Research

The SBC has a well-equipped laboratory in the Plant Reproductive Biology building. In the past years, the SBC has focused on moving basic research to applications that will enable the seed and biotechnology industries to incorporate technologies for sustainable agriculture. The SBC conducts collaborative research with private companies and other academic institutions to develop new tools for plant breeding, identify novel traits, improve seed quality, promote commercialization of new products and facilitate co-existence of diverse production systems. Current and recent research projects include:

Breeding tools

• Development of unique genetic mapping microarrays for lettuce and pepper containing 35,000 genes each
• Discovery of molecular markers (SNPs) in tomato, potato, carrot and cotton germplasm
• Introgression genomics in vegetable and field crop breeding programs

Novel traits

• Functional testing in crop plants of genes identified in model systems
• Application of mutagenesis and TILLING to identify useful traits
• QTL analyses of economically important traits

Seed quality and technology

• Molecular genetic analyses of thermoinhibition in lettuce seeds
• Assessment of new technologies to measure seed respiration
• Studies on seed priming and seed longevity

Commercialization and co-existence

• Gene flow studies in cotton and alfalfa

The Center also works on a number of public service activities.

The SBC established and works with the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Plant Transformation Facility for research on new products and transgenic plants.

Please email if the center can be of service to you.