As you may have noticed, I’ve been on a mission lately to document in Brainfood the progress that genebanks are making. Because I needed some good vibes, you know? So last week there was a post on how the “software” of genebanks — that is, how they function and are managed — is being upgraded. The week before there was a round-up of core collections, one of the main things genebanks do to get their contents used more, showing that this oldish technology is still up and running, and even occasionally making a difference. And then this week I did a Brainfood on the new “hardware” some genebanks are using — or could be using. Meaning cool modern tools of different kinds to help out at difference stages of the conservation-to-use workflow. But I’m sure I missed some things. Surely I missed some things? Let me know in the comments. Please. For the vibes, you understand.
Brainfood: Taxonomic identification, Niche mapping, Harvest tracking, Drones, Phenomics, Yield analysis
- Review of herbarium plant identification of crop wild relatives using convolutional neural network models. Cool tech helps you figure out which species is which. Now you can map them properly I guess.
- Habitat prediction mapping for prioritizing germplasm collection areas of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) in India using BioClim model. Having mapped them, another cool tech helps you figure out where to collect them.
- Harvest Date Monitoring in Cereal Fields at Large Scale Using Dense Stacks of Sentinel-2 Imagery Validated by Real Time Kinematic Positioning Data. And when.
- Drone methods and educational resources for plant science and agriculture. In the field, cool tech could help you find and collect them. And not just that…
- Foliar disease resistance phenomics of fungal pathogens: image-based approaches for mapping quantitative resistance in cereal germplasm. Having collected them, more cool tech helps you evaluate them.
- Machine learning reveals drivers of yield sustainability in five decades of continuous rice cropping. Finally, having evaluated them over many years, cool tech helps you figure out what’s going on.
Brainfood: Genebank metrics, Genebank reviews, Botanic gardens ABS, Genebank practical guides, Germplasm User Groups
- A Proposal for Genebank Metrics to Enhance Collection Management. A framework of 10 mandatory and 38 optional metrics for orthodox-seed genebank collections (covering size, documentation, conservation, availability, distribution etc.) to improve performance, transparency and collaboration in genebank management.
- Genebank Peer Reviews: A powerful tool to improve genebank quality and promote collaboration. Starting in 2019, a peer-review system among European genebanks involving self-assessments, site visits and expert evaluation has helped improve practices, strengthen capacity, and foster knowledge exchange, though it requires sustained resources and a pool of experts. I suspect they’re using at least some of the above metrics.
- Could botanic gardens use the Plant Treaty to regulate plant material more effectively? Yes they could, just like genebanks already do. And yes, I am sure there are metrics.
- Release of two new practical guides to support ex situ conservation in genebanks. FAO publishes new guides to help genebanks implement the Genebank Standards in practice for non-orthodox seeds and cryopreservation, aiming to reduce technical barriers and improve consistency. Now for some metrics.
- Unlocking genebanks for farmer resilience: Assessing the impact of ‘Germplasm User Groups’ in enhancing farmers’ access to diversity. In five African countries, forming “Germplasm User Groups” connecting farmers to national genebanks increases awareness, improves access to crop diversity, generates seed sharing spillovers, and hopefully helps farmers respond to climate-related challenges.
Want to know what AI makes of the above? “Genebanks are sharpening their tools: new metrics set benchmarks for performance, peer reviews foster collaboration, and the Plant Treaty offers clearer rules for sharing, FAO’s practical guides make standards easier to apply, while Germplasm User Groups show how farmers benefit when genebanks open their doors.” Sounds good to me. But to what extent will also this be adopted around the world, and will it last?
Master PGRFA in the Philippines
The UPLB Graduate School Admission Portal for the second semester of the 2025-26 school year is now open, so if you want to apply for the MSc in Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Management, you have until 30 September. There are apparently some scholarships available.
A breed is a breed is a breed?
I feel maybe yesterday’s Nibble on the definition of a “breed” may have been a bit too laconic, even for me. So let me give a bit more context.
The link was to a YouTube playlist, which was described thus (link added):
The presentations in this playlist are from the webinar on “Genomic assessment of genetic variation and the future of the breed concept”, originally held on 12.12.2024 under the umbrella of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). This represents the culmination of collaborative work by a diverse group of experts from institutions from all around the world to prepare materials for a sub-chapter in the upcoming 3rd Report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
It amounts to over an hour of talks, but if I had to summarize the point the playlist is making, it is that genomics is redefining a breed as a fluid, porous, genotypically-characterized population rather than a fixed, pedigree-based, phenotypic entity. Thus, it is shifting livestock conservation from saving labels (“Breed A”) to preserving genetic options.
Here’s a handy table I came up with to describe the change:
Interesting to juxtapose this to the post a few days ago on how to value and use Indigenous knowledge to solve today’s problems. Would Indigenous livestock keepers necessarily care about those genetic options more than their traditional breed?
It would be great to hear from people engaged in livestock conservation on this. It’s unfortunately not a community I interact with much.