Organic farming enhances soil microbial abundance and activity — A meta-analysis and meta-regression. Especially legumes in crop rotations and organic inputs.
Identification of promising sources for fodder traits in the world collection of pearl millet at the ICRISAT genebank. From over 300 to about a dozen.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Brachiaria Species and Breeding Populations. Fancy molecular markers agree with morphology.
Bottlenecks in the PGRFA use system: stakeholders’ perspectives. Need better policies, capacity and access.
Solanum jamesii: Evidence for Cultivation of Wild Potato Tubers by Ancestral Puebloan Groups. But does it make good chips?
Resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in wild Brassica species and the importance of Sclerotinia subarctica as a Brassica pathogen. Thanks to the U. of Warwick genebank.
Genetic changes in a novel breeding population of Brassica napus synthesized from hundreds of crosses between B. rapa and B. carinata. Any of them resistant to Sclerotinia?

July 28, 2017

New round of Darwin Initiative open for business

The Darwin Initiative provides grants for projects working to help developing countries meet their objectives under:

the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS)

the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)

the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES)

The next round of funding is open for applications.

Good luck, everyone.

July 25, 2017July 25, 2017

A sustainable way forward for public plant breeding

How can public plant breeding programs reap royalties and research investments while keeping their cultivars in the public domain?

Good question. For some answers, see the proceedings on the 2016 Intellectual Property Rights for Public Plant Breeding Summit, released yesterday by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Here’s the organizer, Bill Tracy:

For many years now, we have heard how public plant breeding has been on the decline. What was exciting about this meeting is that we heard real world solutions implemented by colleges and technology transfer agencies that not only support current cultivar development but have increased the number of plant breeders, crop varieties released, and royalties generated.

In an era of continuing consolidation on the private side, it’s good to see public sector plant breeding making a stand.