WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.430 (upbeat music) 2 00:00:02.430 --> 00:00:04.740 By 2050, we're gonna need twice as much food 3 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:06.320 from the same land as we grow today 4 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:08.720 in order to feed the world's growing population. 5 00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:12.530 We're standing in the Beadle Center greenhouse 6 00:00:12.530 --> 00:00:13.363 line:15% that's on the city campus 7 00:00:13.363 --> 00:00:15.050 line:15% of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. 8 00:00:15.050 --> 00:00:17.520 line:15% Around me you see a diverse set of corn and sorghum plants 9 00:00:17.520 --> 00:00:20.990 line:15% that we use to understand how the genes in corn and sorghum 10 00:00:20.990 --> 00:00:25.120 determine the final properties of plants and crops. 11 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:28.040 The focus of what's going on here is to take samples 12 00:00:28.040 --> 00:00:30.870 from plants and be able to measure either variation in DNA, 13 00:00:30.870 --> 00:00:33.190 variation in gene expression, that sort of thing. 14 00:00:33.190 --> 00:00:34.940 If we can understand how genotype 15 00:00:34.940 --> 00:00:37.640 determines the traits of a plant, we have a better shot 16 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:39.290 at being able to meet the growing demand 17 00:00:39.290 --> 00:00:41.370 for food and fuel around the world. 18 00:00:41.370 --> 00:00:42.203 In order to do that, 19 00:00:42.203 --> 00:00:44.150 we need to collect many many measurements 20 00:00:44.150 --> 00:00:46.200 from hundreds and thousands of plants. 21 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:47.410 Not just in one environment, 22 00:00:47.410 --> 00:00:48.400 but in many different environments. 23 00:00:48.400 --> 00:00:50.030 So different places around the state, 24 00:00:50.030 --> 00:00:52.280 different years, different stress treatments. 25 00:00:54.290 --> 00:00:56.010 A lot of the work we do at the University of Nebraska 26 00:00:56.010 --> 00:00:57.160 is in developing high throughput 27 00:00:57.160 --> 00:00:58.623 of phenotyping technologies. 28 00:00:59.530 --> 00:01:02.060 Phenotyping is very fancy word for a very simple concept, 29 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:05.040 which is just measuring the properties of plants. 30 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:07.470 So these are things like the automated greenhouse, 31 00:01:07.470 --> 00:01:09.100 the Spidercam facility, 32 00:01:09.100 --> 00:01:12.500 also a lot of drone-based and robotic phenotyping. 33 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:15.040 And so now we have tools that most other universities lack, 34 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.640 which allow us to be developing the methods 35 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:19.110 and approaches that I think everyone 36 00:01:19.110 --> 00:01:21.360 will be using five, 10, or 20 years from now. 37 00:01:22.890 --> 00:01:25.180 We were able to release the first complete version 38 00:01:25.180 --> 00:01:26.510 of the proso millet genome. 39 00:01:26.510 --> 00:01:28.240 What's really exciting about proso millet 40 00:01:28.240 --> 00:01:30.630 is that it can use water much more efficiently 41 00:01:30.630 --> 00:01:32.930 than even sorghum and much more than corn. 42 00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:34.960 Now that we have this reference genome, 43 00:01:34.960 --> 00:01:37.860 it will be possible for us to go and identify differences 44 00:01:37.860 --> 00:01:39.780 between different proso millet varieties, 45 00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:42.910 identify variants of genes that are more or less useful 46 00:01:42.910 --> 00:01:45.010 for getting higher yield and varieties, 47 00:01:45.010 --> 00:01:46.580 and, hopefully, develop new varieties 48 00:01:46.580 --> 00:01:48.210 that will be both higher yielding 49 00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:50.720 and have better agronomic performance. 50 00:01:50.720 --> 00:01:52.740 Yeah, so I won the North American Plant 51 00:01:52.740 --> 00:01:55.990 Phenotyping Network's Early Career investigator award. 52 00:01:55.990 --> 00:01:57.510 I was the inaugural award. 53 00:01:57.510 --> 00:01:59.750 Plant phenotyping is just such a new field 54 00:01:59.750 --> 00:02:01.550 and so being able to be a part of this 55 00:02:01.550 --> 00:02:03.773 new emerging community feels really good.