Author: Cole Baerlocher

Development of flavorful and nutritious yet firm and long shelf-life tomatoes is the holy grail in tomato improvement. So far, tomato genes carrying mutations blocking ethylene synthesis have been successfully used to modulate fruit firmness and to extend shelf-life in commercially available tomatoes. Unfortunately, besides the beneficial effect on delaying softening, these genes negatively affect…

Research funded by the Shell Oil Company. For about 20 years in the U.S. substantial work has been conducted across many universities and states investigating the adaptation, suitability, and feasibility of oilseed crops providing significant renewable fuels.  Previous Texas A&M AgriLife work set forth the goal that a suitable crop would include the potential for up to…

Research funded by the Texas A&M AgriLife Research – Weslaco and Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC), Thailand. Unmaned Aerial System (UAS)-based high throughput phenotyping may bring a step-change in sugarcane breeding program by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of clonal selection through shifting the conventional phenotyping to an approach that is more comprehensive,…

Research funded by the Sun Grant Program South Central Region. The long-term goal of this project is to determine if human-designed diverse, low-input native grasslands are sustainable and productive bioenergy feedstock sources in the southern Great Plains. The move to using natives and even ecotypes of endemic species in Conservation Reserve Programs (CRP), rangeland restoration,…

Research funded by the USDA – Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. The diversity of Texas’ climates, soils, and agriculture allows the carefully crafted Texas Climate-Smart Initiative to serve as a model for future climate-smart commodity programs nationwide. Outcomes of this initiative will identify economical and effective climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices, improve efficiency in assessing greenhouse…

Research funded by the USDA-NIFA-Supplemental and Alternative CropsThe goal of the Compliant Hemp Accelerated     Improvement Network (CHAIN) is to publicly release and evaluate a collection of novel accessions produced by Texas A&M University’s Hemp Conversion Program (HCP) alongside other candidate materials in order to identify germplasm well adapted to the southern U.S. The project establishes a…

Research funded by the USDA – Agriculture and Food Research Initiative – Foundational and Applied Science Program This multi-year, multilocation project will use a combination of feedstock germplasm and field production investigations to develop a high throughput phenotyping methodology to identify the best performing bioproducts crops as feedstocks for renewable energy and bio-based products, while…

Phytochemicals are compounds accumulated by plants which have health-promoting properties such as prevention of certain chronic ailments. Many of these compounds also protect plants from damaging effects of environmental stresses. A better understanding of the environmental conditions and processes controlling the synthesis and accumulation of phytochemicals will facilitate development of strategies to improve not only…

A better understanding of plant water use is necessary for irrigation systems that improve efficiency. The objective of this project is to increase crop water use efficiency without sacrificing yield or quality by using regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) based on crop developmental stage and evapotranspiration data. The approach is to monitor soil moisture depletion patterns…