As I skimmed emails last week, I came across information about a plant breeding symposium at the University of Minnesota. I read the agenda and checked my calendar. I was free that day, Friday, March 27, so I decided to go.

Two things intrigued me about the meeting, entitled 'Breeding Crops for Alternative Systems and Environments': the symposium's theme and the fact that the whole day was planned and handled by a 12-member applied plant science graduate student planning committee. Financial support for the event came from DuPont Pioneer and the Coca-Cola Development Initiative. Pioneer has helped sponsor the symposium each spring since 2008.

This was the 8th annual Plant Breeding Symposium hosted by U-M grad students.

As planning committee co-chairs Tyler Tiede and Hannah Swegarden explained, the goal of the symposium was to explore and expand the word "alternative. The committee chose to expand its meaning to include not just crops, but also cropping systems (such as perennial or low-input), the environment (examples such as high-altitude or high saline) and markets (direct to restaurant, fulfilling a new niche).

Both co-chairs and their colleagues did an exceptional job with moderating throughout the day. Both co-chairs do not have farm backgrounds. Tyler grew up in the Twin Cities, Hannah grew up in Rochester. Here, however, their similar paths diverge: Tyler is focusing on traditional crops in his studies and Hannah is into organics.

Co-chairs for the planning committee were Hannah Swegarden and Tyler Tiede.

The day's speakers and student presenters did not disappoint as I learned about crops of which I had limited knowledge. Speakers included Kevin Murphy, Washington State University, who discussed his quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) breeding program; Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, who discussed breeding for flavor and quality traits in organic vegetables; Marc Albertsen, DuPont Pioneer, who talked about sorghum biofortification research; Lee DeHann, The Land Institute, who discussed perennial grain research involving Kernza; and Jim Orf, University of Minnesota soybean breeder, who closed the symposium as keynote speaker. In morning and afternoon sessions, graduate students offered poster and research presentations.

Here are tidbits that I found interesting:

-A grad student interested in making an impact with plant breeding could step right in and get working on quinoa at Washington State. Murphy said he started with quinoa in 2010 as barley started disappearing from farm fields. Now he and 29 faculty and grad students are working on it as wheat growers in his region would like other crops to add to rotations.

Jim Orf reflected on his 34 years at the university as soybean plant breeder.

Quinoa, which originated 7,000 years ago in Peru and Bolivia, is a seed-like fruit with a hard coat. It's related to beets, spinach, tumbleweed and lambsquarters. In fact, it's hard to tell the difference between quinoa and lambsquarters for the first couple months after planting. Depending on the variety, it grows two to 10 feet tall.

After four years of research, they have about 25 really good varieties, Murphy said. They are breeding it for seed yield, drought/heat tolerance, downy mildew resistance, preharvest sprouting resistance, nutritional value and flavor. They also are breeding for low saponin content (coating on seed) since this can make quinoa taste bitter or soapy. To test for flavor, they will use an 'electronic tongue' and an 'electronic nose.'

In their field trials and on farms, growers in Washington plant quinoa when they plant barley and they harvest it a month after winter wheat. If farmers get about 1,000 pounds of seed per acre, that's good, Murphy says. In university trials, seed production for the variety Titicaca was the highest: 1,300 pounds per acre in eastern Washington and 3,400 pounds per acre in western Washington last year.

-Quality and flavor are key traits for organic farmers, Dawson said. The challenge, however, is how to measure and define them. To measure flavor, you could host large or trained panels, which is expensive. Or you could gather bakers and chefs to taste produce, which takes time to plan and host. Usually, plant breeders and their staffs hold their own taste tests, she said.

In Madison for the last year and a half, Dawson has been working with chefs and plant breeders to improve selection for flavor. Last summer, chefs tasted two types of kale, Glamour Red and Starbor. They found Starbor tasted mild but they liked the more flavorful Glamour Red.

She also worked with tomato trials that evaluated taste of tomatoes raised in the field and tomatoes raised in greenhouses. "No one had looked to see if flavor changes [between the two management systems,]" she said.

They evaluated an heirloom tomato, WI 55, and three modern varieties under both growing conditions. In the field, WI 55 was the most preferred tomato among taste testers. And in the hoop house, 'Line 3' was most preferred. WI 55 that was grown in hoop houses tasted bland, according to testers.

-'Biofortified' sorghum was new to me. Albertsen talked about the sorghum biofortification project in Africa that the Gates Foundation kicked off in 2005. Sorghum is a food staple there but it has a low nutrient content. Scientists worked to improve the grain which now contains elevated levels of Vitamin A, zinc and iron.

Now the transgenic seed needs government approval before it can get in the hands of African farmers.

"Biosafety authorities [in Nigeria and Kenya] are asking what are the next steps," Albertsen said. "[Biofortified sorghum] addresses a clear consumer need. It does not contain a pest control trait. It is not a revenue generator for some nasty multinational company. It is being donated royalty-free. We won't be involved at all."

-Farmers and bakers like what they see with a new perennial intermediate wheatgrass called Kernza, developed at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. DeHaan started breeding it back in 2002 and decided to name it in honor of its home state.

"You need to mix it in with wheat," DeHaan said. "It's easy to grow and easy to harvest. It makes a strong dough [for bread]. And farmers like it because it provides habitat for birds. I can hear quail from my back porch."

Kernza will be growing commercially for the first time in northern Minnesota in collaboration with U-M researchers.

-After working on soybeans for 34 years at the 'U,' Jim Orf offered some practical advice to grad students in attendance: Learn from your predecessors and continually ask farmers what they want.

"Keep an open mind [about plant breeding]," he said. "Just because you work on corn, soybeans or wheat, you might work on something else… Step back once in awhile and see where things are going. Breeders have to look 5 to 10 years into the future for what farmers need or consumers want."

Overall, I was impressed with the variety of speakers and topics, and with the opportunity for networking among grad students and professionals. Plus, as grad students worked on planning and hosting the symposium, they had expanded opportunities to learn from each other, meet professionals in their area of interest, present their own research to others, plus practice their communication and management skills.

Kudos to all involved in the symposium!

For more information, check out the website: http://www.plantbreedingsymposium.umn.edu/