The Department of Plant Sciences has released six new varieties of organic dry beans which are higher yielding, and are resistant to bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), a disease that prevents bean plants from maturing promptly and uniformly. Spearheading the project were Ph.D. candidate Travis Parker, Distinguished Professor Paul Gepts, and Charlie Brummer, professor and director of the Plant Breeding Center at UC Davis.
Registration is open for the Seed Biotechnology Center’s second annual “Hemp Breeding and Seed Production” course, October 27–28, 2020 at UC Davis. The course is for professionals working on hemp improvement and propagation. Instructors include experts from the public and private sectors. The debut course in 2019 generated great interest from multiple countries.
To fill a critical need in the fast-growing hemp industry, the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center completed a two-day course on Hemp Breeding and Seed Production, with 165 professionals attending from the U.S., Argentina, Canada, Israel, Netherlands and New Zealand.
New dry bean varieties, which are disease-resistant and high-yielding, are being bred at UC Davis for commercial organic production. Ph.D. student Travis Parker, who works with Professor Paul Gepts in the Department of Plant Sciences, wrote this article for the Organic Seed Alliance.
The Seed Biotechnology Center at UC Davis is celebrating its 20th anniversary on September 12, 2019, and the center just released its Annual Report 2018. Information on attending the event, and links to the Annual Report are in the article.
Travis Parker, Plant Sciences grad student, won first place in the national NAPB Photo Contest. His photo is a variety of high-value common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) developed at UC Davis. One of his Ph.D. projects is breeding new high-value heirloom-type bean varieties for culinary quality and good field performance.
This video features Professors Kent Bradford and Diane Beckles, Research Scientist Roger Chetelat, and Ph.D. student Karin Albornoz from the Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis, and other plant breeding professionals. They address why breeding and seed production are so important for the vegetable industry.
A 26-episode weekly video series will debut Monday, May 13, 2019, on YouTube to help train the next generation of vegetable crop workers and increase their use of effective stewardship practices in vegetable production.
UC Davis Plant Sciences Professor Mohsen Mesgaran received research funding for 2019 from the Horticultural Research Institute for the project “Using Hyperspectral Technology to Assess Seed Quality of Horticultural Crops.”
