AGGIEagenda

In this issue

Department Head Notes

Global Soil Security Symposium Agenda

In Memory of Susie Mendez

Distinguished Graduate Student

Award - Amanda Hulse

May Graduates

Department News

Calendar

Undergraduate Advisors and

Counselors Award

soilcrop.tamu.edu

Department of Soil and Crop Sciences

(continued next page)

May 2015

Soil &

Crop Sciences

T A M U

AGGIEThis has been an exciting period with searches for several faculty positions across Soil and Crop Sciences. We have initiated searches for an extension specialist in nutrient and water management and interviews will start soon. We have completed searches for the Beachell Chair in rice improvement and Dr. Michael Thomson and Dr. Endang Septiningsih will be joining us this summer. Dr. Emi Kimura has begun her work as our new Extension Crops Specialist in Vernon and will be focusing on weed control and other crop system issues. We are still searching for two presidential hires as part of the college effort. All of these searches take a large commitment from the faculty and staff and it is all appreciated. It represents a big portion of the future of the department.Graduation is tomorrow and we are excited for our many graduates. We wish them the very best as they take on the next phase of their life. A special thanks to families and partners that have supported them through the furthering of their education. Thanks for all of the help in completing the review process in a timely fashion. I have been tightly booked to get all of mine completed and know that each of you are finishing up, as well. Taking the time to develop both a self assessment document and plan for the future helps us to prioritize and be strategic as we move forward. It was great to see how much we are accomplishing as a department. I attended the CSSP meeting in Washington D.C., May 2-5. I am an at large board member and participated in the board meetings on both Saturday morning and Tuesday morning to coordinate planning for the Dec. meeting. I participated as board representative on the food and population committee. The highlight of the meeting was the first annual Kavli lecture featuring Dr. Alan Lightman, author of “The Accidental Universe” and “Einstein’s Dreams.” The Kavli foundation provided funding to support this. Congratulations to Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan and his wife on the arrival of their boy, Aadhav Bagavathiannan--and to Charles Fontanier and his wife on the arrival of their son. More information and pictures will follow in the June Aggie Agenda.We have been developing opportunities with many international partners and have hosted groups from Turkey and Tunisia. These all take a large commitment from faculty and staff and the effort is great appreciated.

(continued from first page)This week we host the “Soil Security” conference thanks to the eadership of Dr. Cristine Morgan and her team. This is a great opportunity to learn from the world’s best and to dialogue about the role Texas A&M AgriLife, and specifically, our department, play in providing for the security of our soils. Congratulations to all of our recent award recipients (see stories throughout newsletter). A special congratulation to Dr. Wayne Smith on the recent announcement that he will become the Editor and Chief for all Crop Science Society of America publications starting in January 2016. This is a tremendous recognition of his leadership in journal editing.

Agenda can be viewed at the link

below:

https://www.soils.org/files/am/global-soil/soilsecurityprogram-

may-11.pdf

Soil security requires maintenance and improvement of the soil

resource toproduce food, fiber, and fresh water, tocontribute to sustainable energyproduction,

adapt to climate changes,and to maintain biodiversity and functionin

ecosystems.

Those concerned with achieving soil security recognize that

attainment involves scientific, economic,and political engagement

to effectivelyand credibly inform political and legal frameworks and

implement appropriate actions.

May 19-21, 2015College Station, TX

In Memory of Susie Mendez

Mary Susie (Contreras) Mendez, 56, of Bryan, went to be with her Lord on Saturday, May 2, 2015. A time for family to receive friends will be from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Friday, May 8, 2015 at Hillier Funeral Home. A Pink Out Celebration and Rosary will begin at 6:00 PM at Hillier. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Noon on Saturday, May 9, 2015 at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 507 E 26th St, Bryan, TX 77803 in Bryan with Msgr. John McCaffrey officiating. Interment will follow at Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Bryan.Susie was born on June 1, 1958, to John and Cleotilde (Alvarado) Contreras in Hearne, TX. She spent most of her childhood in Hearne, and then moved to Hempstead, where she lived for several years. She finally moved to Bryan where she and her family settled down. In 2000, she met her knight in shining armor, Joe Mendez Sr., and they were married on February 23, 2008. Susie was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Bryan. She retired after 28 years from working at Texas A&M Soil and Crop Science Department. She enjoyed shopping, photography, yard sales, watching soap operas and Lifetime, barbequing, and playing SkipBo and UNO with her grandkids. She loved the company of her grandkids whom used to frequently sleepover at her house. She also cherished visiting her brothers, sisters, and extended family. Susie was a huge Texas A&M fan, even though her husband was a Longhorn. They enjoyed going out dancing, and spending time with each other. She is preceded in death by her parents, John and Cleotilde, and her son, Christopher. Susie leaves behind her loving husband of 15 years, Joe Mendez Sr.; children, Gilbert and Lori Sifuentes, Celso Sifuentes III, Rosie and husband Joe Galindo, Joe Mendez Jr. and wife Lisa, Jessica and husband Daniel Hernandez; siblings, John Contreras Jr. and wife Sylvia of Bryan, Ralph Contreras and wife Rosa of Cameron, Tony Contreras and wife Nora of Grand Rapids, MI, David Contreras and wife Lynn of Houston, Martin Contreras and Anna of Hempstead, Mickey and husband Alex Herrera of Hempstead, Reyes Sosa of Calvert, Teresa and husband Joe Figueroa of Hempstead, Gracey and husband Nelson Pfeffer of Hempstead, Mary and husband Jeremy Edwards of Calvert, Gloria Contreras of Austin, Angel and husband Gary Heldenbrand of Hearne, six grandsons, thirteen granddaughters, and numerous nieces and nephews.As an expression of sympathy, memorial contributions may be sent to American Cancer Society at http://www.cancer.org/ or to Hospice Brazos Valley Inpatient Facility at http://www.hospicebrazosvalley.org/donate.html.

Mary Susie (Contreras) MendezJune 1, 1958 – May 2, 2015

Congratulations!

On April 27, Amanda M. Hulse-Kemp, a doctoral candidate working as part of Dr. David Stelly’s research cotton research group was awarded a University Distinguished Graduate Award for outstanding research. She was one of 8 recipients, among over 10,000 graduate students at Texas A&M University.

As a member of the Soil & Crop Sciences Deparment pursuing her doctorate in Genetics, Amanda developed some of the first large sets of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA markers, integrated these through genetic and physical mapping efforts in order to assist cotton genome sequencing, and joined Dr. Stelly in forming an International Cotton SNP Chip Consortium, and in developing the first high-throughput SNP genotyping array for cotton. This array is well balanced between expressed genes and “random” genomic sequences, as well as between elite adapted cultivars and non-adapted germplasm accessions and wild species. The “Cotton SNP Chip” us a monumental step forward for research in cotton and is already being used globally by public and private breeders, geneticists, and other researchers to enhance cotton genetic analysis, breeding, genome sequence assembly, and many other applications. In addition to the excellence of her research productivity and quality, Ms. Hulse-Kemp maintained a perfect GPA, served as President of the Genetics Graduate Student Association, published 8 refereed scientific journal publications, including one in Nature Biotechnology, four as first author, and more publications are yet to come. She has won several other awards, and has presented invited talks on the SNPs and SNP Chip at international meetings in the USA and China, and is already a recognized name in the domestic and global cotton genomics communities. Amanda will receive her Ph.D. in May 2015.

Ms. Amanda Hulse-Kemp receiving her Distinguished Graduate Student Award for

Research

Amanda Hulse-Kemp and Dr. David Stelly

Congratulations to our May 2015 Graduates!

Amanda Hulse-Kemp GENEFacundo Ibanez MEPSAndrea Maeda PLBRSchuyler Smith PLBRRosa Jauregui PLBRRupa Kanchi PLBRAdam Mahan PLBRLaura Ann McLoud PLBRMeghyn Meeks PLBRChristina Barrera SOSC

Graduate Students

Plant and Environmental Soil Science

Zehra Bhimani Juan Cadeza

Julieta Collazo Shea Elliot

Trevor DickersonJoseph Eric Evans

Russ Garetson Anthony Shelby Redgate

Ana Sophia Corona Gaxiola Genoveva Rivera

James Taylor

Turfgrass Science

Chase Brister Michael Healy

Colton Marshall JanicekAndrew Keeler Travis Browder

Undergraduate Students

Interdisciplinary Team Working to Feed, Clothe, and

Shelter 9 Billion People By 2050

Through its land grant mission, Texas A&M University, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Texas A&M AgriLife Research are charged with the genetic improvement of plants for the benefit of humanity, and the development of knowledge-based production and management systems. Members of the Food, Feed, Fiber, Bioenergy for 2050 Faculty Integrative Team, formed as a result of the 2014 Grand Challenges Mini-Symposia, are rising to the challenge of implementing methods to meet the task of feeding, clothing and sheltering a projected nine billion people by 2050.Dr. Wayne Smith, project director and professor of soil and crop sciences, said that the goal of this initiative is to bring together faculty who have an interest in plant improvement and, more specifically, crop improvement that we use for food, feed, greenspace, and shelter. “Going forward, one would hope that teams will evolve from this initiative,” Dr. Smith said. “Those teams will be comprised of people and expertise that otherwise might not have had the opportunity to come together and work towards a common goal.”“There are positive consequences from this enterprise no matter how you want to spin it,” Dr. Smith said. “There’s just a plethora of good things we expect to happen as a result of this initiative.” The coordinating committee for this effort includes Drs. Patricia Klein (Horticultural Sciences), Seth Murray (Soil and Crop Sciences), William Rooney (Soil and Crop Sciences), Gregory Sword (Entomology), Jackie Rudd (Soil and Crop Sciences/Texas A&M AgriLife Research), Keerti Rathore (Soil and Crop Sciences), and Alex Thomasson (Biological and Agricultural Engineering).The team is composed of four basic science areas – high throughput phenotyping; gametic cycling; genome wide breeding; and genome editing.Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Measure CropsDr. Thomasson, professor from the biological and agricultural engineering department, is the leader of the high throughput phenotyping (HTTP) initiative. The challenge of HTTP is developing technologies that will allow plant breeding teams to utilize genomics with quantitative traits such as yield, drought resistance, heat resistance, adaption to soil spatial variability, nutritional components, etc. The goal of HTTP is to bring mechanical, optical, electronic, and computer technologies together on ground or aerial platforms to make such measurements on as many as 100,000 plants or more in a single day.

“Most research in using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in agriculture in the near future will focus on remote sensing of crops, which has historically been done with manned aircraft or satellites,” Dr. Thomasson said. “UAVs offer more highly detailed images, lower cost per flight, and more flexibility in timing. Going forward, much of the focus is on using UAVs for HTTP, in which they will carry sensors to rapidly measure numerous physical plant traits in the field. My research in this area will move towards integration of robotic manipulators with UAVs, so they can ultimately do some pretty sophisticated tasks in the field, like lifting and inspecting plant leaves for insects and disease.”Using Gametes to Speed Up BreedingDr. Seth Murray, associate professor from the soil and crop sciences department, is leading the efforts of the gametic cycling aspect of the project. Traditional breeding for genetic improvement of plants and animals has dramatically increased agricultural productivity but is slow compared to engineering cycles, being dependent on the biological duration of life cycle (plants going from seed to seed, and animals reaching sexual maturity). It is possible to develop fertile offspring from gametes (sperm and egg) produced from cells grown in culture, eliminating the step of sexual maturation. Combined with genomics technology, selection can then be done at the cell or gamete level, dramatically increasing the speed of breeding progress. Gametic cycling is more theoretical than the other three tasks; however, it has been demonstrated in mice.Using Genome Wide Selection to Balance Phenotypic DataDr. Patricia Klein, associate professor from the department of horticultural sciences, is the leader of the genome wide breeding initiative. Genomic selection is based on simultaneously estimating multiple marker effects throughout the entire genome in order to establish their breeding values for quantitative traits. Genome wide selection considers allelic replications rather than strain or phenotype replication, potentially a more effective way to cope with unbalanced phenotypic data,

which is common in applied breeding programs.“Genome wide selection allows the plant breeder to have at his/her disposal the genotype or the molecular basis of the phenotype of the plant, instead of just knowing what the plant looks like,” Dr. Smith said.Using Genome Editing to Produce non-GMO CropsDr. Keerti Rathore, professor from the soil and crop sciences department, is the leader of the genome editing initiative. “Genome editing is a relatively new technology that holds the potential to manipulate genes within a plant species so that we are no longer dealing with GMOs,” Dr. Smith said.With DNA alterations involving just one or two nucleotide changes or the introduction of a gene from the same species, this technology can enable genome modifications in plants that are indistinguishable from those introduced via conventional breeding and induced mutagenesis. Such crop plants modified using these technologies could be classified as cisgenic or non-GM which could facilitate acceptance in countries that now exclude GMO crops.“The specialization in each discipline is impressive and rather daunting, but when we come together on an important effort like this, the sum of our collaborations appears to be outgrowing the simple combination of the disparate parts,” Dr. Thomasson said. “I expect Texas A&M AgriLife Research to soon be a world leader in HTPP and UAVs in agriculture, and within a few years I believe we will have dramatically affected the way food and fiber are produced, and we will be on track to meet the needs of feeding our world.”

CALENDARMay 18 Departmental Review Mid-Term Meeting May 19-21 Global Soil Security Symposium June 1 Initial P&T material due June 2-3 NPGCC June 4 NC-7 June 6 Dallas Turf Field Day June 9 Faculty Meeting - 10 a.m. June 16 Stiles Farm Field Day June 16-17 Soils Critique Aug. 5-7 Faculty Retreat

Congratulations to Dr. David Stelly for receiving the University Advisors and Counselors 2015 Margaret Annette Peters

Advising Award!