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Featured: Next generation sequencing

Luigi is using a page here to solicit comments on a document: Technical appraisal of strategic approaches to large-scale germplasm evaluation. And some of the commenters are less than enthralled. Here’s Major Goodman:

[T]he glaring failure here is not running almost any of these ideas past private plant breeders who have tried to make use of these technologies, mostly to no avail. Nor do I see input from folks who have tried to maintain and study germplasm accessions, who could at least comment on some of the fieldwork feasibility. This seems to be an in-house, pat yourself on the back effort by and for NGS-enthralled scientists. In fact, I see almost no input by any real plant breeder or germplasm expert.

Will that stop the project dead? Let us know what you think.

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Help researchers get their priorities right

Would you like to influence the future direction of research on roots, tubers and bananas? Course you would. And now you can, thanks to a priority setting exercise being carried out by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas. The ProMusa website has the full details: researchers

are … looking beyond yields to estimate the impact on poverty, health, gender equity and environmental sustainability.

It starts with mapping to locate the places where “research has the greatest potential to alleviate poverty and increase food security”.

The top constraints in these target areas will then be matched with research options. The impact, over the next 20 years, of these research options will be assessed using different methods, depending on the indicator, and the findings will be used to guide research investment decisions.

So now you know, and you have no excuse.

If your interest is bananas and plantains, then head on over to the ProMusa page that will guide you to a survey in English, French and Spanish. For other crops – but inexplicably not bananas nor the “minor” roots and tubers – the RTB website is the place to go.

Anyone for taro?

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Going wild at Asilomar

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Breeders and genomics researchers are meeting at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California to discuss how genomics can facilitate the use of crop wild in crop improvement. Follow on Twitter using #cwrgenomics. The wild lupin in the photo is found on the sand dunes just outside the conference facilities. There’s also a smaller, rarer one, but I haven’t found it yet.

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Brainfood: Core collections, Romanian pigs, Commons, Valuation, Biofortification, Yam characterization, Pompeii diet, Rice grain genetics

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Man-tall wheats

Via CIMMYT’s Flickr page:
Bibiana Espinosa of the germplasm bank is one of two runners up this week in our photo competition for CIMMYT staff and friends, with this image showing very tall wheat being regenerated at Mexicali. Although keeping seeds at low temperatures extends their lives, the bank must sow and reharvest all of its thousands of incredibly diverse samples periodically to make sure the seeds remain viable. Says Bibiana: “It was amazing to see wheat plants taller than Tom Payne!”

Photo credit: B. Espinosa/CIMMYT.