Trait Selection, the Human Microbiome and Health

December 21st, 2020

The plant breeders and geneticists I know all make the same joke, “We breed for three traits: yield, yield and yield”. The seeming hyperbole of this statement fades when you consider the traits improved in crops over the last thousand years. While we focus on disease or drought resistance, the trait we’re really talking about is yield. The work conducted to improve crop yield is truly amazing and must be continued; however, in the pursuit of yield, many traits related to food nutrition have been overlooked.

Enter the support of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research(FFAR) for the Nebraska Food for Health Center (NFHC), a collection of scientists from diverse backgrounds: plant science, food science, microbiology, medical science and more, united with a shared goal: reimagining breeding practices to improve human health. We are not the first– golden rice and other biofortified grains have been improved to benefit human nutrition. My research at the NFHC contributes this new direction in plant breeding, combining known associations between diet, human gut microbes, health and disease with trait selection to improve the nutritional content of the food.

For full news story click here

Story by Nate Korth | FFAR Fellow & NFHC Graduate Fellow