b'they are infected by the fungus. The hope is that the studys results will help growers to be able to tell more quickly if a plant has become infected through environ-mental data such as soil temperature and moisture content. Texas A&MAnother institution leading the way in peanut breeding research is Texas A&M. The school has had an active peanut breeding program since 1939 and released its first variety back in the early 1950s. For more than 30 years, the schools Charles Simpson collected germplasm from wild peanuts in South America which became part of a national germplasm collection operated by the U.S. government. That germplasm was used to develop the programs first nematode-resistant peanut variety in 1998. Three other nematode-resistant varieties were sub-sequently developed. A fifth variety is currently in development at the schoolJohn Cason serves as an assistant professor of peanut breeding and genetics at Texas A&M.and is expected to be officially released by 2023. John Cason, an assistant professor ofand Sustainable Agriculture released a peanut breeding and genetics at Texasnew computational tool called Khufu that A&M, says this new variety has beenis revolutionizing plant breeding, espe-adapted to the conditions in Texas butcially for peanuts and other niche crops.could be a welcome addition in otherKhufu was developed by regions too. In addition to offering greaterHudsonAlpha faculty investigator Josh nematode resistance and higher yields,Clevenger, an agricultural geneticist, in this fifth generation offering also hascollaboration with computational biolo-a high oleic oil (unsaturated fat) ratiogist Walid Korani. What makes it unique meaning it could offer longer shelf life andis that it uses low coverage, short-read heart health benefits. sequencing data to provide genotyping As part of its Multi-Disease Resistanceresults at a fraction of what it costs using Program, Texas A&M is also working onother methods. a number of new varieties that combineNot only can Khufu identify and nematode resistance with Sclerotiniaanalyze variants in complex genomes resistance in the same cultivar and itat a fraction of the price, but it can also hopes to eventually add tomato spottedproduce results in just a matter of days wilt virus and leaf spot resistance downJosh Clevenger is an agriculture geneticistwith a 99% accuracy rate. Clevenger the road.at HudsonAlpha.says this makes it ideal for all breeding Were trying to heard all the catsprograms, even small to medium sized in one direction, Cason says, laugh- breeding programs and institutions that ing. Thats hard to do but were makingises to be a game-changer for peanuthave limited resources to devote to this progress. research at the university. type of analysis.One of the most promising recentTheres been a ton of interest. Up until advances was the development of itsHudsonAlpha now its been mostly through word of own $1.3 million, state-of-the-art peanutHudsonAlpha is a non-profit biotechnol- mouth, Clevenger says. No one weve sheller. The sheller has a one-ton perogy institute in Huntsville, Ala. Five yearstalked to so far has turned us down yet. hour capacity, processes lots as small asago, it played a key role in a project thatOnce we talk to them about what we 250 pounds and has an electric eye thatassembled a detailed history of the culti- have and what we can do for them,makes seeds sorting easy and efficient. vated peanut genome. This past summer,everyone is like, yes, absolutely, we want Cason says the seed sheller prom- the HudsonAlpha Center for Plant Scienceto do this.SWFEBRUARY 2022SEEDWORLD.COM /9'