plant breeding

Dr. Kendall R Lamkey
Professor and Chair

Making sense of a universe of corn genetics

Seed banks across the globe store and preserve the genetic diversity of millions of varieties of crops. This massive collection of genetic material ensures crop breeders access to a wealth of genetics with which to breed crops that yield better or resist stress and disease.

But, with a world of corn genetics at their disposal, how do plant breeders know which varieties are worth studying and which ones aren’t? For most of history, that required growing the varieties and studying their performance in the real world. But innovative data analytics and genomics could help plant breeders predict the performance of new varieties without having to go to the effort of growing them.

Advancing plant breeding for the organic industry

A new federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) will support Iowa State scientists and collaborators as they develop improved seed corn tailored to the needs of the rapidly growing organic industry.

The lead investigator for the four-year, $1,996,500 grant is USDA Agricultural Research Service research geneticist Paul Scott, an affiliate professor of agronomy at Iowa State. Thomas Lübberstedt, the Frey Chair in Agronomy and Director of the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding at Iowa State, will partner on the project, along with Martin Bohn from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Angela Linarez from the University of Puerto Rico.

Lamkey awarded NAPB Public Sector Plant Breeding Impact Award

Dr. Lamkey, chair of the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University has been selected as the 2020 National Association of Plant Breeders Public Sector Plant Breeding Impact Award. Dr. Lamkey earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University in plant breeding and genetics. Dr. Lamkey provides leadership and direction to the department in the areas of education, research, and extension. As one of his support letter notes: “Under Dr. Lamkey, the department has maintained its reputation for excellence and has added new initiatives in teaching and research that are helping it evolve in the future as a center of learning, knowledge and service.” (James Holland, USDA-ARS).

Cyclone awarded prestigious plant breeding scholarship

While growing up in Inner Mongolia, China, Iowa State University Ph.D student Qi Mu developed a love of science at a young age.

She found her passion for genetics in high school and attended China Agricultural University for her bachelors of science in agronomy. After earning her masters at Ohio State studying tomato genetics and morphology, Ames was the place for her.

“I spent several months working as a lab technician to gain more experience. This experience helped me confirm my passion for research and reminded me how much I enjoyed learning new things every day,” Qi said. “I wanted to keep improving and therefore I started my Ph.D study in plant breeding at Iowa State University.”

FFAR Grant to Accelerate Crop Development

To meet the growing global food demand, plant breeding technology must increase crop yields in less time. The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a $748,548 Seeding Solutions grant to Iowa State University of Science and Technology to accelerate crop development. Iowa State University, KWS SAAT SE & Co, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, BASF, SAATEN-UNION BIOTEC and RAGT are providing matching funds for a total $1,497,097 investment.

Patterns in crop data reveal new insight about plants and their environments

A recently published study led by Iowa State University scientists applied a fresh perspective to vast amounts of data on rice plants to find better ways to predict plant performance and new insights about how plants adapt to different environments.

The study, published in the academic journal Genome Research, unearthed patterns in datasets collected on rice plants across Asia, said Jianming Yu, professor of agronomy and Pioneer Distinguished Chair in Maize Breeding. Those patterns allowed the researchers to develop a matrix to help them predict the traits of rice plants depending on their genetics and the environment in which they’re grown. The research could improve the ability of farmers to predict how crop varieties will perform in various environments, giving growers a better sense of stability and minimizing risk, Yu said.

The Convergence of Tech and Agronomy

Technology is becoming more prevalent in all aspects of life, and students at Iowa State University have utilized technology to gain the knowledge and tools that will help the world construct crops that can thrive in our ever-changing environment.

One of those students is Ashlyn Rairdin, who enrolled at Iowa State in fall of 2019.

Daniel Kohlhase: C.R. Weber Award for Excellence in Plant Breeding

Daniel Kohlhase is the recipient of the C. R. Weber Award for Excellence in Plant Breeding. Daniel grew up in Bloomington, IL. He discovered his passion for agriculture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, earning a BSc in Crop Science. After internships in plant breeding and seed production, Daniel decided to attend graduate school at Iowa State University in 2013. He earned a MSc in Crop Production & Physiology working with Dr. Mike Owen in 2016.

Advancing machine learning as tool for crop breeding

Using machine learning to develop and utilize plant breeding tools that can deliver improved genetics to farmers faster is a dream of Asheesh (Danny) Singh, associate professor of agronomy at Iowa State University and recipient of the 2020 Raymond and Mary Baker Agronomic Excellence Award.

Singh, the Monsanto Chair in Soybean Breeding at Iowa State, collaborates across disciplines with fellow innovators, combining artificial intelligence and genetics to speed selection of crop varieties finely tuned to the needs of farmers now and in the future.

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