Of the fifteen most studied genes in maize (cool graphical table included), thirteen can have kernel phenotypes when mutated. Why? Because of what a geneticist can tell from looking at a single ear of corn that shows such a mutant phenotype (details inside).
Posts under ‘Plant breeding’
The Color of Corn and Cultural Values
Last week posts and The Scientist Gardener and The Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog discussed the African preference for white over yellow corn and some of the reasons behind it. Would orange corn, packed full of even more of the healthy vitamin A precursors that give yellow corn its color, be rejected for the same reasons?
“New” Cruciferous Vegetables
A remarkable number of vegetables are actually produced by a handful of brassica species (called cruciferous vegetables), as covered by Greg over at Pie-ence. The wonderful thing about having so many different kinds of vegetables within a single, inter-fertile species is that the Brassicas are a constant source of “new” vegetables. Highlights of this post include: The CAL gene and its role in differentiating cauliflower from broccoli, reminiscing about broccoflower, and the “flower sprout” the newest breed of cruciferous vegetable.
More on the Good Guys (CGIAR)
CGIAR spending on research targeted at agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (178 million dollars a year in 2003) provides 1.3 million people with an escape from extreme poverty (living one dollar a day or less) every year. Simple division would indicate the agricultural research of the CGIAR centers is saving human beings from the trap of extreme poverty at a cost of just under 137 dollars per person. Of course it isn’t that simple, there are both economies of scale** and, eventually, diminishing margins of return*** to consider, but it seems the work of the CGIAR centers in Africa are big enough to have achieved those economies of scale, and, given their calculations on the elasticity on poverty to investment in agriculture, Africa is a LONG way from having to worry about diminishing marginal returns on agricultural investment.
Given the elasticity of poverty reduction to agricultural research spending they calculate (-.22) the marginal cost* of reducing poverty by another person in Sub-Saharan Africa through investments in agricultural research is only $71. (i.e. spending one billion dollars more on agricultural research would save an additional 14 million people from poverty.) This doesn’t consider the additional postive effects of improving local agriculture (for example reducing the incidence of famine).
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What is it about purple plants?
I’m really at a loss here, but there’s just something way cooler about eating a purple colored plant over a more regular color. I’m not sure what it is (I’m not particularly partial to the color purple in other contexts). Consider the case of the cauliflower.
Not Genetically Engineered: Grapes
So apparently even grapes aren’t safe from accusations of genetic engineering. So it’s an excuse to do another crop profile.
Dr. Gebisa Ejeta on Investing in Agriculture
Dr. Gebisa Ejeta’s testimony before the US Senate committee on Foreign Relations. A call to renew investment in both agricultural research and the train of agricultural scientists around the world.
Dr. Ejeta won the World Food Prize a couple months ago for his work breeding striga resistant sorghum.
Not Genetically Engineered: Watermelon
Seedless watermelons are the occasional target of uninformed prejudice against genetic engineering. They aren’t genetically engineered, but personally I think the method of producing seedless watermelons is even more exciting than just adding a gene.
Marker Assisted Breeding
Yesterday I got annoyed with greenpeace for offering marker assisted breeding to the plant breeding community that has already been making full use of the technique for years. Today I try to explain the technology.