SEPTEMBER 2017 GERMINATION.CA 25 scientists just inserting genes into plants and creating great new varie- ties,” Gjuric says. “As a result, univer- sities just weren’t training as many new plant breeders.” The industry could perhaps be forgiven for thinking plant breeders were a dying breed. Considering the profession is thought to be approxi- mately 9,000 to 11,000 years old by most estimates, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing it will sooner or later be replaced by newer disci- plines. Instead, new technologies have made the role of the breeder even more pertinent, Gjuric says, and young breeders like Nilsen are ben- efiting from that. “It’s like an engineer working in a factory in the 1940s compared to now. They do the same job, but the factory has changed. They just have different tools now,” Gjuric adds. Opening Doors Those new tools have gone far beyond GM technologies, and are expanding into the realm of gene editing with techniques like CRISPR, which allows scientists to manipulate the genome of a plant without intro- ducing any foreign material. These new tools are being used by students early on in their careers — in many cases, even before they’ve graduated high school, according to Gijs van Rooijen, chief scientific officer for Genome Alberta. The organization once again supported all youth science fairs across Alberta in 2017. For the last 11 years, Genome Alberta has been providing financial assistance to regional organizers, offering cash prizes and plaques to students with winning genetics- related projects. “What we see now is a fair amount of projects where high school students are doing the usual agro- nomic projects, but we’re seeing them start to incorporate a lot of genetics into those projects,” he says. “They start to recognize that Rale Gjuric is one of the founders of the Plant Breeding Academy at the University of California — Davis. Gijs van Rooijen is chief scientific officer for Genome Alberta. Kirby Nilsen is a PhD student working in Curtis Pozniak’s wheat breeding program at the Crop Development Centre in Saskatoon. And that means many of those students will end up becoming plant breeders themselves. “If you’re interested in seeds and plants, learning about and using these new tools will help you become very successful in that field. These students are only becoming more sophisticated in their thinking. They’re looking at the whole genome of the plant.” Individual genes are important, van Rooijen explains, but the genetic factors that affect these genes are important as well. In addition to genetics, there’s the concept of epi- genetics — the effect of the environ- ment on the genetics themselves. It’s a subject area that’s important for up-and-coming plant breeders to familiarize themselves with. “THESESTUDENTSAREONLY BECOMINGMORESOPHISTICATED INTHEIRTHINKING.THEY’RE LOOKINGATTHEWHOLEGENOME OFTHEPLANT.” –GijsvanRooijen genetic analysis — especially the ability to get genomic analysis done quickly — is going to be a power- ful tool in assisting plant breeders in developing their desired varieties much faster.”