From sheep to crops
ILRI’s research report “Characterization and conservation of indigenous sheep genetic resources: A practical framework for developing countries” has a nifty flow diagram at the back which sort of summarizes what you have to do as a national programme to conserve your indigenous sheep breeds. I don’t think it would need to be tremendously dissimilar to be applicable to crop landraces. Any thoughts?
Brainfood: Sorghum core diversity, Indian mango diversity, Montia potential, Assisted migration, Corchorus diversity, Soil DNA, Fire!, Coffee pest, Earthworms
Making life simpler for you, we have created an open Mendeley group for the papers we link to here. If you’re already using Mendeley, feel free to join the group (and use it to suggest papers we might miss). You can also discuss papers there, but frankly, we’d prefer you to do that here. Or on Facebook. Even if you don’t use Mendeley, you can subscribe to the RSS feed from the group and get stuff that way. Are we cool, or what?
- Variation in flowering time in sorghum core collection and mapping of QTLs controlling flowering time by association analysis. 4 QTLs and 7 loci detected under different conditions. Is that, like, a lot?
- Evaluation of genetic diversity among commercial cultivars, hybrids and local mango (Mangifera indica L.) genotypes of India using cumulative RAPD and ISSR markers. Just one big happy family.
- Montia fontana L. (Portulacaceae), an interesting wild vegetable traditionally consumed in the Iberian Peninsula. Aquatic herb has high fibre and lipids. High oxalate too though. Breeders enjoined to get to work. On Montia. Riiiiight.
- Taking stock of the assisted migration debate. It’s REALLY complicated. Scientists are not that great at explaining it. More work needed all round. But now we have fancy diagrams.
- Genetic diversity and relationships in Corchorus olitorius (Malvaceae s.l.) inferred from molecular and morphological data. Out of Africa. Ethiopia, to be exact.
- Meta-barcoding of ‘dirt’ DNA from soil reflects vertebrate biodiversity. Wonder whether it works with agricultural ‘dirt.’
- The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. Entertaining gallop through the history of the use of fire to manage landscapes around the world and down the ages. Need to catch my breath here.
- Some like it hot: The influence and implications of climate change on coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) and coffee production in East Africa. That title just had to come sometime, didn’t it.
- A critique of earthworm molecular phylogenetics. So apparently “molecular phylogenetics is now on the verge of revolutionizing earthworm systematics.” Beyond satire.
Climate change in Italy?
A routine trip to the local plant nursery — and a very good nursery it is too — was enlivened by some fairly manky-looking small trees. They seemed quite out of place among the bedding plants and tender annuals, so off I went to investigate. And, boy! was I surprised. Macadamia, Haas Avocado, Litchi, Cherimoya, Guayabay (Guava, but not sure whether it is Psidium or one of the others.) and two kinds of Mango, Kent and Osteen. Now, I know it has been hot here, but will any of these fruit reliably in Italy? Osteen is apparently grown commercially in Spain, but what about the others?
Anyway, I only had my mobile phone with me, but here are some pictures.
Objections to “development”
Fishermen and rice farmers in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province don’t want dams, electricity or even compensation … They just want to preserve their way of life.
What are they, weird or something?
The villagers in question are objecting to proposed dams on tributaries of the Mekong. And it isn’t as if they want better compensation or anything like that. They just don’t want the dams. They want to keep fishing and growing rice. Ah, but you can’t stop progress, can you?