Michael Mazourek

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The overall theme of my program is innovation of vegetables for adaptation for production in the Northeastern US and to be of improved flavor and nutrition for consumers. I conduct much of this selection in ecologically managed systems that represent a more natural environment. By working in a natural environment, I am better able to draw parallels between the artificial selection that takes place in plant breeding with the natural selection that has taken place during the evolution of crop progenitors. This process allows me to create new varieties that contain otherwise cryptic factors that allow for crop production with fewer synthetic inputs and identify testable hypotheses regarding the genetic nature of these factors.

My focus is on the genomics and chemistry that underlies and mediates plant adaptation to the biotic environment with the consideration that humans are a part of this biotic environment that has co-evolved with plants. These studies take place with pepper, squash, cucumber, watermelon, pumpkin, peas and beans with whichever tool is appropriate to the question be it genomics, genetics, molecular biology, on-farm trials or analytical chemistry. The resulting germplasm and knowledge is shared with the local and global communities. 

Outreach and Extension Focus

Plant breeding supplies growers with improved cultivars for flavor, sustainability, resiliency and yield. My outreach and extension mission is to work with growers to help provide them the seeds that allow them to overcome barriers and to engage the public to highlight the value that plant breeding provides them.

• Grist 50: The 50 People You'll Be Talking About in 2016 (2016) Grist
• Featured in USA Pavilion “American Food 2.0” World Food Expo, Milan, Italy (2015)
• Honeynut Squash #39 on the Saveur 100 (2015) Saveur Magazine
• Organic Seed Alliance Faces of Public Plant Breeding (2012)

I am charged with preparing students for the post-genomic era of plant genetics. It is a foregone conclusion that this generation will be able to access any genotypic information about the plants in their world. It is my role then to help them understand the genetic basis of phenotype, inheritance, diversity, and natural versus synthetic changes of plant DNA in terms that will benefit them in them post graduation in whatever direction their career may take them.

• PLBRG 2250 - Plant Genetics