- Making Heritage: The Case of Black Beluga Agriculture on the Northern Great Plains. That would be Black Beluga lentils. Which seems a weird subject for feminist ethnography, generative criticism and reflexivity, but I’m game if you are.
- Genetic and phenotypic diversity of natural American oil palm (Elaeis oleifera (H.B.K.) Cortés) accessions. Four geographical clusters, and a core collection.
- Complementarity of native and introduced tree species: exploring timber supply on the east coast of Madagascar. Farmers on the edge of a protected area need a diverse mix of tree species to grow.
- Farmer participation in selection within segregating populations of cowpea in Volta Region, Ghana. From 6 F3 populations with parents from Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and the USA to 24 lines which farmers liked.
- Apple juices from ancient Italian cultivars: a study on mature endothelial cells model. Old apple cultivars are good for you. Or at least for human umbilical vascular endothelial cells.
- Intellectual property rights, benefit-sharing and development of “improved traditional medicines”: A new approach. Ahem, what were those old apples again?
- Landscape genetics, adaptive diversity and population structure in Phaseolus vulgaris. Domestication sites (still only 2) pinpointed in the landscape.
- Changes in Climate, Crops, and Tradition: Cajete Maize and the Rainfed Farming Systems of Oaxaca, Mexico. Life is hard, and getting harder.
NBPGR’s genebank dashboard takes a bow
Good to hear 1 that the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in India has a new online “dashboard” summarizing data from its genebank, one of the largest in the world. 2
There is a separate PGR Portal for searching the collection, though apparently only on basic characterization data so far. Except for wheat, that is, where you can search for a long list of phenotypic characters.
Clearly lots of work going on lately at NBPGR on getting their data out there. But when will we see them on Genesys?
The trouble with Ipomoea
I think we may have mentioned in a recent Brainfood a “foundation monograph” of the genus Ipomoea in Bolivia, 3 without actually explaining what that is. Well, I’ll let one of the authors do that:
‘We wondered if we might be able to combine some of the speed of a Flora approach with some of the rigour of a Monograph,’ explains Dr Scotland. ‘And we’ve ended up with what we call “foundation monographs”.’ The new approach combines the time-limited approach and short descriptions of the Flora approach with the genetic analyses and fieldwork of Monographs, enabling species to be uncovered quickly, but accurately. Crucially, it borrows content like drawings and genetic analyses, where they exist, from existing studies, in order to avoid duplicating work.
Such work — whether floras or monographs — is largely based on existing herbarium specimens, of course, and a complementary study led by Zoë Goodwin, on which Dr Scotland is also a co-author, has just come out which sets out some of the problems associated with that.
…the team…scoured the records of Ipomoea — a large and diverse genus which includes the sweet potato — on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility database. Examining the names found on 49,500 specimens from the Americas, they found that 40% of these were outdated synonyms rather than the current name, and 16% of the names were unrecognisable or invalid. In addition, 11% of the specimens weren’t identified, being given only the name of the genus. 4
The work of the crop wild relatives mapper is never done.
Brainfood: Camel diversity, Livestock vs wildlife, Tunisian fig diversity, In vitro artichokes, Habanero diversity, Sorghum diversity double, Greek cherry diversity, Barley domestication, Omani bananas, IBPGR collecting, Buckwheat flow
- Molecular characterization of camel breeds of Gujarat using microsatellite markers. The two sympatric camel breeds Kachchhi and Kharai are genetically distinct.
- Beefing Up Species Richness? The Effect of Land-Use on Mammal Diversity in an Arid Biodiversity Hotspot. Livestock and wildlife can co-exist.
- Analysis of genetic diversity of Tunisian caprifig (Ficus carica L.) accessions using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Diversity low and mixed up.
- A validated slow-growth in vitro conservation protocol for globe artichoke germplasm: A cost-effective tool to preserve from wild to elite genotypes. Sounds promising.
- Synthesis of a base population of Habanero pepper. That’s an equal mixture of F2 seeds from all crosses obtained among 31 accessions. Now go crazy, breeders!
- ISSR-based analysis of genetic diversity among sorghum landraces growing in some parts of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Differentiates some white from dark-grained landraces, and among some geographic areas.
- Assessment of sorghum germplasm from Burkina Faso and South Africa to identify new sources of resistance to grain mold and anthracnose. Breeders book flight to Ouagadougou.
- Diversity of morpho-physiological traits in worldwide sweet cherry cultivars of GeneBank collection using multivariate analysis. The national and international material from the Greek genebank falls into 3 groups. Apparently that will be useful to breeders. Who are unavailable for comment.
- Barley domestication: the end of a central dogma? Non-centres, not centres.
- Distribution and diversity of banana (Musa spp.) in Wadi Tiwi, northern Oman. An unfavourable environment at a crossroads of trade routes makes for interesting diversity.
- Plant genetic resources collections and associated information as a baseline resource for genetic diversity studies: an assessment of the IBPGR-supported collections. IBPGR collecting missions in 136 countries between 1975 and 1995 collected over 200,000 samples: here comes the data.
- Social and environmental influences on tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn.) varietal diversity in Yunnan, China. Lots of exchange of material among farmers, which needs to continue.
How was this harpago used?
I finally got to see the Feeding the Empire exhibit at the Ara Pacis in Rome on Saturday, and learned a lot about how Rome managed to keep a million people fed most of the time. In one of the display cases, I saw this astonishing implement.
It was labelled simply Harpago. No explanation, nothing. The word seems to be linked to harpoon, and is translated as “grappling iron” in some places. It also shows up “in insect morphology for the distal end of a genital clasper” and lends its name to spiny sea snails and a plant commonly known as Devil’s claw, Harpagophytum spp.
All of which makes perfect sense. But what on earth does it have to do with the preparation of food?