NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

June 17, 1999

Setup of Molecular Marker Lab at NDSU to Begin in July

The 1999 North Dakota Legislature funded the development of a molecular marker laboratory at North Dakota State University, as was requested by the State Board of Agricultural Research (SBAR) and the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. With a new fiscal year and the new funding biennium beginning on July 1, work on setting up the lab will commence soon thereafter.

The molecular marker lab will be operational within the coming year and running at full capacity sometime within the next two years, says Al Schneiter, chair of NDSU's Department of Plant Sciences. Molecular markers allow scientists to identify plants having specific genetic characteristics including disease and insect resistance, along with quality factors such as high or low protein.

"Our plant scientists will be able to screen a lot more material with this technology," Schneiter says. "Breeders won't need to wait until the end of a growing season to know if a particular spring wheat line has good protein, for example."

The NDSU lab will be dedicated to plant breeding and weed science research, efforts which involve the departments of plant sciences, entomology, plant pathology and cereal science. Schneiter says the lab should increase the number of lines breeders can evaluate by four or five times. The crops benefitting from this lab include hard red and hard white spring wheat, durum, two- and six-rowed barley, flax, potato, corn, soybean, dry bean, and oat.

"The use of a dedicated molecular marker lab for breeding programs is putting NDSU out in front. In this region, the lab is unique in terms of its mission and scope," Schneiter concludes.

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Source: Al Schneiter (701) 231-8137

Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136