How and when did early humans domesticate the plants that we use today? Did these ancient farmers purposefully select traits, or did they domesticate unconsciously? In the future, can breeders and farmers grow more nutritious and robust food using genomics?
In this episode, we talk to Michael Purugganan, an evolutionary biologist at NYU, about some of our favorite foods, where they came from, and what to do to ensure we will still have them in the future.
We also talk about rice, an essential staple crop for the world. Michael describes his genomic work with rice to make it more robust and resilient, especially in the face of climate change and a growing human population. His research is part of a global effort to make a Green Super Rice, a rice variety suitable for the diverse challenges of the future.
Cover art: Keating Shahmehri
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bigbiology/supportIntroducing Genetics Unzipped
Replaying the MP3 of Life (Episode 21 Re-release)
Containing Cancer with Squirrel Ecology (Ep 12 Re-release)
Shrimp Fight Clubs and Basic Science (Ep 6 Re-release)
Bioelectric Computation (Ep 39 Re-release)
What the flux? The evolution of oxygen cascades (Ep 86)
Little Biology: Zombie Parasites
The rise of the mammals and fall of the dinosaurs (Ep 85)
Immune System: Make Love not War (Ep 8 Re-release)
Fractals in the Foliage (Ep 84)
The Amazon in us (Ep 83)
Survival of the systems: The power of persistence (Ep 63 Re-release)
Organisms are not machines (Ep 82)
How staying cool blunts evolution (Ep 81)
Human-wildlife conflict in a changing world (Ep 80)
How the genetic lottery affects complex human traits (Ep 79)
The amphibian omnivore’s dilemma: Plasticity-led evolution in spadefoot tadpoles (Ep 78)
A (Very) Short Interview with Henry Gee: 4 Billion Years in 30 Minutes (Ep 77)
Beasty beats: The origins of musicality (Ep 76)
Hidden network: The evolutionary relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plants (Ep 75)
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