b'get 300 people like we had in Georgia inPODCAST/VIDEO ALERT and protein quantity in soybean seed to 2019, said Ksenija Gasic, outgoing NAPBresult in more efficient plants.president and peach breeder at Clemson University. Ensuring Access to GermplasmBeing a volunteer-based association, itProviding germplasm to breeders was a shows you the commitment of our newestmajor topic tackled during a talk given members and longtime ones. by Patrick Byrne, a professor in the Those new members include a varietyDepartment of Soil and Crop Sciences at of scholarship winners who comprised thisColorado State University.years Borlaug Scholars (which supportsThe U.S. National Germplasm System attendance of future leaders at the NAPBhas around 600,000 accessions across all annual meeting) and George Washingtonspecies of crops and their relatives. It dis-Carver Scholars (designed to advancetributes germplasm to researchers around access, equity, justice, and inclusion, andthe world free of charge.to enhance the diversity of the graduateThrough an online portal known as student population). the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), located at ars-grin.gov, Encouraging Diversity breeders can access a database that lists The NAPB has always welcomed newEdgar Sierra Orozco hails from Mexico where for seven yearsall of the accessions and they can search blood into its organization with programshe worked as a pest and diseasemanager at a farm. Hes now aby species, variety name, and plant intro-like the Borlaug Scholarship. The Georgegraduate student working on target spot resistance in tomato.duction (PI) number. It has a Canadian Washington Carver Scholarship wasListen to a podcast interview with him and access a variety of otheroffshoot, GRIN-Global-CA.formerly known as the Diversity Scholarsmaterials from the annual meeting at seedworld.com/napb2022 Improvements are continually being program. This year, 23 undergraduate andmade, including improving the availability graduate students attended the meetingof phenotypic data to make it easier for a as Borlaug Scholars, while six attended assciences department of the University ofbreeder to find seeds of interest.Carver scholars. Florida, his project includes screening andPlant breeders realize and appreci-The Carver program provides anmapping of resistance to target spot ofate the importance of having access to opportunity for plant breeding studentstomato from several wild tomato speciesan extensive set of germplasm for their belonging to underrepresented groups into ultimately provide the first-ever targetbreeding needs. Everyone is faced with the U.S. to attend the meeting along withspot resistant tomato varieties. new objectives in their program, be it for a a mentor in the program. With Mexico being the largest exporternew disease or insect or looking for novel Its an excellent program for plantof tomatoes worldwide, it was a vegetablenutritional traits, or simply to improve yield breeding students for equal representa- he gravitated toward. and resilience, Byrne said.tion in the plant breeding community, saysHelping growers back in Mexico is aThese days, most people include heat University of Florida grad student Gurleenmajor motivation that makes me want toand drought tolerance among their objec-Kaur, herself a Borlaug Scholar and chair oflearn more, he added. tives, and some of the materials in the the Carver scholarship program committee. His work could have a major influencepublic germplasm system are potentially Of course, welcoming breeders from allon the tomato world, with the resultingvery excellent for that, especially some of walks of life into the NAPB fold is some- genetics being in high demand around thethe wild relatives of crop plants.thing the organization has always excelledworld and forever changing tomato as aByrne is involved in an information at. Edgar Sierra Orozco hails from Mexicocrop. campaign (grin-u.org) to raise awareness where for seven years he worked as a pestIowa State PhD candidate Claytonof the system and ensure its used to its and disease manager at a farm that pro- Carley, himself an NAPB Borlaug Scholarmaximum potential.duced mainly bell pepper, a relative of thein 2020, hopes to have a similar influenceFor example, on my campus at tomato. He attended the meeting this yearon soybean germplasm by exploringColorado State, we have the USDAs larg-as a Borlaug Scholar. soybean root nodules. His project won thisest backup collection of seeds. Its really a At first, I didnt really think about pur- years poster competition and explores sixgold mine, but its often so under the radar suing a graduate degree. I thought I wasdiverse soybean genotypes across threethat many peoplestudents and even mostly fine in terms of my job. Sometimefield year combinations in three early veg- staff who work theredont realize the later when circumstances around my jobetative stages of development. facility is there.changed, I thought, OK, I guess I needHis teams work has unveiled uniqueNext years NAPB meeting will be to go learn more than what I know rightrelationships between soybean nodulesheld July 16-20, 2023, in Greenville, South now, he said. in the taproot and non-taproot growthCarolina.SWNow a PhD student in the horticulturalzones. It could ultimately change nitrogen 32/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2022'