About the Plant Breeding and Genomics Community of Practice

This resource, created by the plant breeding and genomics community of practice, is for students and professionals involved with plant breeding, and for agricultural producers who utilize the new varieties resulting from traditional and emerging plant breeding methods. This growing collection of educational information is collaboratively authored and reviewed by our community of researchers, educators, and eXtension personnel who have experience and expertise in plant breeding and genomics topics and crop production topics.

Community Mission and Goals

Our mission is to facilitate knowledge transfer of cutting edge plant breeding and genomics research to address the challenges facing today’s plant breeding programs and to inform those who utilize the new agricultural products resulting from this research.

We hope to accomplish this by:

  • Presenting unbiased science-based information in a variety of media formats
  • Sharing the most current, relevant, and accurate information available on techniques, procedures, bioinformatics, and analytical tools
  • Being a reliable resource that is responsive to the changing needs of the plant breeding industry and agricultural producers
  • Fostering collaboration among members of the plant breeding and genomics community
  • Delivering clear and understandable information on the results of plant breeding efforts to end-users, including agricultural producers and their markets

Plant Breeding and Genomics Tools You Can Use

Learning Lessons: Learning lessons are groupings of tutorials in the form of webinars, interactive animations, and self-paced lessons that walk you through the details of how to make use of plant breeding and genomics research and resources in your breeding program.

Webinar Series: Register to participate in live webinar events and view the archive of “how-to” demonstration-style webinars. Our webinars are designed to keep plant breeding professionals engaged and proficient in rapidly changing and emerging technologies.

Feature Articles: Feature articles keep you up to date in this rapidly emerging field and cover everything from the basics of population development and molecular markers to the latest plant breeding and genomics research and technologies and crop production information.

Aggregation: Partnering with other educational efforts, our experts have organized links to other excellent genomics, plant breeding and agricultural production resources that you can follow at Plant Breeding and Genomics News.

Ask an Expert: eXtension’s Ask an Expert tool allows you to submit specific questions to the community’s plant breeding and genomics experts.

Who We Are

Researchers and educators from US land-grant universities, government agencies and industry involved in a variety of plant breeding and crop production programs have joined together to share knowledge and form collaborations within this community. Materials posted to this site are thoroughly reviewed to ensure they are accurate and easily understood.

How Did the Plant Breeding and Genomics Community Begin?

The United States Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture Plant Breeding, Genetics, & Genomics Program focuses on use of approaches, tools, and resources to improve, protect, and sustain plants for agriculture and the environment. Several Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAPs) have been funded which target plant breeding and genomics research, education and extension efforts for specific crops, including barley, wheat, rice, conifers, tomato, potato, rose, and bean. The Solanaceae CAP (tomato/potato) project led the formation of the Plant Breeding and Genomics eXtension Community of Practice with the intention that eXtension outreach efforts could be targeted towards professionals in the plant breeding industry, and, with Barley CAP, the crop production sector. These efforts will provide a location for any crop’s plant breeding and genomics research/education knowledge to be shared in a central portal.

Why Sponsor Plant Breeding and Genomics Through Charitable Giving?

Connecting to our audience of plant breeding professionals and students is a fantastic way to support plant breeders as they work towards the goal of sustainable agricultural intensification. Your sponsorship funds the development of demonstration-style tutorials translating widely applicable breeding advances into practice. Recognition of your support during our webinars is a positive way to engage your organization with active members of the plant breeding community (sponsorship agreement). The vast majority of our webinar participants (93%) view our materials as helpful and most (75%) plan to use the knowledge gained from webinars in their work. Our webinars support a worldwide pool of current and future plant breeding professionals, and provide a resource for self-paced learning through incorporation into eXtension tutorials that include information like, data sets, software, and analysis scripts.

Why Include Plant Breeding and Genomics (PBG) in a proposal?

Increasingly, funding organizations are asking for proposals with 1) a significant outreach component including stakeholder engagement, 2) integration of research and outreach, and/or 3) a partnership with an eXtension Community of Practice. A PBG partnership can help your project/proposal deliver all three.

The PBG Community offers tools to facilitate your project’s delivery of high quality, peer-reviewed resources to an international audience of plant breeding and genomics professionals, educators, and researchers. These tools include:

Launched in January 2011, our eXtension content was viewed more than 120,000 times in the first year. Webinars and video tutorials posted on our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/plantbreedgenomics) received 42,000 views in the past year. Currently, PBGworks (http://pbgworks.org) has a membership of over 200 from more than 60 institutions in 10 countries working in 23 groups. The PBG workspace offers project and group management tools, the opportunity to manage a public project website with interactive tools, easy publication of resources to eXtension, and a connection to a dynamic and committed community of experts focused on Plant Breeding and Genomics outreach. PBG facilitates integration of research and outreach, as well as collaborator and stakeholder engagement.

How can I include PBG in my proposal?

As with any collaborative effort, an effective PBG plan of work takes time to develop. Please contact us early in the proposal development process so we can work with you to develop your proposal’s PBG plan of work and budget.

What are the steps to PBG collaboration?

Letter of intent: If the funding program requires a letter of intent, contact PBG a minimum of three weeks before the letter is due so we can work with you on the PBG language.

Proposal: To include PBG in your project, a PBG plan of work and budget with PBG written in as a subaward must be submitted. Contact PBG a minimum of 4 weeks before your proposal is due to allow time to develop a project-specific PBG plan of work, budget, and the subaward paperwork. Sample budgets are available on request.

Sample Plan of Work

This document is intended to provide information about the scale and scope of work that collaboration with PBG can offer. Plans of work will be project-specific and budget-dependent. We encourage discussion throughout the proposal development phase so that we can tailor a plan of work for your project accordingly.

The Plant Breeding and Genomics (PBG) Community of Practice with eXtension (pronounced e-Extension) (www.eXtension.org/plant_breeding_genomics) will work with this project to provide a secure community management workspace, as well as outreach and publication services that will enhance and support the project’s goals. To learn more about the PBG Community, please visit http://www.pbgworks.org.
Community Management
PBG staff will provide the project with tools for secure project management. All projects receive a project workspace at http://pbgworks.org (PBGworks). The PBGworks content management system is a database-backed web retrieval system. The open-source and modular aspects of the PBGworks DRUPAL infrastructure permit customization (e.g. constructing project databases). Server hosting is through Oregon State University’s Department of Horticulture. Server backup and protective scans of uploaded files will be conducted on a daily basis, providing security and protection. IT support of the workspace and user training are supported through the budget. Using PBGworks, project members can:

  • Share data, files, and images
  • Develop and update a public project website
  • Use the workspace tools for effective project management and communication
  • Collaborate with over 200 members of 23 groups currently using the workspace

Publication
Utilizing PBGworks.org, project members will collaboratively create and edit tutorials, case studies and articles for publishing behind a password protected space. PBG staff will consult with the project to ensure compliance with general web and community standards and protocols (http://pbgworks.org/node/734). Once a piece of content is review ready, PBG staff will facilitate the double-blind peer review process. Following review and author revisions, the content will be subject to an editorial and technical review before final publishing (http://pbgworks.org/node/811). If the content contains links to outside resources, PBG staff will perform periodic link checks to ensure that the published content remains current.

Content can be published to http://www.eXtension.org/plant_breeding_genomics using an ATOM feed, and web-based lessons may also be submitted for publication by indexed, peer-reviewed journals (e.g. Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education (JNRLSE)). In the case of videos, PBG staff will maintain the PBG YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/plantbreedgenomics) and monitor it for feedback from the public. Alternative video hosting will be arranged for content aimed at an audience that may not have unrestricted access to YouTube.

PBG will provide training and support to maintain compliance with eXtension requirements, including news, ask an expert, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and content evaluation (currently quality and utility as defined by eXtension).

Types of content for publishing include:

  • Webinars
  • Workshop broadcasts
  • Videos
  • Case studies and Articles
  • Learning modules
  • Short courses

Publishing via PBGworks provides the opportunity to add value to content. For example, data, scripts for analysis, and pdf presentations developed for webinars and workshops can be published to eXtension so that they are conveniently available to workshop participants and as a training resource for self-guided or group learning activities. PBG can also facilitate evaluation of webinars and workshops by an external evaluator for an additional cost.

Promotion
PBG will promote the eXtension community of practice and the efforts of its members at professional meetings and through media outlets: Plant Breeding and Genomics News, the PBG email newsletter (register to receive periodic updates), SeedQuest, National Association for Plant Breeders, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter) and . We can increase the impact of your outreach activities by helping your project reach the desired community of interest.

Sample Project Timeline

Year 1

  • Initiate a webinar series for the project
  • Edit webinars as value-added resources for eXtension.org
  • Develop project page at PBGworks.org
  • Develop and publish a review article central to the project goals
  • Support web conferencing for project participants and stakeholders
  • Develop video tutorials that demonstrate project methodology to ensure consistency across collaborations

Year 2

  • Develop and publish a case study related to the project
  • Facilitate a webinar broadcast from project event
  • Edit webinars as value-added resources for eXtension.org
  • Support web conferencing for project participants and stakeholders
  • Develop how-to video tutorials or webinars about analyzing and interpreting project data

Year 3

  • Develop a multi-part webinar series on findings and application of project results
  • Develop and publish articles based on project findings
  • Support web conferencing for project participants and stakeholders
  • Develop a series of learning modules that provides theory and application relevant to project
  • Develop and present an online short course related to project

Contact Information

Plans of work and associated subaward budgets will vary. For more information on how to include PBG in your proposal and budgets, see pbgworks.org/node/1066.

David Francis, The Ohio State University Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences, francis.77″at”osu.edu

Alex Stone, Oregon State University Department of Horticulture, stonea”at”hort.oregonstate.edu

Learn More About our Funding Collaborators

USDA-NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) for Solanaceae

USDA-NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) for Barley

USDA-NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) for Rosebreed

USDA-NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) for Conifers

National Science Foundation grant for the Plant and Soil Sciences eLibrary (joint funding for interactive animations)

PBGworks 1014