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Plant Breeding and Genomics News, 25 September 2013

Plant Breeding and Genomics News
 

Upcoming Events from eXtension

 
This webinar is the second in a two part series on high throughput field phenotyping. This presentation describes how to handle data generated by a field-based sensor array.
  
 
 
 

Publications from the Past Month

 
 

 

Plant Breeding and Genomics News: Special Edition Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture , 22 August 2013

Plant Breeding and Genomics News
 

Upcoming Events from eXtension

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animal Health Science. Plant Breeding and Genetics. Crop production and Management. 

These fields of study don’t receive the glitz and glamour of other programs in many schools, but training experts in these areas is crucial for the future of agriculture. That’s why, USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics Dr. Catherine Woteki will answer questions in a Twitter chat this Friday at 2pm. EST to discuss how we all can keep the pipeline filled with promising students.

Please join us on Twitter tomorrow and use the hashtag #StudyAgScience to keep up with conversation. Please use the #StudyAgScience hashtag in all of your tweets. You can tweet questions, comments or just follow along. We will answer as many as we can in one hour from the @ScienceAtUSDA Twitter account. We hope to see you tomorrow at 2pm EDT.

  

Other Event Announcements

 

Publications from the Past Month

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sustainable Agriculture Research 
Intersection of Plant Breeding, Climate Change, and Food Security

Research Publications from Last 6 Months

   

Sustainable Agriculture Intensification Policy Recommendations

Policy Publications from Last 6 Months

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plant Breeding and Genomics News

Our Upcoming Events

Webinar Broadcast August 12-14: International Quinoa Research Symposium - eXtension

August 21 Noon EDT Webinar: Selective Sequencing Through Combinatorial Pooling

 

Our Recent Tutorial Publication

Genomic Relationships and GBLUP

This tutorial describes calculations of realized genomic relationships from DNA markers and the application of GBLUP for genomic estimated breeding values in animal and plant breeding. Two demos are provided using R and ASReml software. The tutorial was recorded as a live webinar on August 1, 2013.

 

Upcoming Thursday Webinar Rescheduled

NEW DATE: Wednesday 21 August 2013 at Noon EDT

Selective Sequencing Through Combinatorial Pooling

Register Now (If you previously registered to participate this Thursday, you remain registered for the new date.)

Presented By Stefano Lonardi and Timothy Close

Related Publication
Stefano Lonardi, Denisa Duma, Matthew Alpert, Francesca Cordero, Marco Beccuti, Prasanna R. Bhat, Yonghui Wu, Gianfranco Ciardo, Burair Alsaihati, Yaqin Ma, Steve Wanamaker, Josh Resnik, Serdar Bozdag, Ming-Cheng Luo, Timothy J. Close (2013). Combinatorial Pooling Enables Selective Sequencing of the Barley Gene Space. PLOS Computational Biology, 9(4), e1003010.

Funding Statement
Development of this resource was supported in part by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project, Dry Bean Root Health East Africa, and the Triticeae Coordinated Agriculture Project.  Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Plant Breeding and Genomics Newsletter, June 28, 2013

PBG Webinar Series

Selective Sequencing Through Combinatorial Pooling
July 11 at noon EDT – Register Now
Presented by Stefano Lonardi and Timothy Close

View upcoming webinars and archive here.

Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation  

Private manufacturers, research and development institutes, universities, scientists, and other entrepreneurs are invited to submit concept papers that highlight an outstanding problem and either a new technology or adoption of an existing one to solve it. Those that are simple, cost-effective, and show he most potential for smallholder adoption and replication, particularly by women, will be shortlisted in a competitive selection process. The program is seeking technologies that are labor saving, boost productivity, and show promise for sustainability under the Feed the Future initiative.  For more information visit http://www.partneringforinnovation.org/eoi/.

Examples include

Seed varieties
Biological controls
Animal genetics and vaccines
Drip irrigation and water harvesting systems
Postharvest and value-added technologies
Farm tools

First International Conference on Rapid Cycle Crop-Breeding

January 7-10, 2014
Landsdowne, Virginia   
Registration Due November 1st, 2013

This conference seeks to gather experts in the fields of plant breeding, genetics, molecular biology, horticulture, forestry, plant physiology and related fields to discuss approaches and present the latest findings related to the shortening of breeding cycles in long-generation cycle crops in order to more efficiently and effectively face the challenges of improving the world’s production of food and fiber (see attached document for more information).

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Upcoming Webinar: Selective Sequencing Through Combinatorial Pooling

11 July 2013 at Noon EST

Stefano Lonardi and Timothy J. Close describe the use of combinatorial pooling to reconstruct gene sequences within BACs. Recent work in barley has shown that this level of sequence knowledge is sufficient to support critical end-point objectives such as map-based cloning and marker-assisted breeding.

Join Us by Registering Now
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/326442873

View Other Upcoming Webinars and Webinar Archive

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International Plant Breeding Congress Announcement and Webinar Reminder with Time Zone

International Plant Breeding Congress

10-14 November, 2013
Anatyla, Turkey

The congress will be organized by Plant Breeders Sub-Union of Turkey (BİSAB) together with Turkish Plant Breeders Association (TUBID), Turkish Seed Union (TURKTOB), ECO Seed Association (ECOSA), along with other such national (GDAR) and international organizations (CIMMYT, ICARDA, EUCARPIA, CIOPORA, etc..). Supporting institutions are Moldova Academy of Science, Serbian Seed Trade and Plant Breeders Association, Bulgarian Seed Association, Hellenic Plant Breeders and Genetic Society, Murdoch University. We intended to bring three different communities together as research and private investment, in a friendly environment of Antalya, Turkey to share what they have and get benefit from each other.

Visit this link for registration information: http://www.intpbc.org.

Upcoming Webinar: Perspectives on the Future Roles of US Land Grant Universities in Plant Breeding

Presented by Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

2 – 4 PM (Pacific Time) Thursday, May 30, 2013
The panel discussion will be streamed live at be http://live.oregonstate.edu/

The goal of this panel is to encourage discussion and thought on the future role of Land Grant Universities in a shifting landscape of Plant Breeding activities and outputs. Plant Breeding is widely acknowledged as a critical endeavor in this era of climate change and population growth. Land Grant Universities and USDA-ARS partners have trained generations of plant breeders within a framework of respected plant breeding programs. Over the past several decades, large-scale variety development for many crops has shifted from Universities and the ARS to the private sector. At the same time public funding for plant breeding has declined. This has led to new challenges and opportunities. An anticipated outcome is a framework for developing an innovative and sustainable model for the graduate program in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Oregon State University.

 

Upcoming Webinar and Course Announcement

Upcoming Webinar: Perspectives on the Future Roles of US Land Grant Universities in Plant Breeding

Presented by Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

2 – 4 PM (Pacific Time) Thursday, May 30, 2013
The panel discussion will be streamed live at be http://live.oregonstate.edu/

The goal of this panel is to encourage discussion and thought on the future role of Land Grant Universities in a shifting landscape of Plant Breeding activities and outputs. Plant Breeding is widely acknowledged as a critical endeavor in this era of climate change and population growth. Land Grant Universities and USDA-ARS partners have trained generations of plant breeders within a framework of respected plant breeding programs. Over the past several decades, large-scale variety development for many crops has shifted from Universities and the ARS to the private sector. At the same time public funding for plant breeding has declined. This has led to new challenges and opportunities. An anticipated outcome is a framework for developing an innovative and sustainable model for the graduate program in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Oregon State University.

Upcoming Online Course: Plant Breeding for Drought Tolerance

Colorado State University will offer a one-credit online course in Plant Breeding for Drought Tolerance August 26 to December 13, 2013. Course instructor is Dr. Patrick Byrne, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. This distance course is targeted to graduate students in the plant sciences, as well as to professionals in the public and private sectors who want to increase their knowledge in this area. It will provide one transferable graduate-level credit. 

The cost of student tuition is US $549 plus a $20 technology fee. Word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software (e.g., Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is required, as is Adobe Reader. Students are required to have access to a computer and Internet access that meet the general CSU recommendations. Interested students are encouraged to provide information through this application form. For questions, please contact the Program Assistant, Kierra Jewell, at Kierra.Jewell@ColoState.edu. Applications will be accepted through August 1, 2013 or until the class is full (20 students).

http://droughtadaptation.org/online_course.html

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New Conifer Genomics Modules: Landscape Genomics and Reference Genome Sequencing

Two New Conifer Genomics Modules: Landscape Genomics and Reference Genome Sequencing

The Conifer Genomics Learning Modules are a series of presentations and supporting materials that describe the field of conifer genomics. The series includes genetics foundation materials as well as more advanced materials on topics of tree genomics. Modules in this series are meant to be integrated into genetics curricula for high school, college, and post-graduate learners.

7th Annual Meeting of the National Association of Plant Breeders

Today is the last day to register for the Tampa, FL June 2-5th meeting at the $350 rate. David Francis and Shawn Yarnes look forward to connecting with everyone at the meeting. See you there!

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Biofortification of Cassava for Africa Presentation and Training Opportunities at UC Davis

Biofortification of Cassava for Africa

Richard Sayer’s December 12, 2012 presentation at the Michigan State University Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Graduate Programs's Crop Improvement for Human Nutrition Symposium is available to watch now.

Multiple training opportunities available at the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center

For questions and additional information go to SBC or contact Susan DiTomaso.

Seed Business 101 – Field

Seed Business 101 was created with input from industry executives to accelerate the careers of promising new employees and young managers. The course has been offered since fall of 2010 and already attended by over 120 seed professionals. This educational opportunity gives participants a broad understanding of the major aspects of a seed company’s operations and cross-departmental knowledge of best practices for profitability. The UC Davis, CA Field session on January 28 – February 1, 2013 has limited registration space available.

Seed Biology, Production & Quality

This course has been expanded to include both hands-on exercises and detailed discussions of seed production and seed technology. Topics include: Flowering and pollination, seed development and maturation, production and certification, health and phytosanitation, harvesting and conditioning, vigor and viability, storage and longevity, biotechnology and seed enhancement. This class will be at UC Davis on February 12-14, 2013. Five Registered Seed Technologist credits will be available upon completion of the class. Participants also have the opportunity to attend Seed Central Research and Technology, Brainstorming and Forum events on the afternoon of February 14th. For more information see Seed Central

UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy

The UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy (PBA) is a premium professional program offered in the USA, Europe and Asia. To date, more than one hundred private industry breeders have attended the PBA, making it the most significant program of its kind. Registration is now open for Class III of the European Plant Breeding Academy. This program begins in October 2013. There is an early-bird registration discount available until March 31, 2013. For more information on the European Plant Breeding Academy contact Joy Patterson or visit the PBA.

 

Seed Authentication Markers Workshop

This course, in collaboration with the International Seed Academy, will be held at UC Davis on January 22-23, 2013. The program is targeted to experts and professionals in seed technology. This advanced course will cover the latest technologies for seed coatings, seed identification, systemic markers and related topics. Registration is available on the SBC website. Three Registered Seed Technologist credits will be available upon completion of this course.

Program Management for Plant Breeders

This course will teach the principles of employee and resource management in a modern agricultural research program. It is designed for professionals directing plant breeding and laboratory programs. The session is scheduled for February 19-21, 2013 at UC Davis.