Nathan Springer: Opportunities to advance crop germplasm development using genome editing

Individuals with a species can exhibit high-levels of genomic variation. Over one-third of the maize genome can be distinct among two individuals. Plant breeding efforts identify ideal combinations of genomic loci and produce elite varieties. There is often a focus on the application of genome editing for creating novel alleles. However, there are also a variety of applications of genome editing that can assist in creating improved varieties through the ggreater flexibility of transferring allelic variation within populations. The seminar will discuss genomic variation in maize, the current application of breeding with conventional germplasm and opportunities and challenges in using genome editings.