Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

January 22, 2021January 25, 2021

And we’re off…

The call for abstracts for the 2nd International Agrobiodiversity Congress – Agrobiodiversity for Food System Transformation, is now open. The Congress, scheduled for October 2021, will focus on the role that agrobiodiversity can play in positively changing our food systems. The deadline for abstract submission is 18 April 2021.

Go for it.

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021

Brainfood: Sweet cassava, Iranian wheat, Wild tomato, Ethiopian sorghum, Portuguese beans, Wild Algerian oats, Angolan Vigna, Apple tree, Regeneration, Robusta climate, Bronze Age diets, Maize domestication, Veld fruits, Red yeasts, Remote sensing

Large‐scale genome‐wide association study, using historical data, identifies conserved genetic architecture of cyanogenic glucoside content in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) root. Two loci explain about a third of variation in HCN content.
Strategic use of Iranian bread wheat landrace accessions for genetic improvement: Core set formulation and validation. Not much structure, but some accessions are good for multiple traits.
Population studies of the wild tomato species Solanum chilense reveal geographically structured major gene-mediated pathogen resistance. Not all populations of a crop wild relatives will be equally useful in breeding.
Genetic diversity of Ethiopian sorghum reveals signatures of climatic adaptation. 12 sub-populations, with about 10% of the variation explained by either agroecology or geography.
Common bean SNP alleles and candidate genes affecting photosynthesis under contrasting water regimes. And all in just 158 Portuguese accessions.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Algerian Endemic Plant Species Avena macrostachya Bal. ex Cross. et Durieu. Collecting sites need to be visited again. I can vouch that doing so would be very interesting.
Conservation priorities for African Vigna species: Unveiling Angola’s diversity hotspots. It’s a huge collecting gap.
Remote sensing enabled essential biodiversity variables for biodiversity assessment and monitoring: technological advancement and potentials. The Remote Sensing enabled Essential Biodiversity Variables are a work in progress. Would like to see it applied to those Vignas.
Genomic consequences of apple improvement. …are relative genetic uniformity.
Genome-Wide DArTSeq Genotyping and Phenotypic Based Assessment of Within and Among Accessions Diversity and Effective Sample Size in the Diverse Sorghum, Pearl Millet, and Pigeonpea Landraces. Optimal sample size for regeneration of genebank accessions varies from 50-200 among crops.
Not so robust: Robusta coffee production is highly sensitive to temperature. Looking at historical production data from 800 farms in SE Asia suggests optimal temperature is below 20°C, a lot lower than suggested by the species’ home range in the Congo Basin.
Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE. Bronze Age Levantines ate bananas and soya, according to dental calculus. No word on coffee.
Archaeological Central American maize genomes suggest ancient gene flow from South America. Pre-domesticated maize was taken to South America, where is was finished off away from introgression from pesky wild relatives, and then taken back home.
Fruits of the Veld: Ecological and Socioeconomic Patterns of Natural Resource Use across South Africa. South Africans collect and eat a lot of wild fruits, but could plant and eat them more.
Exploring the Biodiversity of Red Yeasts for In Vitro and In Vivo Phenotypes Relevant to Agri-Food-Related Processes. Which is interesting because they can delay food spoilage and also provide nutritional supplements. Though personally I’d prefer veld fruits.

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.