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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

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.

FDA approves ultra-low gossypol cottonseed for human, animal consumption

16Dec

Writer: Kay Ledbetter

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to ultra-low gossypol cottonseed, ULGCS, to be utilized as human food and in animal feed, something Texas A&M AgriLife researchers have been working on for nearly 25 years.

Keerti Rathore, Ph.D., a Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant biotechnologist in the Texas A&M Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology and Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, College Station, and his team have developed, tested and obtained deregulation for the transgenic cotton plant – TAM66274.

man in greenhouse with cotton plants in pots

Dr. Keerti Rathore in his greenhouse with the new ultra-low gossypol cotton plants. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)

TAM66274 is a unique cotton plant with ultra-low gossypol levels in the seed, which makes the protein from the seeds safe to consume, Rathore said, but also maintains normal plant-protecting gossypol levels in the rest of the plant, making it ideal for the traditional cotton farmer.

Patrick Stover, Ph.D., vice-chancellor and dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of AgriLife Research, said this is research with a direct, positive impact on the world’s food supply.

“This demonstrates how we can make a difference in enhancing the nutritional quality of the food system for those in greatest need, while enhancing the profitability of agriculture production,” Stover said. “Our goal is to advance sustainable agriculture in Texas and around the world, and this new protein source is yet another step in that direction.”

Cottonseed as a food source

If adopted by the cotton growers worldwide, ULGCS has the potential to make a significant impact on nutrition security, especially in the poor, cotton-growing countries, Rathore said.

“The amount of protein locked up in the annual output of cottonseed worldwide is about 10.8 trillion grams,” he said. “That is more than what is present in all the chicken eggs produced globally, and enough to meet the basic protein requirements of over 500 million people.”

This FDA approval is only the fifth for a university-developed, genetically engineered crop in the 25-year history of genetically modified products in the U.S., and is the first for a Texas university, Rathore said.

Except for a few countries, most cotton producing countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, suffer from hunger and malnutrition, Rathore said. Up to now, the ability to utilize protein-rich cottonseed for food or even as feed for the non-ruminants was not possible because of the presence of a toxic terpenoid, gossypol.

With the development and approval of the ULGCS, gossypol is no longer a deterrent.

The human food ingredients from TAM66274 cottonseed can be roasted cottonseed kernels, raw cottonseed kernels, cottonseed kernels, partially defatted cottonseed flour, defatted cottonseed flour and cottonseed oil.

Rathore said initially low-gossypol cottonseed protein can be used by two of the most efficient systems to convert feed protein into edible animal protein: aquaculture and the poultry industry.

“Both of these industries are experiencing high rates of growth and are likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future,” he said.

cross-sections of cotton seeds and leaves

Images showing gossypol-containing glands in the seed kernels and leaf blades of a regular cotton plant and the ultra-low gossypol cottonseed TAM66274, approved by the FDA. Seed kernels were sliced into two halves to make glands visible. Note the lighter-colored glands in TAM66274 kernels reflecting the reduction in gossypol levels by 97%. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)


Steps to a new protein source

Getting to this point took approval from two areas of government. First, non-regulated status for TAM66274 was required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Then, FDA approval was needed.

“This approval from FDA enables cultivation and use of this promising new cottonseed product within the U.S.,” Rathore said.

The research was supported by funds from Cotton Inc. and AgriLife Research.

Kater Hake, Ph.D., vice president of agricultural and environmental research at Cotton Inc., said gossypol suppression in cottonseed has been part of their funded research portfolio for over 30 years.

“It took time to tap the innate protein potential in the seed; time for the right technologies to develop; and time for the right research team to come along.”

Building a market

The next step, Hake said, is to get cotton farmers and the industry around the world to begin growing and marketing the special variety.

Tom Wedegaertner, director of cottonseed research and marketing at Cotton Inc., explained the dedication to this research project, saying gossypol in the leaves and stalks of the cotton plant serve as a pest deterrent, but its presence in the seed serves no purpose.

Hake said with the full deregulation approval in place, “We can now demonstrate the value of a novel food source to cottonseed processors and seed companies who are essential to purchasing and delivering the seed to cotton growers.”

More bang for the cotton buck

With expanded use of ULGCS for human nutrition either directly as food or indirectly as feed, the cotton plant can potentially become a dual-purpose crop that will be cultivated not only as a source of natural fiber, but just as much for its seed to be used as a source of oil as well as protein, Rathore said.

Importantly, he said, the ULGCS makes available a vast source of protein without bringing additional land under the plow or an increase in the input costs.

Another potential benefit, Rathore said, is that ULGCS, by serving as a substitute for fishmeal, will positively impact the environment by reducing pressure on the severely strained supply of small, wild-caught ocean fish used as a source of feed in fish farms.

Also, by serving as a source of protein, it could reduce agricultural land-clearing in the Amazon and other places to provide space to grow more soybeans to satisfy the rising demand for protein for the growing population.

“Thus, we believe ULGCS represents a unique biotech trait that will benefit farmers, the cottonseed processing industry, the environment and human health,” he said.

Reducing malnutrition

Ultimately, though, Rathore’s goal is for global adoption of TAM66274 to help address protein malnutrition in impoverished parts of the world that cultivate cotton.

Human nutrition trials conducted in some Central and South American countries, Western Africa, Asia and the U.S. in the 1960s through the 1980s show that with substantial reduction or complete elimination of gossypol, cottonseed protein can play a direct and significant role in alleviating protein-calorie malnutrition in a populace suffering as a result of inadequate nutrition.

“It is my hope, as we move forward in the commercialization process, that the protein derived from ULGCS remain affordable as a supplement in protein-poor diets,” Rathore said.

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