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News from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Scott Jackson first came to the university in 2011 as the GRA Eminent Scholar in Plant Functional Genomics in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker) CAES News
GRA Eminent Scholar
Renowned plant genetics researcher Scott Jackson has returned to the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences as the inaugural Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar in Synthetic Biology. GRA Eminent Scholars are internationally renowned scientists recruited to Georgia’s leading research universities in collaboration with the Georgia Research Alliance. GRA Eminent Scholars are distinguished by the significance of their research discoveries and their potential for commercial application.
Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium CAES News
UGA Turfgrass
When the University of Georgia Bulldogs step between the hedges at Sanford Stadium, the grass on Dooley Field needs to look perfect. More importantly, though, it needs to help safeguard the health of athletes who compete on it. Gerald Henry plays a big role in the latter. The UGA Athletic Association’s endowed professor in environmental turfgrass leads a research team in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences committed to creating sports fields that look good and perform well to limit the occurrence of injuries.
Melissa Mitchum, CAES professor of nematology, and a multistate research team has identified the resistance-thwarting genes within soybean cyst nematodes, enabling new defenses and better resistance management. pictured are female soybean cyst nematodes on soybean roots. (Photo by Melissa Mitchum) CAES News
Nematode Breakthrough
Researchers have made a major discovery in the fight against soybean cyst nematode (SCN) by focusing on the genetics of the parasitic roundworms. Extensive genetic sequencing and mapping helped them identify a handful of likely genes behind the tricky pests’ ability to skirt soybean genetic resistance. Knowing how these SCN genes and soybean genes interact and evolve will help the industry identify the virulence of SCN populations so farmers can better use the genetic resistance currently available to fight the pest.
groundnuts CAES News
Groundnut Improvement Network for Africa
More than 4,000 miles separate the capital cities of Senegal in West Africa and Uganda in East Africa. Yet both countries grow peanuts and, like other countries across Africa, farmers there rely on peanuts as a food and cash crop. Five years ago, the researchers who help those farmers – plant breeders from Uganda, Senegal and seven other African countries – formed an organization called the Groundnut Improvement Network for Africa, or GINA, to develop peanut varieties that help African farmers deal with plant diseases and climate change.  
(L-R) Peggy Ozias-Akins and third-year Ph.D. student Yuji Ke working with Pennisetum (pearl millet) hybrids plants in the greenhouse. CAES News
UGA Plant Center
The University of Georgia Plant Center is a collection of faculty and scientists from across multiple campuses who share common interests in plant science. From basic science in plant biology and genomics to highly applied projects in genetics and plant breeding, researchers run the gamut of plant-based research. More than 60 faculty are affiliated with the center, hailing from seven departments across four colleges and schools and three separate campuses in Athens, Tifton and Griffin.
Plant genetics research at the University of Georgia spans schools, departments, disciplines, and centers. From the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) to Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the Plant Center to the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics & Genomics and more, UGA faculty with genetics expertise are seeking plant-based solutions to societal challenges. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker) CAES News
Plant Power
With record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather escalating, the threats posed by climate change are intensifying — but the plants of tomorrow could help us meet the massive challenges of our warming planet. Plant genetics research at the University of Georgia spans schools, departments, disciplines and centers. From the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, UGA faculty with genetics expertise are seeking plant-based solutions to societal challenges.
2024 EBroadusBrowne ResearchAwards CAES News
Research Awards
Two doctoral students and two master’s students in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences were honored with awards for outstanding research after placing in the 2024 E. Broadus Browne Research Competition. In recognition of former Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station Director Edmund Broadus Browne, the annual competition highlights some of the best graduate research from departments within the college and challenges contestants with an oral presentation.  
Peach growers are looking forward to a fruitful season as the weather this winter and spring have been near-perfect for the sensitive crop. This year is projected to be a much-needed comeback from the disastrous season they experienced after a late freeze in March 2023 took out more than 90% of the state's crop. (Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA) CAES News
2024 Peach Season
Last year, the peach industry lost $60 million due to the late freeze that hit much of the Southeast in mid-March 2023, said Jeff Cook, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agent for Peach and Taylor counties. With no freezing temperatures in the forecast and hope for strong pricing during the upcoming season, peach growers are looking forward to a much-needed rebound year.
UGA wheat breeder and geneticist Mohamed Mergoum smells one of several test brews created by Creature Comforts on its annual Get Comfortable collaboration using a variety of wheat Mergoum developed at CAES. CAES News
Blending science and philanthropy
Wheat breeders spend years meticulously crossing varieties to coax the best traits out of each species, carefully propagating plant varieties that are healthier, heartier and better suited for the environments where they are grown. Brewmasters are equally painstaking when choosing the components that will give their beers a specific flavor profile. These two exacting professions came together this spring when Athens-based Creature Comforts Brewing Co. reached out to the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to find a sustainable wheat variety they could use to make a good beer for a great cause.
GRA Eminent Scholar Chair in Crop Genomics Robin Buell working with plant specimens in her Center for Applied Genetic Technologies laboratory. CAES News
Bread Wheat Genomics
University of Georgia plant genomics expert Robin Buell is part of an international team seeking to mine an untapped genetic resource for wheat improvement by sequencing the genomes of ancient varieties representing the worldwide diversity of bread wheat. The two-year project— called the Wheat Diversity Project — is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and will bring Buell together with researchers from the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) and collaborators in France to sequence 12 landrace genomes.