baluedeker, Author at Department of Soil and Crop Sciences

Two Texas A&M students named Borlaug Scholars by plant breeders association

3Jul

By: Beth Ann Luedeker
Two students from the Texas A&M University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Tia Dunbar and Ammani Kyanam, were among those named as Borlaug Scholars for 2020 by the National Association of Plant Breeders, NAPB.

“Both Tia and Ammani’s resumes reveal outstanding students with the potential to follow closely in the footsteps of Dr. Norman Borlaug in relieving hunger and poverty through plant breeding,” said Don Jones, chair, NAPB Borlaug Scholars committee.

The scholars program is named after Dr. Norman Borlaug, a plant breeder known as the Father of the Green Revolution.

The NAPB Borlaug Scholarship awards are given to exceptional students aspiring to careers in plant breeding and genetics and who have a strong desire to contribute to the improvement of the plants that we all depend upon for our daily needs, according to NAPB.

This is especially critical in this age of continually increasing populations, climate change and uncertain global food security – issues Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution and also a plant breeder, cared about deeply. Plant breeding uniquely addresses these challenges through applied research and improving technologies, according to the association.

Dunbar is a master’s student under Michael Thomson, Ph.D., professor and HM Beachell Rice Chair with Texas A&M AgriLife Research. Kyanam is a doctoral student working with Bill Rooney, Ph.D., AgriLife Research Faculty Fellow and sorghum breeder.

Each wants to help improve agriculture through plant breeding, but they are approaching it from different angles.

Tia Dunbar

Dunbar is working to optimize “in planta” gene-editing techniques using nanotechnologies, while Kyanam is mapping quantitative trait loci, or QTL, for sugarcane aphid tolerance and evaluating a chemical male gametocide.

Tia Dunbar

“Most gene editing methods for crop improvement require time and labor-intensive in vitro tissue culture techniques,” Dunbar said in her application. “Bypassing the in vitro regeneration processes could facilitate gene editing and expand its use.”

“If we are successful, our optimized gene-editing protocol will enable accelerated improvement of rice,” Dunbar said.

While her research currently focuses on rice, Dunbar hopes to pursue a career that applies gene-editing techniques to a broader range of organisms.

“Growing up, my family did not always have access to healthy food, so I chose to major in plant breeding to learn more about crop improvement,” Dunbar said. “I see biotechnology as the key to manipulate agriculture to better serve the growing population and ease the suffering caused by hunger and malnutrition.”

Ammani Kyanam

Kyanam said she chose to pursue agriculture because of Borlaug, “but I chose plant breeding when I learned how direct an impact it had on the livelihoods of farmers, especially small farmers.”

Ammani Kyanam

As an undergraduate at the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University in Hyderabad, India, Kyanam participated in the Rural Agricultural Work Experience Programme, RAWEP, where she shadowed a small farmer for a crop season.

“My inquiries showed me that farmers had progressive views about purchasing seed, and the boon that was BT cotton,” she said. “It also helped that my father was a seed salesman, and I had learned how important quality seed is to a farming operation.”

Fortunately for Kyanam, she not only loved plant breeding as a subject, but also has a knack for it. Her current focus is streamlining the sorghum breeding process.

“For my doctoral research, I am testing a chemical gametocide, triflouromethanesulfonamide, to assess its potential in generating testcross hybrid seed,” she said. “Hybrid seed production relies on male-sterile seed parents, and the current process to develop those parents is tedious and time consuming.”

Kyanam plans to pursue a career in an applied breeding program, developing new breeding materials and commercial hybrids, as well as evaluating pre-commercial hybrids.

“My secondary goal is to work in science communication and to contribute to clearing up the misinformation that is so prevalent,” Kyanam said.
Students making a difference

Both young women are active outside the classroom as well.

Dunbar is an officer in the Texas A&M Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science chapter and the University’s Women in Science and Engineering organization. She is an active member of Texas A&M’s Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences and was on the organizing committee for the Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium in 2020.

Kyanam is a founding member of the Corteva Plant Science Series’ Student Advisory Council and a graduate student liaison for NAPB’s communication committee. She has chaired several plant breeding symposia at Texas A&M and was a founding officer in the Soil and Crop Sciences Graduate Organization.

The future look of urban Texas landscapes

24Jun

By: Kerry Halladay

The Texas landscape is changing and becoming more urban. In her new role in Dallas — one of the fastest-growing cities in the country — Dr. Becky Bowling hopes to see that urban landscape become more water efficient and uniquely, beautifully Texan in the future.

“I would say conservation is my passion,” Bowling said. “And I’m really interested in it from an urban perspective.”

As the new Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialist for urban water, Dr. Becky Bowling (formerly Becky Grubbs) hopes to help make Texas landscapes more water efficient.

Bowling is an assistant professor in the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialist for urban water. But, very much like the interconnected nature of water, her new role at the Texas A&M AgriLife Center at Dallas connects many different elements under the AgriLife umbrella.

In March, Bowling moved to Dallas with a new joint appointment with AgriLife Extension and Texas A&M AgriLife Research at the Dallas Center. There she will work closely with the center’s Water University group, as well as doing work for the Texas Water Resources Institute.

“I saw a really neat opportunity in this new role to explore some ideas in urban landscape management that maybe have not been fully explored yet and to engage with parts of the population that we may not currently have a relationship with.”

New connections

Bowling sees Dallas as an opportunity to make new conservation connections in Texas’ growing urban landscape.

“Historically, there’s always been a lot of focus on large-scale producers farming conventional agriculture,” Bowling said of water conservation overall.

“But I think now we’re starting to recognize that the average homeowner, especially when you’ve got 8 million of them concentrated in one area, can have a really significant impact on the environment, particularly in the city where they’re living.”

More and more people are living in Dallas these days. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metroplex saw the largest increase in resident population of any metro area in the entire country, adding 1,206,599 new residents between 2010 and 2019.

“Dallas is a really great place to launch some exploration into understanding what grabs people’s decision making and how to adapt to different audiences to have the greatest impact,” Bowling said. She added that reaching out to previously under-engaged groups that can play a big role in urban water conservation is a big part of her goals for the future.

“Some of my research looking at this from a multi-faceted approach is not just looking at the end-user, the homeowner, but also looking at the role that some other entities play.”

Bowling explained that groups between the municipal water utilities and the homeowner can play a big role in how residents use water in the urban landscape, making them important players in urban water conservation.

For example, homebuilders can have a significant influence on a landscape’s initial design. Homeowners associations (HOAs) can control homeowners’ subsequent landscape decisions. Professional landscapers also are a source of advice and information to homeowners on maintenance decisions. All these groups can be important players in urban water conservation. However, these mid-level influencers have not been the focus of much water conservation outreach in the past.

Bowling wants to find out how to change that.

“How we can get everybody on board to consider conservation and prioritize conservation as resources become increasingly more limited in our state?” she asked. “I would like to build more and more resources to strengthen our relationship with anybody who’s involved in the landscape.”

Perspective shift

One of the things Bowling hopes to see in Dallas’ — and Texas’ — future is a perspective shift when it comes to how communities define a beautiful urban landscape.

The average home owner can have a significant impact on the environment through how they choose to use water in their urban landscapes. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)

“There is this surprisingly uniform idea of what a landscape should look like — regardless of where you are or what socio-economic bracket you fall into — where the goal is monocultural turfgrass lawn, green and weedless, with a short list of landscape options,” she explained.

But what if the motivations informing urban landscape decisions were who can be the “greenest” or who can conserve the most water? Bowling thinks Dallas is a good place to find out.

“I would love to see Dallas be a leader in what that could look like. As a rapidly growing urban population, it could be an example of a different type of value and a different type of aesthetic.”

Beautiful and sustainable are not mutually exclusive, Bowling said. Her vision of an ideal Texas aesthetic would celebrate uniqueness and recognize the variety of Texas’ many ecosystems and work with them.

“I would love to see landscapes that are very unique to not just Texas, but where you are in Texas. Native and native adapted plants that really represent your geographical region and are beautiful without a lot of extra work and effort because they’re designed to be there,” she said. “I would also love to see a little pressure off of turfgrass areas to be perfect and a more flexible mindset that allows for periods where turfgrass can go dormant during drought periods.”

“Texas is in a unique position to set an example or model what conservation can look like for urban areas that are in different ecosystems. We have several major cities that are in very different environments, get very different precipitation, experience very different annual temperatures and very different soil characteristics,” she said, adding that she sees Texas as one of the few states with such an opportunity.

“There’s an opportunity to create sustainable urban models that can set examples for other parts of the country.”

Texas cotton farmers adjusting in wake of court ruling on dicamba

23Jun

ByL Kay Ledbetter

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service stands ready to advise producers on agronomic alternatives and options in the wake of a June 3 ruling from the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to immediately vacate the registrations of three dicamba products, Xtendimax, FeXapan and Engenia.

Cotton producers across the nation are having to rethink their management after a recent court ruling on dicamba herbicide products. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

Approximately 80% of the state’s cotton has been planted, and an estimated 60-80% is XtendFlex cotton – a dicamba-tolerant cotton that would have allowed the application of available registered dicamba herbicide products for weed control.

Producers are working to determine their next moves, which are somewhat complicated by the different actions being taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the Texas Department of Agriculture, TDA, as well as those pesticide registrants involved in the litigation.

Dan Hale, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension associate director, College Station, suggests producers comply with the EPA existing stocks provisions by making allowable applications of products according to the specific product labels.

AgriLife Extension cotton specialists and county agents also suggest producers consider selecting alternative seed options with other herbicide technologies such as 2,4-D, if they have not planted their 2020 cotton crops.

Background

In 2016, EPA granted conditional, two-year registrations for these three products. When this conditional registration was set to expire in late 2018, EPA approved another conditional two-year registration for the products, with additional restrictions on use, said Scott Nolte, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension state weed specialist.

In addition to being federally restricted-use pesticides, these dicamba products were “state-limited-use” pesticides in Texas, requiring specific applicator training annually prior to use, Nolte said. AgriLife Extension has offered this training to more than 7,000 producers in 2018, 4,500 in 2019 and 3,200 this year.

Status of the cotton crop across Texas

Reports from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomists from around the state provided these estimates:

In the South Plains, an estimated 80% of the producers use the dicamba technology and at least 80% of that seed is already in the ground, said Murilo Maeda, Ph.D., Lubbock.
In the Coastal Bend region, roughly 50% of the already-planted cotton crop is using those technologies, said Josh McGinty, Ph.D., Corpus Christi.
In West Central Texas, approximately 60% of the cotton has been planted, with primarily dryland left to plant. About 70% of the producers utilize these technologies, and have already purchased seed, fungicide and some herbicides, said Reagan Noland, Ph.D., San Angelo.
In the Rolling Plains region, about 80% of the producers incorporated the technology into this year’s crop, which is 70% planted, said Emi Kimura, Ph.D., Vernon.
In the High Plains, all cotton acres are planted, as the last date to plant was May 31, and at least 50% or more of the producers use these technologies, said Jourdan Bell, Ph.D., Amarillo.

Moving forward without the dicamba technologies

So, what are cotton producers to do now? They have a few options.

Nolte and Peter Dotray, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research weed scientist, Lubbock, suggest affected producers consider some alternative weed control options to address management problems considering this new development.

Preplant and at-plant soil residual herbicides were used by most growers, and it will be critical to use additional soil residual herbicides such as Dual, Warrant and Outlook early or mid- postemergence, regardless of what postemergence herbicide is used, they said.

“Based on the EPA’s order, we expect growers to continue to rely on dicamba until July 31,” Dotray said. “When dicamba is limited or not available, glyphosate and/or glufosinate may be used at one or both of the postemergence application timings. We may see more cultivation and hooded sprayers used to manage weeds.”

Producers can access the latest version of the AgriLife Extension cotton weed management guide for more information.

Additionally, Syngenta’s Tavium Plus Vapor Grip, which was registered separately in 2019, was not included in this litigation. Its registration, which allows application to Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans and Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton, remains in place. It has label restrictions that must be followed. In cotton, a single postemergence application may be made until the 6-leaf cotton stage or 60 days after planting, whichever comes first.

Federal and state reactions to court ruling

While the court ruling was made on June 3 and effective on that date, on June 8, the EPA issued an order providing guidance on the sale, distribution and use of existing stocks of the three affected dicamba products. The EPA order stated in part:

Distribution or sale by any person is generally prohibited except for ensuring proper disposal or return to the registrant. Keep in mind that “distribution” is broadly defined as including “distributing, selling, offering for sale, holding for sale, shipping, holding for shipment, delivering for shipment, or receiving and (having so received) delivering or offering to deliver, or releasing for shipment to any person in any state.”
Commercial applicators may distribute or sell existing stocks that are in their possession. Existing stocks are defined as the products “which were packaged, labeled, and released for shipment prior to the time of the order on June 3, 2020.”
Growers may use any existing stocks, as defined above, consistent with the product’s previously approved label and may not continue after July 31.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has said he will formally request a Section 18 exemption from the EPA to allow the continued use of dicamba in Texas under emergency conditions.

The Texas cotton crop is already growing or going in the ground right now, and “our cotton growers must have certainty,” Miller said.

An Emergency Exemption under Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, FIFRA, would authorize EPA to allow limited use of the pesticide in defined geographic areas for a finite period once the EPA confirms that the situation meets the statutory definition of an “emergency condition.”

Texas A&M AgriLife brings wheat field tours to producers online

23Jun

By: Kay Ledbetter

Producers across the state are harvesting or have already harvested their wheat crop. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kay Ledbetter)

Texas A&M AgriLife wheat research and variety trials did not take a break during the COVID-19 pandemic. But it was not possible to conduct a traditional May wheat field tour, so Texas A&M AgriLife faculty across the state are bringing fields to producers – virtually.

The 2020 Virtual Wheat Tour is a combination of videos from across the state that allow producers to view the field trials and hear the latest in research, said Fernando Guillen, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service statewide small grains and oilseed crops specialist, College Station.

Picking the best of the best

Winter wheat uniform variety trials, or UVT, were planted at 23 sites across the state in 18 different geographic locations to evaluate lines of wheat under both irrigated and dryland conditions, Guillen said.

The plots are a collaboration of AgriLife Extension agronomists and county agents as well as Texas A&M AgriLife Research’s two wheat breeders, Jackie Rudd, Ph.D., Amarillo, and Amir Ibrahim, Ph.D., College Station.

Guillen said the UVT include different varieties and experimental lines developed by Texas A&M AgriLife, as well as varieties from other universities and private industry. The results gathered from these test plots are used to make sound variety recommendations to producers in the different growing regions – High Plains, Rolling Plains, Blacklands and South Texas – by way of an annual “Picks list.” The 2020-2021 list will be posted in early August.

The best materials placed in the Picks list are selected based on a careful evaluation of:

Grain yield – the variety performs above average in its target region.
Disease and insect package – the variety’s ability to cope with seasonal disease and pressures within the target region – particularly leaf rust, stripe rust, stem rust, wheat streak mosaic virus, soil-borne mosaic virus, greenbug, wheat curl mite and Hessian fly.
End-use quality – specifically the variety must have above average test weight and good milling and baking attributes.
Stability – the variety must have the ability to perform consistently across locations and years within a given region.

This drone shot of the irrigated uniform variety trial near Bushland gives a wheat tour perspective on the differences in hard red winter wheat varieties. (Texas A&M AgriLife drone photo by Shannon Baker)

Variety trial locations

In the High Plains, there were three irrigated and three dryland trials located near Bushland, Groom, Perryton, Dumas and Dalhart. In these trials, 34 varieties were planted in the dryland trials and 36 in the irrigated ones. The dryland trials included eight Texas A&M AgriLife, TAM, varieties, four new experimental TAM lines, nine from other universities and 13 from the seed industry. The irrigated trials had eight TAM varieties, three experimental TAM lines, 11 from other universities and 14 from private industry. These trials are approaching the final stages of development, and they will soon be ready to harvest. This year no trials were lost due to weather conditions at the Panhandle.

In the Rolling Plains, there were trials under dryland conditions near Abilene, Chillicothe, Munday and San Angelo. They included 31 varieties – five TAM varieties, five experimental TAM lines, five from other universities and 16 from private industry. One location, Chillicothe, was impacted by freeze and hail damage.

The Blacklands had trials in Ellis, Hillsboro, McGregor, Muenster, Thrall and Prosper, all under dryland conditions. The Thrall location was lost, however, due to significant cattle damage. Harvest is underway at most locations. There were 23 varieties planted – four TAM, four experimental TAM lines, one from another university and 14 from private industry.

In South Texas, dryland trials were planted at Castroville, College Station, Eagle Lake and Uvalde and all were harvested in May. Twenty varieties were included in these trials – four TAM, five new experimental TAM lines, one from another university and 10 from private industry.

Wheat tour: Conditions and yields

Guillen said based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture report from May, approximately 80% of winter wheat was in fair condition or better. Only 21% was listed as poor or very poor. And at that time, about 30% had been harvested.

Ibrahim reported leaf rust was a problem again this year in the southern regions of the state, although not as severe as in previous years.

“It’s been wet in many areas of the Blacklands, so much so that we didn’t get to apply second dose of nitrogen this year,” he said. “Our yields were 50 to 60 bushels per acre instead of the 70 or 80 bushels per acre we typically see there.

“We also had some freeze damage in some of the early lines in South Texas and Central Texas. We had freezing temperatures in February after the wheat had started to joint. The freeze in Uvalde and Castroville came when the stems were elongating and caused the damage.”

Freezing temperatures and snow damaged wheat across the state in 2020. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Dr. Qingwu Xue)

Ibrahim said overall they saw good moisture and timely rains, although some rains impeded field operations. All locations other than the Blacklands were expected to see average yields.

Rudd said the weather has definitely provided the most optimum conditions to find the hardiest varieties.

“The reason our varieties are such strong performers under stress is because they have been bred and selected under stress,” he said.

In 2018, there was almost no rain and 2019 there was a lot of rain and good yields. Now in 2020, the rains were in the middle – decent early rains and then some snow through February and March, before they shut off.

“This gives us a good diversity of what we need when looking at different germplasm. Since breeding is a long multi-year process, something that can do really well in all three years are definitely keepers,” Rudd said.

He said many of the plots saw freeze and hail damage and then recent high winds caused some shattering in wheat lines that were not bred for the High Plains.

“Our target environment is a tough place and we need lines that will survive all these conditions,” Rudd said. “There are several experimental lines coming through the pipeline that we feel very good about. What we have in the pipeline are better than the existing varieties. The process works.”

Texas A&M AgriLife helping set gold standard greenhouse gas emissions measurements for Department of Energy

22Jun

By: Kay Ledbetter

Greenhouse gas emissions from sorghum fields in the Texas High Plains will be the focus of a Texas A&M AgriLife Research study funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, ARPA-E.

This $3.1 million collaborative project, led by Oklahoma State University, is funded through ARPA-E’s Systems for Monitoring and Analytics for Renewable Transportation Fuels from Agricultural Resources and Management, or SMARTFARM, program.

man in field with technology to capture nitrous oxide

Walker Crane, a member of Nithya Rajan’s team, measures nitrous oxide measurements from a young sorghum field. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

About one-third of the grant will be utilized in Texas by Nithya Rajan, Ph.D., crop physiology and agroecology associate professor, who is the lead investigator for AgriLife Research on this project. Rajan will be joined by Ronnie Schnell, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service cropping systems specialist for sorghum. Both are in Texas A&M University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in College Station.

“We are excited about this multi-state SMARTFARM project,” said David Baltensperger, Ph.D., head of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. “This project strengthens our ties with Texas sorghum producers and supports the goal of sorghum production in an environmentally friendly manner.”

Goals of measuring greenhouse gas emissions

The SMARTFARM program’s objective is to bridge the data gap in the biofuel supply chain by funding technologies that can quantify feedstock-related emissions at the field level and enable new market incentives for efficiency.

Rajan said the ARPA-E project will utilize current technology and sensor networks to continuously quantify field-level emissions for major greenhouse gases. This is expected to provide a “gold standard” assessment of emissions from bioenergy feedstocks in the Southern Great Plains.

“With any agriculture production field, greenhouse gas emission is inevitable — typically carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — and that increases with the application of fertilizer, manure and other management practices,” she said. “Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas that can stay in the atmosphere for several decades and can cause environmental issues.”
Nitrous oxide emissions graph
Rajan’s current research shows that there is a daily pattern associated with nitrous oxide emissions in agricultural fields. Emissions usually happen after fertilizer application and rainfall, but such frequent measurements are rarely made by scientists in production conditions due to the cost of equipment needed for continuous monitoring.

Carbon source or sink

Agricultural fields also sequester carbon. Tracking both carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously is necessary to understand if the field is a carbon source or a sink, as greenhouse gas emissions are usually expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents.

Schnell said sorghum production systems in the Southern Great Plains have an opportunity to contribute sustainable energy production in the U.S. Production environments, water use and common management practices have the potential for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Rajan said the team is concentrating on grain sorghum initially, because Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma are three of the nation’s main sorghum-producing states. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, nationwide, about 5.07 million acres were planted to grain sorghum.

Grain sorghum acreage is beginning to replace some corn acreage in the Texas Panhandle because of its water efficiency, she said. The Texas portion of the project is designed to take measurements of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, at an 85-acre commercial production field, continuously using the state-of-the-art instrumentation and methodologies. Schnell will assist with spatial measurements of soil water, nutrient, and crop growth at the site.

“This is the first time anyone is trying to do it at this scale,” Rajan said. “We are using a farmer’s field in the Panhandle area. We will be setting up a lot of equipment to make these measurements.”

Nithya Rajan, Ph.D., in a sorgum field. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

She said the equipment will allow them to take greenhouse gas measurements continuously from the sorghum field. Additionally, soil temperature and moisture sensors will be installed on each sub-acre of the 85-acre field. Soil and plant samples will also be collected from each acre.

The end goal is to build a ‘gold standard’ data set. The data set then will be available for all researchers studying the life cycle analysis and modeling of greenhouse gas emissions.

The project will begin in October 2020 and continue for three years. While the data gathering will be automated and managed through the internet, Rajan said project participants will make frequent visits to the site for installation, equipment maintenance, and plant and soil sample collection. This is only one of Rajan’s projects with sorghum.

Gopal Kakani, Ph.D., from Oklahoma State University is the lead principal investigator of this three-state project. Other team members are: Oklahoma State University researchers Jason Warren, Saleh Taghvaeian, Paul Weckler and Ning Wang, all Ph.D.s; and Kansas State University researchers Peter Tomlinson, Eduardo Alvarez Santos and Lucas Haag, all Ph.D.s.

Texas A&M researcher creating better corn yields and quality on less land

22Jun

By: Kay Ledbetter

As the human population booms, we hear the term “sustainable food supply” a great deal. One Texas A&M AgriLife researcher’s efforts to make corn production, whether for human or livestock consumption, more sustainable has earned him national recognition.
Seth Murray, Ph.D., is a Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientist finalist Seth Murray, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research corn breeder, has been selected as a Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientist finalist for a second time. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

Texas A&M AgriLife Research corn breeder Seth Murray, Ph.D., is the Eugene Butler Endowed Chair in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in College Station, and he is among the finalists for the prestigious Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists.

Seth Murray, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research corn breeder, has been selected as a Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientist finalist for a second time. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

Murray determined that individual genes poorly predict corn yield, so he began to evaluate the physical and spectral traits, the “phenome”, of corn instead. Through the innovative use of statistical analysis of images collected from drones, he along with colleagues and students on his team examined the physical traits of corn over time and model traits to predict the highest yielding plants, optimizing breeding and selection.

While innovative breeding strategies have mostly focused on developing higher yielding and more stress and aflatoxin resistant corn, Murray is also in the process of creating perennial varieties of corn that could revolutionize agricultural practices and ensure the sustainability of corn production.

“Dr. Murray is leading the way in crop breeding and the use of advanced technologies that will allow growers to benefit from higher yields and increased stress resistance in corn,” said Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., vice chancellor of Texas A&M AgriLife, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of AgriLife Research. “His pursuit to contribute to a safer and more secure food supply for our nation epitomizes the spirit of a land-grant university.”
The Blavatnik National Award

The Blavatnik award is presented by the New York Academy of Sciences that recognizes America’s most innovative young scientists and engineers. Thirty-one of the nation’s rising stars in science were announced June 17 as 2020 finalists of the prestigious award, the world’s largest unrestricted prize for early career scientists.

Murray was chosen from 305 nominations from 161 academic and research centers across 41 U.S. states, and is competing to be one of three Blavatnik National Awards Laureates, one in each of the award categories: Chemistry, Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Life Sciences. Each Laureate will win $250,000. The three 2020 Blavatnik National Awards Laureates will be announced on July 22.

Launched in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the awards were created with the New York Academy of Sciences to enhance research funding opportunities and emphasize the work of promising scientists under the age of 42 in three disciplinary categories of science and engineering.
Advancing corn research

Murray focuses his research on solving large-scale problems in crop production through plant breeding and technology, including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs or drones, in agricultural decision making.

Murray, a world-renowned expert on crop field phenotyping, co-led a project of 40-plus faculty across disciplines in developing procedures for scaling UAV technology for breeding and precision agriculture. This project led to his program’s focus on crop characteristics and use of high-throughput measurements to select the most promising varieties in a breeding program.

Murray’s research program focuses on both quantitative genetic discovery and applied corn breeding for Texas and the southern U.S. Last year he released five new corn hybrids bred for the southern U.S.’s longer growing season and multiple stresses, characterizing them as “foundational to our future inbred and hybrid production and breeding efforts.”

Breeding trait research in his program includes improved aflatoxin resistance, drought tolerance and nutrient-use efficiency. It also addresses incorporation of novel genetic diversity for perennial, blue and quality protein corn.

“Corn is a tremendously productive crop, and through scientific discoveries farmers have increased yields eight-fold over the last 100 years,” he said. “That means one-eighth of the land is needed to get the same production, freeing up land for recreation, urbanization, wildlife or simply producing additional crops needed to feed a growing population.”

The next generation of UAVs and phenomics research will allow further improving crop yield while also improving the economic and environmental sustainability of growing them, Murray said.

McKnight begins AgriLife Extension statewide cotton specialist duties

8May

By: Kay Ledbetter

Ben McKnight’s acceptance of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service statewide cotton specialist position is a return to familiar territory. McKnight started April 1 in the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at College Station.

Larry Redmon, Ph.D., associate department head and AgriLife Extension program leader for the department, said the Soil and Crop Sciences Extension Unit was excited to have McKnight fill the cotton specialist position in College Station.

Ben McKnight, Ph.D., is the new Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service statewide cotton specialist. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

“Ben is certainly no stranger to Texas having been born and raised in East Texas, or to Texas A&M as he obtained his master’s here in the Soil and Crop Sciences Department. We look forward to Ben developing a strong state-wide cotton program and presence.”
Experiences leading to cotton position

McKnight, Ph.D., worked for both Texas A&M AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension while earning degrees at Texas A&M. He has spent the past few years working as a weed scientist with Louisiana State University, where he earned his doctorate.

During his postdoctoral research and as a research associate at LSU Agricultural Center, McKnight conducted rice field trials at research and grower locations. As a graduate research assistant, he worked in the Rice Weed Management Program conducting and managing field and glasshouse trials.

During his time with AgriLife Research, he assisted the Rice Weed Management research program with applying herbicide treatments, collecting and organizing data and harvesting research plots.

McKnight said his transition back to Texas and into cotton should be smooth because he is driven by solving problems as an agronomist.

“There are quite a few similarities between cotton and rice regarding the intensity of management,” he said. “Both require extensive management to produce a successful crop. I am looking forward to drawing from my past experiences working in rice management in this new position. Accepting this position is also a homecoming for me. As a Texas native, I am very familiar with the passion that our growers and industry have for cotton production.”
Arriving during a pandemic

McKnight said initially it will be a challenge to stay flexible during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue business as usual.

“However, our agency is employing innovative solutions in order to continue carrying out our mission during this unprecedented time,” he said. “We have some exceptional leadership and they’ve been in close contact throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with information as it evolves. I anticipate there will be an impact on upcoming grower meetings, field days and face-to-face meetings, but I am confident we will continue to provide the best outreach to our clientele.”

He said it appears producers are going about business as usual and crops are still being planted, and distributors, supply stores and other agriculture-related businesses are still open.

“One issue I expect producers to face this year is changes in commodity prices,” McKnight said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on our cotton markets, but I think it still might be too early to tell what kind of overall impact it is going to have on commodity prices.”
Planning for future cotton research

From a field research standpoint, the plan is to continue evaluating many different research topics of interest to cotton production in the state, he said.

“One of the most important roles in this position is variety testing and getting the results of variety evaluations into the hands of our growers,” McKnight said. “Our program will continue to be very active in variety evaluation so our growers will have the information they need for on-farm decision making.”

He said some of the applied research efforts of his team will involve evaluation of fertility programs across the state, control of volunteer cotton plants and stalk destruction, just to highlight a few. Several of these research topics will be collaborative efforts with many other researchers, AgriLife Extension specialists and county agents.

“Some of my longer-term research interests include evaluating how various management decisions translate into profitability for our growers,” McKnight said. “Unfortunately, the highest yield doesn’t always translate into the highest level of profitability, and profitability is what keeps our growers in business.

“I am very passionate about helping growers develop management practices that increase their profitability. Our agency has many outstanding agricultural economists. I look forward to working closely with them to identify what kind of region-specific management decisions can enhance grower profitability.”
Outreach and education

McKnight said the COVID-19 pandemic will immediately impact his initial plans for outreach and education programming.

“I was looking forward to personally meeting our stakeholders across the state soon after starting in this position,” he said. “As of right now, I’m not sure how that will be impacted. Technology will be instrumental to keeping everyone in close communication and business running the best it can in these trying times.”

He plans to make initial contacts with stakeholders and AgriLife Extension and research professionals across the state in the coming weeks. However, he said, it will have to be either via telephone or online-based video conference platforms.

Long-term outreach and educational programming include continuing to work with others to develop high-quality resources, outreach and educational programs that improve Texas agriculture.

“I really enjoy interacting with people, so my hope is things will begin to normalize soon,” McKnight said. “I’m looking forward to getting out in the state to meet our stakeholders and my new colleagues. I’m a very hands-on learner, and I believe that most people in agriculture are too. So, I look forward to participating in field days and grower meetings, in addition to working with others to develop hands-on training activities for our county agents, producers and clientele in the future.”

Trostle named statewide AgriLife Extension hemp specialist

8May

By: Kay Ledbetter

Calvin Trostle, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist, Lubbock, has recently been named the statewide hemp specialist for the agency.

“We’ve had a lot of excellent work being done by our AgriLife Extension Industrial Hemp Initiative team to prepare Texas for the production of industrial hemp,” said Dan Hale, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension associate director — agriculture and natural resources, College Station, in announcing the new position.
Calvin Trostle speaks to attendees of AgriLife event.

“Dr. Trostle has worked tirelessly in this area and has already been serving in a lead specialist capacity. He will do an excellent job in helping lead our Initiative team’s and agency-wide Extension and research activities.”

AgriLife Extension formed an Industrial Hemp Education Initiative Team to provide information concerning industrial hemp production in Texas after House Bill 1325 was signed into law by the Governor last June.

AgriLife Extension agronomist Calvin Trostle, Ph.D., will serve as the agency’s statewide hemp expert.

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture was finalizing federal regulations and guidelines, along with the Texas Department of Agriculture writing of state regulations and guidelines and getting them approved by the USDA, Trostle was already at work.

The industrial hemp education team helped develop resources for agents and specialists to utilize across the state in producer and public education programs. Trostle led or participated in about 20 educational hemp seminars from Dumas to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. He also made trips to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado, where hemp is already legal to grow, in order to learn more about the crop.

Industrial hemp hasn’t been grown in Texas since the 1930s, when there was some hemp production in South Texas. So, there’s no track record of what varieties might work in Texas, and only this year will there be any research on industrial hemp, Trostle said.

Trostle said initial hemp field efforts will begin with implementing the Texas A&M AgriLife variety testing program for hemp. These hemp cannabinoid, fiber and grain trials are planned for Plainview, Commerce, San Angelo and College Station.

“We won’t be able to implement meaningful planting date studies until 2021,” he said. “Procuring funding for any field work will be key in how quickly we can address research questions.”

Another of Trostle’s initial objectives for Texas hemp is investigating and encouraging improved hemp seed quality.

“Apart from business issues, poor seed has been the No. 1 production issue in most states already growing hemp,” he said.

Trostle grew up on a farm and ranch in eastern Kansas. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Kansas State University, his master’s in soil chemistry from Texas A&M University and his doctorate in soil science from the University of Minnesota. He joined AgriLife Extension at Lubbock in 1999 after three summers in rice research at the Texas A&M AgriLife center in Beaumont.

The new title of statewide hemp specialist fits in with how has been known in West Texas – as the “alternative crops guy.” After serving in Lubbock for two years and learning more about the region’s farming, Trostle said he chose to pursue a broad working knowledge on many different crops rather than focus heavily on just one or two.

“I believe I made the right decision,” he said. “That approach has positioned me better to start from scratch with learning about hemp.”

He also is currently the state specialist for sunflowers, as well as provides education and applied research support in the South Plains region and across Texas for grain sorghum, sunflowers, peanuts, wheat/small grains, guar, alfalfa, winter canola, summer annual forages and sesame.

Trostle said while he knows this first year or two of hemp work will keep him busy, he will maintain his educational programs on all the crops he’s working with.

“I want farmers of grain sorghum, wheat, alfalfa, peanuts, guar and other crops to know that I remain fully committed to maintaining my Extension support to their cropping needs. I will have to reduce my field work in these crops, but the 21+ years of experience I have gained isn’t going anywhere.”

Trostle can be reached at 806-746-6101 or ctrostle@ag.tamu.edu. He has written a monthly hemp newsletter since November and has initiated an AgriLife Twitter account @TXAgriLifeHemp. Trostle also contributed to the AgriLife Extension hemp resources page, along with members of the hemp team.

Texas A&M ready to begin hemp variety trials

8May

By: Kay Ledbetter

Texas A&M AgriLife will be planting hemp variety trials for the first time this spring, with a goal to provide producers, hemp seed companies and the larger hemp industry with a reliable, independent scientific assessment of hemp varietal performance in Texas.

Calvin Trostle, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist and statewide hemp specialist, Lubbock, said they will begin implementing the Texas A&M AgriLife fee-based variety testing program for hemp cannabinoid, fiber and grain at Plainview and San Angelo under irrigation, and Commerce and College Station, both rainfed.

Hemp variety trials will be conducted by Texas A&M AgriLife. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kay Ledbetter)

These trials will be conducted under the long-time Texas A&M AgriLife Crop Testing Program, which is a combined effort of AgriLIfe Extension and Texas A&M AgriLife Research faculty, Trostle said. This self-supporting program has offered public variety trials for wheat, grain sorghum, corn, sunflowers and soybeans, as well as other crops, for decades.

Due to the urgency to get trials planted in May, the due date for receiving entry forms, seed and payment is May 8. Anyone with questions about the program and protocol should contact Trostle at ctrostle@ag.tamu.edu or call 806-777-0247. He can provide the program description, fee structure and entry form, which can also be accessed at http://varietytesting.tamu.edu.

“We are adding hemp testing to the program for 2020, however, because we are getting a later start than we wanted due to meeting licensing requirements, we will not test in South Texas this year,” he said.

AgriLife Extension’s Industrial Hemp Education Initiative Team, established shortly after House Bill 1325 was signed into law by the Governor last June, determined the variety trials are the next step in educating potential hemp producers. The team has already gathered many hemp resources since that time. However, this is the first step in conducting Texas testing.

“Trial results for crops tested by Texas A&M AgriLife are used by farmers across Texas to make decisions on their planting seed,” said Larry Redmon, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension program leader for the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and associate department head. “Our goal is that Texas hemp producers may enjoy the same type of information for their seed selection decisions.”

Utilizing the full expertise and resources of Texas A&M AgriLife, Trostle said it is especially important to identify varieties with low THC. THC must remain at or below 0.3% or the crop must be destroyed. As such, THC levels and seed quality are two of the main issues other states have dealt with since hemp was legalized.

He said the entry fees charged will cover the cost of conducting the program, which was established after reviewing the methodology of the few hemp variety trials to date conducted in other states.

“We will seek a balance between a bare-bones approach vs. an intensive assessment of hemp variety growth and performance,” Trostle said.

“This year will be trial run in some ways as we prepare for broader statewide testing, including South Texas in 2021,” he said. “For now, we are emphasizing seed trials rather than transplants or clones, though we will consider those planting stocks if needed.

“Long-term we believe field agriculture hemp will move toward mostly seeded production, which should have lower costs. With AgriLife’s eventual emphasis on certified Texas hemp seed, I think this will fix some of the concerns we hear about poor seed quality in other states.”

Certified seed should have improved genetic purity, higher germination and seedling vigor, Trostle said.

“If you are interested in participating, please notify me as soon as you can as we are working on the individual sites for field preparation,” Trostle said. “We will do our best to accommodate all interested companies, but if we receive more entries than we can handle, we will ensure that each company is represented as best we can. If the small-plot research is still tight for available planting area, we will choose submissions that are pursuing certified seed status in Texas.”

Genomes of five cotton species unveiled by Texas-rich research team

20Apr

By: Kay Ledbetter

Cotton – we touch it every day. From clothes to medical supplies to animal feed, cotton continues to increase in quality. A recent collaborative, including Texas A&M researchers, is making sure this amazing crop, and thus the products made from it, will continue to be efficiently bred, grown and produced.

New cotton gene sequencing will help researchers improve the valuable staple in our lives. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)

The multi-institutional research team sequenced five cotton species, including Upland and Pima cotton grown here in Texas, as well as globally. Contributions to the effort from Texas involved Texas A&M University, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the University of Texas – Austin.

The most recent issue of Nature Genetics reports on the results of this collaboration — high-quality genome-wide sequence assemblies for each of five 52-chromosome species of the cotton genus Gossypium, a member of the Malvaceae family, which also includes okra, kenaf, hibiscus, durian and cacao.

The overall project was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation, and led by Z. Jeffrey Chen, Ph.D., a former student and former faculty member of Texas A&M who now holds the D. J. Sibley Centennial Professorship in Plant Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Breeding cotton typically increases economic yield through better productivity, better quality of products and improved sustainability by providing better pest resistance and drought resilience, David Stelly, Ph.D., a co-principal investigator in the National Science Foundation project and AgriLife Research cotton breeder in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, College Station.

“Globally, cotton is the premier natural fiber crop of the world, a major oilseed crop and an important feed crop,” Stelly said. “This report establishes new opportunities in multiple basic and applied scientific disciplines that relate directly and indirectly to genetic diversity, evolution, wild germplasm utilization and increasing the efficacy with which we use natural resources for provisioning society.”

The cotton genome research project

While fiber removed from the cotton seed is of greatest value, ginned seed also provides significant additional value as a source of vegetable oil and/or dairy cattle feed. The recent data and findings provide immediately accessible resources for basic and applied research, including breeding and gene editing.

The five cotton species (Graphic provided by David Stelly)

The other three species sequenced originate from Hawaii, the Galapagos Islands or Ecuador and Brazil. They remain undomesticated but are sources of prospectively useful genetic differences. The Nature Genetics report should facilitate use of all five species in genomics-aided cotton breeding programs.

Stelly said the importance of the assemblies may be accentuated by the extreme complexity of cotton’s genome. It contains a relatively large number of genes, about twice as many as occur in most flowering plants with simple genomes.

The researchers report that sequences of these five species’ genomes will provide long-needed genomics resources and insights that will facilitate genetic improvements needed to maintain economic yield from production, enhance quality and value of the fiber and seed products, and further improve sustainability-enhancing features, such as resistance to pests, pathogens, drought and heat-resilience.

Contributions from Stelly’s laboratory

Contributions from Texas A&M came through Stelly’s laboratory. A key finding by graduate student Luis De Santiago was the detection and mapping of numerous “haplotypic blocks” throughout the genome of Upland cottons.

Stelly explained these present a major challenge for breeding, because they are both non-recombinant and virtually uniform among cultivars. Evidence corroborating the haplotypic blocks was obtained from analyses of genetic recombination, also involving Yu-Ming Li and former student Amanda Hulse-Kemp, Ph.D.

Also, from Stelly’s laboratory, researchers Robert Vaughn, Ph.D., provided plant, seed and nuclei acid samples to the team, and Bo Liu, Ph.D., provided integrative molecular cytogenetic mapping data.

“This kind of mega-project takes a lot of time and effort, but can yield game-changing results, and this one certainly has done that,” Stelly said. “Already, we are seeing paradigm shifts in what we and others are doing and thinking about doing. These kinds of data are vital to our research and breeding efforts and open many doors for exploration.”

He also emphasized collaborations and individual contributions are instrumental to success.

“Research projects like this unlock agriculture’s potential,” said Patrick J. Stover, vice chancellor of Texas A&M AgriLife, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research. “By developing crops that enhance health and increase profitability, we not only improve cotton immediately, but the way we approach this data and findings provide direction for basic and applied research far into the future.”

“The Soil and Crop Sciences Department appreciates the leadership of Dr. Stelly in guiding this project to completion and providing the vision for implementing the results to benefit our cotton producers,” said David Baltensperger, Ph.D., department head, College Station.

Other members of the team

Other project members include:
– Chen’s functional genomics / epigenetics team at UT-Austin.
– Jane Grimwood, Ph.D., and Jeremy Schmutz, along with their HudsonAlpha/JGI structural genomics and bioinformatics teams, including Jerry Jenkins, Ph.D., and key bioinformatics contributor Avinash Sreedasyam, Ph.D.
– The U.S. Department of Agriculture genomics and bioinformatics teams of Brian Scheffler, Ph.D., Mississippi, and Hulse-Kemp, North Carolina.
– The Clemson genomics team of Chris Saski, Ph.D.
– Keith McGee, Ph.D., and his educational team at Alcorn State.
– Mississippi State genomics group of Dan Peterson, Ph.D.
– The Iowa State taxonomic genomics group involving Jonathan Wendel and Corrinne Grover, both Ph.Ds.
– Industry involvement through Don Jones, Ph.D., with Cotton Incorporated, a not-for-profit company that works with cotton scientists, the textile industry and consumers.

Other institutions involved in the research were Nanjing Agricultural University in China, and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute. The work was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cotton Incorporated. The work conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The work was also supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production, and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China.