Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

January 15, 2021January 18, 2021

Working to understand and conserve genetic diversity

Just catching up on a couple of useful resources.

The Genetics Composition working group [of the Group on Earth Observations’s Biodiversity Observation Network] aims to develop, test and improve approaches for assessing and interpreting genetic diversity.

You can join it here. And thus contribute to the Genetic diversity targets and indicators proposed for the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. About which you can read more on the work blog, as it happens. The working group seems to have some overlap with the Conservation Genetic Coalition, which came out with its formal “Statement on genetic diversity in CBD” just before Christmas.

Meanwhile, over at USDA, there are posters on crop diversity and genebanks in multiple languages.

Gotta wonder whether any of this will reach the policy-makers, but one can hope, can’t one?

January 14, 2021January 21, 2021

Stripping back the history of seed conservation

The original Frontiers of Science strips ran from 1961 and was significant as a means of communicating and popularising science. It was Australian and developed from the University of Sydney, and was produced and distributed by Press Feature Service. The series was co-written and produced by Professor Stuart Butler from the School of Physics and journalist and film-maker Bob Raymond. The early art work in the series was by Andrea Bresciani, continued later by David Emersen.

Frontiers of Science came to an end in 1982 with Stuart Butler’s death, but not before putting out at least 25 issues on agricultural topics, including two on crop diversity and its conservation. These date back to 1971, but are still well worth having a look at.

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021

Agrobiodiversity events roundup

There’s a few things going on that readers may be interested in, so here goes, real quick:

The Culinary Breeding Network’s 2020-21 Variety Showcase + Winter Vegetable Sagra. Incidentally, if you’re interested int he whole “sagra” thing, you might like to check out the recent book by Michele Filippo Fontefrancesco. ((Spoiler alert: authenticity isn’t vital to success, but hyper-locality is.))
The Museum of Food and Drink has a packed schedule of events. GROWING RICE: A Migration Story from Seed to Plate stood out for me, but check out the whole calendar.
The Oxford Food Symposium will be celebrating its 40th anniversary on July 9-11.
Alas, the Oxford Real Farming Conference has finished, but you may be able to a flavour from tweets and the YouTube channel.

January 13, 2021January 15, 2021

Brainfood: Topical forages, Ne, Pearl millet nutrition, Sorghum strategy, Tillering rice, Exchanging wheat, Recollecting wheat, Yeast domestication, Amazonian maize, Synthesizing groundnut, Strawberry dispersal, Soya structure, Remote change, Green Revolution, Unintended consequences

Tropical forage technologies can deliver multiple benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa. A meta-analysis. Including improved germplasm, which had on average 2.6 times higher herbage productivity than local controls.
Effective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees. Which is good because you can estimate it fairly easily. Well, kinda. It’s important because it’s one of the Genetic diversity targets and indicators proposed for the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Exploring the genetic variability and diversity of pearl millet core collection germplasm for grain nutritional traits improvement. 15 of 212 accessions are good for multiple nutrients.
Global Status of Sorghum Genetic Resources Conservation. The two biggest collections are updating their data.
Genomic basis of geographical adaptation to soil nitrogen in rice. Rice lost high tillering in high N conditions, but can get it back to cope with low N conditions.
The Economic Impact of Exchanging Breeding Material: Assessing Winter Wheat Production in Germany. It really pays for breeders to exchange material.
Comparative analysis of the gene pool structure of Triticum aethiopicum wheat accessions conserved ex situ and recollected in fields after 85 years. Vavilov’s collections are more diverse.
Evidence for Two Main Domestication Trajectories in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Linked to Distinct Bread-Making Processes. Being adapted for industrial and artisanal baking respectively.
Entrelaçado, a rare maize race conserved in Southwestern Amazonia. Gap-filling pays off. Hope we can re-collect it in 85 years’ time.
ValSten: a new wild species derived allotetraploid for increasing genetic diversity of the peanut crop (Arachis hypogaea L.). Playing God with peanuts.
Long-distance dispersal of the beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, from North America to Chile and Hawaii. For the birds.
Genetic architecture of wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.) populations originating from different East Asian regions. At least 3 separate groups, and the collection stored in Korea is pretty representative.
Supporting habitat conservation with automated change detection in Google Earth Engine. Fancy math can detect land use change quickly and accurately.
Health Impacts of the Green Revolution: Evidence from 600,000 births across the Developing World. Modern varieties reduced infant mortality by 2.4–5.3 percentage points (from 18%), with stronger effects for male infants and among poor households. Why we do all of the above?
Articulating the effect of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals. Yeah, not so fast…

January 13, 2021February 1, 2021

Alternative seed sources

Sometimes, seeds of old and interesting crop varieties are not solely (or even at all) available from genebanks. In the US, for example, there are a number of other options, as summarized below by our friend Marty Reisinger, especially aimed at amateur gardeners:

Plant Information Online: Operated by the University of Minnesota. Enables searches for specific cultivars.
Dave’s Garden: Search over 160,000 plants. Members can chat with other gardeners in their forums.
Master Gardeners. Each state has a Master Gardener organization. Follow the link for one near you.

I’m sure there are similar resources for other countries, and wouldn’t it be nice to bring them all together?

LATER: Here’s a resource for Canada. Via.

LATER STILL: See also this roundup in Modern Farmer.