East Lansing, Michigan
September 26, 2008
Michigan State University (MSU) leadership in specialty crop
research has resulted in a four-year, $5.4 million grant to
improve the quality, yield, drought tolerance and disease
resistance of potatoes and tomatoes, two of the world’s most
important crops and significant contributors to Michigan’s $67
billion agricultural economy.
The MSU grant is the largest of the nine grants awarded by the
USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service
(CSREES) National Research Initiative Plant
Genome Program and represented more than half of the $9.4
million award total.
Co-led by MSU crop and soil scientist and Michigan Agricultural
Experiment Station (MAES) researcher Dave Douches and MSU plant
biologist Robin Buell, the project brings together an integrated
team of researchers, educators and Extension specialists from
MSU, The Ohio State University, Cornell University, the
University of California at Davis and Oregon State University.
The main objective of the project is to use new technologies
that incorporate emerging DNA sequence data with basic research
data to improve potato and tomato varieties.
“Potatoes and tomatoes are important vegetable crops that are
challenged by disease and pests,” Douches said. “Enhancing our
ability to tackle these problems from a genetic angle will
improve the quality of produce for consumers and processors and
provide potato and tomato growers with varieties that are more
pest- and disease-resistant.”
“Pests and diseases continue to be a serious problem in Michigan
potato production,” said Ben Kudwa, executive director of the
Michigan Potato Industry Commission. “Michigan potato growers
continue to incur significant financial losses as a result of
pests such as the Colorado potato beetle and diseases such as
potato late blight and potato scab when intervention measures to
control them are unsuccessful. This level of funding, combined
with the expertise and leadership of Dave Douches and the rest
of the project team, will help ensure that the potato and
specialty crop industries remain strong and viable in Michigan
and beyond.”
The MSU program will be administered under the Cooperative
Agriculture Project (CAP), a USDA-CSREES program that funds
multiyear, multi-institutional collaborative projects. Past CAP
programs have focused on rice, wheat, barley and conifers.
“This is the first non-grain/forestry project funded under the
CAP program and the first project that’s working on two
different species,” Buell said. “The potato is the most
important vegetable worldwide and the Solanaceae family -- which
includes potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants -- is the
most important vegetable family period, so this represents a
very important and significant investment by the USDA.”
The project team will also develop a course for graduate
students, offer workshops and practical training for plant
breeders, and create online networking resources for plant
breeders, seed industry professionals, Extension specialists and
practitioners.
“It is extremely gratifying to see this innovative and important
research be acknowledged and supported by the USDA, and is a
testament to the caliber of researchers we have here at MSU,”
said MAES director Steve Pueppke. “Research funding at this
level is essential to improving agricultural efficiency and
sustainability and addressing critical and emerging national
priorities and needs.”
The MAES is one of the largest research organizations at MSU.
Founded in 1988, the organization funds the work of more than
300 scientists in six colleges at MSU to enhance agriculture,
natural resources and families and communities in Michigan. |
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