Cultivar Development
Cultivar and germplasm development remain an important part of our mission and the pipeline in breeding programs continues to generate genetically superior lines of value to the industry.
Soybean Breeding
Zenglu Li’s soybean breeding program focuses on development of soybean cultivars within maturity groups that are suitable for cultivation in the southeastern US.
In 2021, he released four cultivars with second generation Glyphosate tolerance that show excellent performance within their maturity group and possess superior resistance to many soybean pests that limit soybean yield.
Wheat Breeding
The wheat breeding program of Mohamed Mergoum (in photo) is similarly prolific, releasing four new cultivars that showed good performance in state and/or regional variety trials, some of which have improved scab (Fusarium head blight) resistance, a persistent goal.
Peanut
A new release from Bill Branch meets the demand for high yield and value in a region where tomato spotted wilt and leaf spot diseases are a persistent challenge.
While runner-type peanuts are the primary market-type in the southeastern U.S., there is a small market for spanish types for which a new nematode resistant release from Nino Brown and Bill Branch will be available.
Cotton
Peng Chee released cotton isogenic lines for two nematode resistance QTL. These germplasm lines will be useful for deciphering the genetic and molecular basis of root-knot nematode resistance in upland cotton.
Turfgrass Breeding
Last, but not least, the turfgrass breeding program of Brian Schwartz, with participation of Wayne Hanna, is releasing a new bermudagrass for golf greens that is more stress resilient than TifEagle.
Tifton bermudagrasses have global recognition for their use on sport fields including those for Summer Olympics, World Cup soccer and the Super Bowl.
