WHEN KIRBY NILSEN was working on his undergraduate degree, he says he was unsure of what he wanted to pursue as a lifelong career. That is, until he came across the field of plant breeding. “Having worked in plant breeding pro- grams prior to and during my undergrad, I certainly recognized that as a potential area to pursue employment,” he says. “It wasn't until after taking fourth-year plant breeding and genetics courses that I knew for sure that I wanted to be a plant breeder.” Nilsen, 31, is a doctorate student at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Sask., working in Curtis Pozniak’s wheat breeding program at the Crop Development Centre. He’s excited to be part of a field of study making huge strides the world over, as a new genera- tion of plant breeders uses new tools to unlock nature’s secrets and improve plants to be more nutritious, more resist- ant to disease and environmental stresses, and to yield better for farmers. Nilsen’s story of falling in love with plant breeding is a story that, fortunately, is becoming more common. It’s music to the ears of Rale Gjuric, founder of Haplotech and director of the University of California, Davis, Plant Breeding Academy (PBA). Nilsen represents a new generation of breeders who use the latest technologi- cal tools to do a job that, despite being as old as agriculture itself, is more important than ever. “In principle, things are changing tech- nologically, but the role of the breeder doesn’t change at all,” Gjuric says. It wasn’t long ago that it looked as if plant breeding was in danger as a profes- sion. The rise of genetic technologies fueled a belief that plant breeding would become obsolete, he says. “There was an attitude prevalent in the 1990s that traditional plant breeding was on its way out — that we wouldn’t need it anymore because we’d have scientists just inserting genes into plants and creating great new varieties,” Gjuric says. “As a result, universities just weren’t training as many new plant breeders.” The industry could perhaps be for- given for thinking plant breeders were a dying breed. Considering the profession is thought to be approximately 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 disciplines. Instead, new technologies have made the role of the breeder even more perti- nent, Gjuric says. Young breeders, such as Nilsen, benefit. “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,” Gjuric says. “They have differ- ent tools now.” Opening Doors Those new tools go far beyond GM technologies, and expand into the realm of gene editing with techniques, such as CRISPR, which allow scientists to manip- ulate the genome of a plant without intro- ducing any foreign material. Students have access to these new tools early in their careers — in many cases, even before they’ve graduated New technologies prove to be an asset to up-and-coming plant breeders, ensuring a healthy supply of them for the seed industry. Marc Zienkiewicz 72 / SEEDWORLD.COM SEPTEMBER 2017 Powerful Tools, Major Possibilities