If you’ve driven past central California’s walnut groves, you’ve seen them: Thick, rough-looking tree-trunks rise from the ground for two or three feet. Then, atop each base, a thinner trunk with smoother bark continues up and branches into majestic, green canopies spreading toward the sky.
Xiaofei Zhang started this month as an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, specializing in molecular genetics and breeding of small grains crops. His top priority, he said, will be developing wheat varieties that are highly productive for forage and that also have high grain yield and good quality.
California growers want both. The stresses of climate change demand that these varieties be developed quickly, and be able to survive under new conditions, he added.
Jorge Dubcovsky’s ground-breaking research on wheat genetics will receive an additional seven years of support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dubcovsky and team, in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, are looking for ways to make wheat less likely to spark allergic reactions in people – a condition that affects about 3 million Americans.
New lines of tomatoes are being made available for research, and they carry the pluck of a desert-dwelling distant cousin that could make future crops better able to thrive in heat and drought.
The African Orphan Crops Consortium launched with a lofty goal in 2013: to help scientists in Africa develop more nutritious, productive and resilient varieties of commonly used but rarely studied crops to improve public health.
Vincent L. D'Antonio, a long-time staff research associate in the former UC Davis Dept. of Vegetable Crops, died on Sept. 23 in Vacaville, Calif. He was 74.
UC Davis’ student-led program in organic farming will expand to include new crops and new partners, with the aim of exporting its educational the model to other institutions. The expansion is being funded with a $2-million grant from the Organic Research and Extension Initiative.
Craft bakers love adding a little triticale to breads for its subtle blend of nutty and earthy flavors and its moist, slightly chewy texture. Farmers love the grain mainly for forage: It produces bigger yields with less water and fertilizer compared to wheat. Now, Joshua Hegarty and colleagues across the country will work on combining those qualities to create new varieties of triticale that are good for bread-baking at commercial scale, and still offer good value for growers.
The UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program is releasing five new strawberry varieties that resist the soilborne disease Fusarium wilt, while also offering high yields and improved fruit quality.
UC Eclipse, UC Golden Gate, UC Keystone, UC Monarch and UC Surfline will be available for sale to California nurseries from Foundation Plant Services later this month.
Plant breeders can help America re-orient our dominant system of single-crop agriculture toward a multi-crop landscape that is less costly to farmers, better for the environment, helps slow climate change and still yields a profit. But, those efforts are just one part of a complex system that also will require the buy-in of farmers themselves, supported by political will, new agricultural policies and the cooperation of scientists, seed companies, machinery and fertilizer manufacturers, insurance providers, banks and environmental groups.