University of British Columbia

About: University of British Columbia is a education organization based out in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 89939 authors who have published 209679 publications receiving 9226862 citations. The organization is also known as: UBC & The University of British Columbia.

The use of wild relatives in crop improvement: a survey of developments over the last 20 years

Abstract: The use of crop wild relatives (CWR) genes to improve crop performance is well established with important examples dating back more than 60 years. In this paper, we review available information on the presence of genes from CWR in released cultivars of 16 mandate crops of the CGIAR institutes, and some selected additional crops, focusing on the past 20 years—the period since a comprehensive review by Robert and Christine Prescott-Allen in 1986. It appears that there has been a steady increase in the rate of release of cultivars containing genes from CWR. While there continues to be a strong emphasis on using pest and disease resistance genes, a wider range of characteristics are being introduced than in the past. Those crops whose wild relatives have traditionally been used as sources of useful traits (e.g., wheat, tomato) continue to be most likely to include new genes from their wild relatives. CWR are continually gaining in importance and prevalence, but, we argue, their contributions to the development of new cultivars remain less than might have been expected given improved procedures for intercrossing species from different gene pools, advances in molecular methods for managing backcrossing programes, increased numbers of wild species accessions in gene banks, and the substantial literature on beneficial traits associated with wild relatives.

The Puzzling Persistence of the Distance Effect on Bilateral Trade

Abstract: One of the best-established empirical results in international economics is that bilateral trade decreases with distance. Although well known, this result has not been systematically analyzed before. We examine 1,467 distance effects estimated in 103 papers. Information collected on each estimate allows us to test hypotheses about the causes of variation in the estimates. Our most interesting finding is that the estimated negative impact of distance on trade rose around the middle of the century and has remained persistently high since then. This result holds even after controlling for many important differences in samples and methods.

Genomics and the origin of species

Abstract: Speciation is a fundamental evolutionary process, the knowledge of which is crucial for understanding the origins of biodiversity. Genomic approaches are an increasingly important aspect of this research field. We review current understanding of genome-wide effects of accumulating reproductive isolation and of genomic properties that influence the process of speciation. Building on this work, we identify emergent trends and gaps in our understanding, propose new approaches to more fully integrate genomics into speciation research, translate speciation theory into hypotheses that are testable using genomic tools and provide an integrative definition of the field of speciation genomics.