Saving the gene pool for the future: Seed banks as archives

AbstractEnsuring the salvage of future sources is a challenge for plant geneticists and breeders, as well as historians and archivists. Here, this suggestion is illustrated with an account of the emergence, in the mid-20th century, of seed banks. These repositories are intended to enable the conservation of the world's crop genetic diversity against the ‘genetic erosion’ of crops, an unintended consequence of the global uptake of new high-yielding Green Revolution agricultural varieties. Plant breeders and scientists advocated a strategy of freezing and long-term storage of seed which enabled the salvage of genetic diversity for future users without requiring the continual cultivation of old varieties: seed banking could preserve valuable genetic material and enable agricultural modernisation to proceed. This account of crop genetic conservation therefore shows how breeders and geneticists sought to create their own seed archives from whence the evolutionary history of crops could be made accessible in ways that are useful for the future. This analysis suggests that conservation practices are informed by ideas about the future use of material, indicating that there is value in exploring concurrently the archival and historiographical issues relating to the biomolecular big biosciences

A beautiful little fool? Retranslating Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby

Language Use in Past and Presen

Do humans translate like machines?: Students' conceptualisations of human and machine translation

This paper explores how students conceptualise the processes involved in human translation (HT) and machine translation (MT), and how they describe the similarities and differences between them. The paperpresents the results of a survey involving university students (B.A. and M.A.) taking a course on translation who filled out an online questionnaire distributed in Finnish, Dutch and English. Our study finds that students often describe both HT and MT in similar terms, suggesting they do not sufficiently distinguish between them and do not fully understand how MT works. The current study suggests that training in Machine Translation Literacy may need to focus more on the conceptualisations involved and how conceptual and vernacular misconceptions may affect how translators understand human and machine translation.Descriptive and Comparative Linguistic

Toward an Evolved Concept of Landrace

[EN] The term "landrace" has generally been defined as a cultivated, genetically heterogeneous variety that has evolved in a certain ecogeographical area and is therefore adapted to the edaphic and climatic conditions and to its traditional management and uses. Despite being considered by many to be inalterable, landraces have been and are in a constant state of evolution as a result of natural and artificial selection. Many landraces have disappeared from cultivation but are preserved in gene banks. Using modern selection and breeding technology tools to shape these preserved landraces together with the ones that are still cultivated is a further step in their evolution in order to preserve their agricultural significance. Adapting historical landraces to present agricultural conditions using cutting-edge breeding technology represents a challenging opportunity to use them in a modern sustainable agriculture, as an immediate return on the investment is highly unlikely. Consequently, we propose a more inclusive definition of landraces, namely that they consist of cultivated varieties that have evolved and may continue evolving, using conventional or modern breeding techniques, in traditional or new agricultural environments within a defined ecogeographical area and under the influence of the local human culture. This includes adaptation of landraces to new management systems and the unconscious or conscious selection made by farmers or breeders using available technology. In this respect, a mixed selection system might be established in which farmers and other social agents develop evolved landraces from the variability generated by public entities.This work has been partially funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreements no. 634651 (TRADITOM) and no. 677379 (G2PSOL).Casañas Artigas, F.; Simo, J.; Casals, J.; Prohens Tomás, J. (2017). Toward an Evolved Concept of Landrace. Frontiers in Plant Science. 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00145S1458Almirall, A., Bosch, L., Romero del Castillo, R., Rivera, A., & Casañas, F. (2010). ‘Croscat’ Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), a Prototypical Cultivar within the ‘Tavella Brisa’ Type. HortScience, 45(3), 432-433. doi:10.21273/hortsci.45.3.432Bitocchi, E., Bellucci, E., Rau, D., Albertini, E., Rodriguez, M., Veronesi, F., … Nanni, L. (2015). European Flint Landraces Grown In Situ Reveal Adaptive Introgression from Modern Maize. PLOS ONE, 10(4), e0121381. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0121381BITOCCHI, E., NANNI, L., ROSSI, M., RAU, D., BELLUCCI, E., GIARDINI, A., … PAPA, R. (2009). Introgression from modern hybrid varieties into landrace populations of maize (Zea maysssp.maysL.) in central Italy. Molecular Ecology, 18(4), 603-621. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2008.04064.xBosch, L., Casañas, F., Sánchez, E., Pujolà, M., & Nuez, F. (1998). Selection L67, a Pure Line with True Seed Type of the Ganxet Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). HortScience, 33(5), 905-906. doi:10.21273/hortsci.33.5.905Casals, J., Bosch, L., Casañas, F., Cebolla, J., & Nuez, F. (2010). Montgrí, a Cultivar within the Montserrat Tomato Type. HortScience, 45(12), 1885-1886. doi:10.21273/hortsci.45.12.1885Causse, M., Desplat, N., Pascual, L., Le Paslier, M.-C., Sauvage, C., Bauchet, G., … Bouchet, J.-P. (2013). Whole genome resequencing in tomato reveals variation associated with introgression and breeding events. BMC Genomics, 14(1), 791. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-14-791Ellstrand, N. C. (2014). Is gene flow the most important evolutionary force in plants? American Journal of Botany, 101(5), 737-753. doi:10.3732/ajb.1400024Ellstrand, N. C., Meirmans, P., Rong, J., Bartsch, D., Ghosh, A., de Jong, T. J., … Hooftman, D. (2013). Introgression of Crop Alleles into Wild or Weedy Populations. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 44(1), 325-345. doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110512-135840Ellstrand, N. C., Prentice, H. C., & Hancock, J. F. (1999). Gene Flow and Introgression from Domesticated Plants into Their Wild Relatives. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 30(1), 539-563. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.30.1.539Ferreira, J. J., Campa, A., Pérez-Vega, E., Rodríguez-Suárez, C., & Giraldez, R. (2011). Introgression and pyramiding into common bean market class fabada of genes conferring resistance to anthracnose and potyvirus. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 124(4), 777-788. doi:10.1007/s00122-011-1746-xGarcía-Martínez, S., Grau, A., Alonso, A., Rubio, F., Valero, M., & Ruiz, J. J. (2011). UMH 1200, a Breeding Line within the Muchamiel Tomato Type Resistant to Three Viruses. HortScience, 46(7), 1054-1055. doi:10.21273/hortsci.46.7.1054Gompert, Z., & Buerkle, C. A. (2016). What, if anything, are hybrids: enduring truths and challenges associated with population structure and gene flow. Evolutionary Applications, 9(7), 909-923. doi:10.1111/eva.12380Harlan, J. R. (1965). The possible role of weed races in the evolution of cultivated plants. Euphytica, 14(2), 173-176. doi:10.1007/bf00038984Jarvis, D. I., & Hodgkin, T. (1999). Wild relatives and crop cultivars: detecting natural introgression and farmer selection of new genetic combinations in agroecosystems. Molecular Ecology, 8(s1), S159-S173. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294x.1999.00799.xMesseguer, J. (2003). Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture, 73(3), 201-212. doi:10.1023/a:1023007606621Nogué, F., Mara, K., Collonnier, C., & Casacuberta, J. M. (2016). Genome engineering and plant breeding: impact on trait discovery and development. Plant Cell Reports, 35(7), 1475-1486. doi:10.1007/s00299-016-1993-zProhens, J., Muñoz-Falcón, J. E., Rodríguez-Burruezo, A., Ribas, F., Castro, Á., & Nuez, F. (2009). ‘H15’, an Almagro-type Pickling Eggplant with High Yield and Reduced Prickliness. HortScience, 44(7), 2017-2019. doi:10.21273/hortsci.44.7.2017Simó, J., del Castillo, R. R., Almirall, A., & Casañas, F. (2012). ‘Roquerola’ and ‘Montferri’, First Improved Onion (Allium cepa L.) Cultivars for «Calçots» Production. HortScience, 47(6), 801-802. doi:10.21273/hortsci.47.6.801Villa, T. C. C., Maxted, N., Scholten, M., & Ford-Lloyd, B. (2005). Defining and identifying crop landraces. Plant Genetic Resources, 3(3), 373-384. doi:10.1079/pgr200591Zeven, A. C. (1998). Euphytica, 104(2), 127-139. doi:10.1023/a:101868311923

Phenotypic and genetic diversity of Spanish tomato landraces

[EN] The structure of Spanish landraces of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) has been analyzed. This diversity has been evaluated using agro-morphological characteristics (43 descriptors), quality parameters (solid soluble contents and individual sugars and organic acids) and DNA markers (amplified fragment length polymorphisms, AFLP). A wide range of variation was found for all traits but in the DNA marker level. Certain common characteristics could be identified in populations of the same landrace in several of the dimensions analyzed, but generally, an overlap of the spectrum of variation of different landraces was found. The results indicate that in each landrace the populations are strongly selected using very basic morphological characteristics such as fruit shape, colour or ribbing, while other traits vary depending on each farmer preferences. Seed mixing and pollen contamination might introduce variation which would be purged by farmers at the morphological level, but would be maintained in quality and yield traits. Despite the introduction of spurious variation it would be still possible to identify certain relations between quality attributes and the morphological traits defining specific landraces. The existence of a wide level of variation in plant yield and quality profiles enables the development of selection programmes targeted to provide farmers with materials with economically viable yield and excellent organoleptic quality. The results also highlight the necessity to stress the efforts in morpho-agronomical and quality characterization over molecular characterization in the ex situ management of these resources, as well as not to underestimate the importance of intra-varietal variability. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This research was funded by the Generalitat Valenciana with the research projects GV-CAPA00-19 and GV/2007/003.Cebolla Cornejo, J.; Rosello Ripolles, S.; Nuez Viñals, F. (2013). Phenotypic and genetic diversity of Spanish tomato landraces. Scientia Horticulturae. 162:150-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2013.07.044S15016416

Informal “Seed” Systems and the Management of Gene Flow in Traditional Agroecosystems: The Case of Cassava in Cauca, Colombia

Our ability to manage gene flow within traditional agroecosystems and their repercussions requires understanding the biology of crops, including farming practices' role in crop ecology. That these practices' effects on crop population genetics have not been quantified bespeaks lack of an appropriate analytical framework. We use a model that construes seed-management practices as part of a crop's demography to describe the dynamics of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in Cauca, Colombia. We quantify several management practices for cassava—the first estimates of their kind for a vegetatively-propagated crop—describe their demographic repercussions, and compare them to those of maize, a sexually-reproduced grain crop. We discuss the implications for gene flow, the conservation of cassava diversity, and the biosafety of vegetatively-propagated crops in centers of diversity. Cassava populations are surprisingly open and dynamic: farmers exchange germplasm across localities, particularly improved varieties, and distribute it among neighbors at extremely high rates vis-à-vis maize. This implies that a large portion of cassava populations consists of non-local germplasm, often grown in mixed stands with local varieties. Gene flow from this germplasm into local seed banks and gene pools via pollen has been documented, but its extent remains uncertain. In sum, cassava's biology and vegetative propagation might facilitate pre-release confinement of genetically-modified varieties, as expected, but simultaneously contribute to their diffusion across traditional agroecosystems if released. Genetically-modified cassava is unlikely to displace landraces or compromise their diversity; but rapid diffusion of improved germplasm and subsequent incorporation into cassava landraces, seed banks or wild populations could obstruct the tracking and eradication of deleterious transgenes. Attempts to regulate traditional farming practices to reduce the risks could compromise cassava populations' adaptive potential and ultimately prove ineffectual