COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The eighth annual Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium will take place in person and online Feb. 17 at Texas A&M University.
The one-day research conference is for students, faculty and private industry researchers from across the country studying plant breeding, genetics and related sciences. Between 150 and 300 participants are expected either in person or online.
The free event will begin with registration and poster judging at 7 a.m., followed by the program from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Memorial Student Center, 275 Joe Routt Blvd., Bryan-College Station.
To register, go to http://plantbreedingsymposium.com/. The event also will be livestreamed via Zoom, but registration is required for webinar access. A link will be sent to registered attendees.
The symposium is supported by the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, the Department of Horticultural Sciences, the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and the Institute for Genome Sciences and Society at Texas A&M.
Hybrid Horizons
The symposium’s theme this year is “Hybrid Horizons,” meant to highlight the latest technological and biological advancements for improving and developing hybrid plants.
“Generating hybrids can be an arduous task depending on a plant’s reproductive biology and the ease of finding or developing adequate parents to cross,” said Fabian Leon, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences’ sorghum breeding and genetics program.
“Recently, double-haploid technology, apomixis, genomic selection and more technologies have proven to be promising for tackling the breeding challenges of hybrid development,” Leon said. “The symposium will showcase current research on these topics from experts working with maize, potatoes, sunflowers, roses and more.”
The goal of the event is to educate future plant breeders through networking with leaders in plant breeding research.
“This event affords students the opportunity to present their research in front of the industry’s leading experts,” Leon said. “It is a terrific networking opportunity for us to discuss the direction of our own research while witnessing what some of the experts are working on in their programs. Additionally, winners from our student research competitions are awarded monetary prizes and those that are coming from other universities are also awarded a travel scholarship and accommodations for their trip to College Station.”
On the agenda
Keynote speakers and their topics include:
— The Many Faces of Sunflower Breeding, Jamie Layton, Ph.D., plant geneticist and molecular biologist, Corteva Agriscience.
— Development of Diploid Germplasm for Variety Development: Reinventing a Polyploid Crop, David Douches, Ph.D., professor and director of the Potato Breeding and Genetics Program, Michigan State University.
— Engineering Apomixis in Crops: An Update on Progress, Joann Conner, Ph.D., research scientist, Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, University of Georgia.
— Recent Advances in Maize Doubled Haploid Technology, Thomas Lübberstedt, professor and director, R.F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding, Iowa State University.
— Exploring Genomics-Aided Breeding in Roses, Oscar Riera-Lizarazu, associate professor, rose breeding and genetics, Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences.
Additionally, four Texas A&M graduate students will make presentations, along with three travel scholars representing Cornell University, University of California-Davis and Louisiana State University.
On Feb. 18, a Q&A session will be held at noon with the speakers at the Plant Breeders Circle seminar in the Heep Center, Room 440, on campus.
Student leaders
The student-run event is designed to enhance leadership and organization skills of the future plant breeders. In addition to Leon, this year’s organizing committee includes Catherine Danmaigona Clement, doctoral student; Ze Fang, doctoral student; Kayla Beechinor, master’s student; Noah Winans, master’s student; and Ilksen Topcu, doctoral student.
The Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium is sponsored by Corteva Agriscience and is a part of the Corteva Agriscience Plant Sciences Symposia Series, which connects similar events at universities around the world. Presenting partners also include the Texas Peanut Producers Board, Texas Corn Producers Board, Advanta, Corteva Agriscience, Texas AgriScience LLC, and NuPhY.
For more information about the symposium, email the graduate student organizing committee at pbsymposium@gmail.com.
–Kay Ledbetter
Texas A&M AgriLife Today
