Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

January 13, 2016

Changes at CGN

Congratulations to Bert Visser (pictured, right, entertaining visitors from the Korean genebank recently) on his retirement from the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands, the Dutch national genebank. And likewise congratulations to Sipke Joost Hiemstra and Theo van Hintum on taking over his responsibilities.

bert

January 13, 2016

Virgin with crop wild relative

Went to the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne at the weekend, and what should I find but a 15th century tryptich of the Madonna holding a crop wild relative flower? Apparently it symbolises virginity.

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

Brainfood: In situ & CC, Rare livestock phenotypes, SSR & wheat seeds, Kelp genebank, Recognizing pig landraces, Indian pigs, Benin yams, Colombian Manihot, Enset seed, Okra transgenes

Using in situ management to conserve biodiversity under climate change. It can probably be done, but more empirical evidence of long-term effects is needed.
Rare phenotypes in domestic animals: unique resources for multiple applications. Difficult to conserve, but worth doing, and biotech will help.
Patterns of SSR variation in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds under ex situ genebank storage and accelerated ageing. SSRs don’t help figuring out viability loss.
Germplasm banking of the giant kelp: Our biological insurance in a changing environment. Chileans conserve female and male gametophytes in low light, at 10 °C, in Provasoli media.
Authentication of “mono-breed” pork products: Identification of a coat colour gene marker in Cinta Senese pigs useful to this purpose. This particular pig breed can be easily and accurately identified.
Microsatellite and Mitochondrial Diversity Analysis of Native Pigs of Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. Native Indian pigs closer to Chinese than European.
Yam (Dioscorea spp.) responses to the environmental variability in the Guinea Sudan zone of Benin. Different varieties respond differently to different conditions, at least as regards yield.
Diversity and genetic structure of cassava landraces and their wild relatives (Manihot spp.) in Colombia revealed by simple sequence repeats. Lots of geneflow.
Current availability of seed material of enset (Ensete ventricosum, Musaceae) and its Sub-Saharan wild relatives. Not much.
Monitoring adventitious presence of transgenes in ex situ okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) collections conserved in genebank: a case study. None found.

January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

Not so sweet potatoes

And speaking of Facebook, which has somehow become the go-to place for fun agrobiodiversity stuff, get a load of this recent photo of “bush potato” from the Waltja Tjutangku Palyapayi Aboriginal Corporation.

bushpotato

Impressive, isn’t it? It’s Ipomoea costata, according to a commenter. And it reminded me of another recent Facebook post of a sweet potato wild relative, Ipomoea bolusiana, this time from southern Africa.

bolusiana

Thinking back to our earlier post today on domesticating promising wild plants, I wonder if anyone has actually tasted these tubers?

January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

Underutilized for a reason?

Over on Facebook, I half-facetiously commented on a piece entitled Global food shortage? How advanced breeding could domesticate 50,000 wild, edible plants by saying that if any of those plants were really any good, they would probably have been domesticated already. I’m not entirely sure I believe that, but I liked Rob Wagner’s and Ian Godwin’s reactions, and I hope they don’t mind me sharing them here. There’s more to adding a new crop to our agricultural menu than fancy breeding.