Plant Breeding Education

How do we educate another generation of Plant Breeders?

Public Plant Breeding Have Trained/Educated almost all current

plant breeders. Number and size of programs is in near-

universal decline—DRIVEN BY FUNDING SHIFTS

Is this the necessary model? Can we educate plant breeders effectively without operating public breeding programs?

Can we support breeding programs in sufficient numbers in MAJOR crops?

Funding Decreases State funding—Plant Breeding, university

funding in general being crowded out by Medicaid, Medicare, K-12 Education

Federal funding—being crowded out by Defense, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security

Financial Collapse/Recession forcing cuts in state budgets, flat-line Federal budgets

Funding Increases NSF—willing to fund only basic science,

especially if research publishable in Science, Nature

NIH—molecular work general enough to be basic, or will apply to plants, animals, humans

Commercial contracts, investments in a few specific programs

“Orphan” crops where there is a constituency

WHO we educate FEWER farm/rural students, more urban

people, often don’t hold agriculture in high esteem.

Universities need help recruiting students at all degree levels.

Commercial companies need help recruiting students, interns, permanent employees.

NEED to recruit students from biology, engineering, basic sciences!!!!

Is Plant Breeding Training a Replacement for PB Education?

Some evidence of proliferation of short courses—Univ. of California, Wageningen

Tend to attract B.S. level technicians, teach hands on skills, but seldom higher level thinking, art with less science.

LOTS of informal training by professionals, turn technicians into students!

Plant Breeding EDUCATION

Needs to take place in context of active breeding program!

M.S. and Ph.D. are RESEARCH degrees We may need to re-think how and

where the research and formal education take place.

Perhaps NOT necessary to do both in the University setting!

Disciplines—Most are the same as 40 years ago

Mendelian/transmission genetics Cytogenetics, cell biology Plant pathology/entomology/weed science Statistics and Experimental Design Quantitative Genetics, Population Genetics Botany, plant & crop physiology CROP PRODUCTION for urban students

New & Necessary Re-Connect with Basic Science

Molecular Genetics Applied Genomics Technologies Transgene biology/cell culture Crop Evolution / Molecular Systematics Intellectual Property Rights, Regulatory

issues Database/Software Proficiency Written/Oral Communication/Teamwork Multi-Lingual !!??!!

Molecular Plant Breeders? Intra-University competition for resources

and students! LOTS of talk about “precision” plant

breeding modification via molecular biology, modification/insertion of genes

Field Experience tends to be lacking among scientists making most aggressive claims.

We share lots of tools with molecular biology, but are applied with different goals.

Plant Breeding is an Integration of Many Disciplines

Engineering may be most apt model in education.

Regardless how much cutting edge Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Materials Science is done, we still need to teach how to integrate these various disciplines into a useful and coherent product—roads, bridges, dams,electronic devices, substances.

MODELS--Traditional Many programs still viable, especially

“minor” crops that aren’t viable for commercial companies—many forages, wheat, squash, dry beans, etc.

It isn’t necessary to “train” in the crop you will be employed to breed. However, it may require additional information, maybe offered at other universities, or on the job

Commercial Company as Partner

Universities need to help recruit bright students to intern as breeding assistants (longer than a summer!)

Commercial companies may allow bright assistants partial/full release to pursue graduate degrees—Research done at/with company, education through university—STAN JENSEN Model

Commercial SUPPORT May involve financial support of project May involve sharing research trials May involve sharing of data, phenotypic

and marker under secure coded system GRA’s Perhaps in corn we will need to work full

cooperation, all research done at/with/by companys

ONLINE EDUCATION FEW universities will be able to retain

enough breeders, other professionals to offer a full range of courses.

Perhaps it is better to have a couple of choices, have on-line courses taught by the best people in areas.

Module system of 1 or 2 hours courses in LOTS of different areas, rather than traditional courses.

Continuing Education Applied Genomics Techniques

Transcriptomics Proteomics Metabolomics

New Statistical Techniques Partial Least Squares for fitting “too

many variables” models Whole Genome Selection Techniques

Cooperative Model? We may need USDA plant breeding

professionals to help with teaching. May be the “easiest” support to get from the Federal Government!

We may need to “consolidate” schools. Offer some courses, trade students, faculty on others. ISU—UN-L vet school program.

With consolidated seed industry, there is less political clout in most states to get state/university support.

Results of GEM Survey and Education of Public Plant Breeders, Use of GEM Materials & Impact

Researchers were queried about how GEM Project germplasm or funding has contributed to their research objectives, or to the training of the future scientists that they mentor.

Researchers responded that GEM germplasm had contributed to their research objectives in many ways, and in particular has been used in many graduate research projects which have been well-published.

In addition, use of exotic-derived GEM germplasm with traits not found in maize of temperate origin enabled Iowa State University’s Grain Quality Traits Lab (Charles Hurburgh and colleagues) to extend their NIRS calibration for maize starch, oil and protein.

Of particular interest were how the GEM Specific Cooperative Agreement researchers leveraged their resources to provide for germplasm development, basic and applied research, and the number of graduate and undergraduate students that have been involved.

13 Ph.D. programs completed (seven working directly in plant breeding or closely allied science; two of these are now plant breeding and genetics faculty) 4 Ph.D. programs in progress 1 post-doctoral program completed 8 M.S. programs completed (five working

directly in plant breeding or closely allied science; three pursuing advanced degrees in plant breeding)

3 M.S. programs in progress