NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 27 number 2 - Winter 2007
Genetics and Plant Genomics: Building Unique Collections for
the Twenty-first Century
By Bob Sotak, Collection Management, and Greg Raschke, Collections
and Scholarly Communication
Genetics, the study of heredity, is considered to have begun with
the plant hybridization experiments of Gregor Mendel in the middle
of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, North Carolina
State University established an excellent reputation for its own
research in plant and forest genetics. The range of this research
illustrates why the Libraries’ collections must constantly
evolve to meet the needs of faculty.
S. G. Stephens, the first chair of the genetics
faculty, was an international authority on the genetics of cotton.
Geneticist John Scandalios is well known for his
work in developmental and biochemical genetics. Charles
S. Levings III of the Department of Genetics became a
member of the National Academy of Sciences and made significant
advances in the understanding of plant mitochondrial genetics,
especially traits such as cytoplasmic male sterility in maize. Charles
Stuber, also with the genetics department, studied quantitative
inheritance in plants and pioneered the use of molecular markers
to improve traits such as grain yield.
Plant genetics research at NCSU is not limited to the genetics
department, but is also an area of research in the departments
of forestry, crop science, horticulture, botany, and plant pathology. Bruce
Zobel of forestry specialized in forest genetics and tree
improvement and started the Industrial Forest Tree Improvement
Cooperative. Major Goodman of crop science, a
member of the National Academy of Sciences, achieved recognition
for his work in using maize germplasm resources in breeding. Professor
of Crop Science Dan Gerstel specialized in the
cytogenetics of tobacco and cotton.
As a land-grant institution, genetics research at NC State has
a strong applied aspect. Many of the findings made in plant and
forest genetics and genomics research are ultimately used in plant
and agricultural biotechnology and other areas.
Genomics is different from genetics in that it studies the entire
genome or genetic complement of an organism. It has a more recent
origin than genetics and came to the public’s attention with
the sequencing of the human genome, which was completed in 2003.
North Carolina State University researchers have already made significant
contributions in plant genomics. Ron Sederoff,
a member of the Department of Forestry and of the National Academy
of Sciences, is well known for the application of genomics to forest-tree
species such as loblolly pine. Ralph Dean of plant
pathology collaborated on sequencing the rice genome and is the
leader of the Rice Blast Genome Initiative, which is mapping and
sequencing the rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe grisea. Steven
Lommel and Charles Opperman, both with
the plant pathology department, received a $17.6 million grant
from Philip Morris USA to map and determine the nucleotide sequence
of the tobacco genome. Their Tobacco Genome Initiative should provide
valuable data that can be applied to other plant species.
The importance of genomics at NCSU is reflected in the graduate
programs in functional genomics and bioinformatics that have more
than 100 professors listed as genomic sciences faculty. In addition
to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College
of Natural Resources, genomic sciences have representatives from
the colleges of Engineering, Veterinary Medicine, and Physical
and Mathematical Sciences. The establishment of the Genome Research
Laboratory on Centennial Campus has further enhanced researchers’ abilities
to do high-throughput genomics research.
With such breadth and quality of research at NC State in the areas
of genetics and plant and forestry genomics, the Special Collections
Research Center has initiated efforts to build its genetics and
genomics holdings to enhance the already excellent body of materials
in the general collection. Prominent NC State faculty such as Zobel,
Sederoff, Goodman, Gerstel, and Stuber have either donated or promised
to donate their papers and research documentation to the center.
In 2005 the Libraries added Mary Dell Chilton’s
papers, documenting her Nobel Prize-nominated graduate and post-graduate
research that led to the discovery of the technique by which all
genetic manipulation of plant species is done. In a recent article
appearing in the International Journal of Developmental Biology,
Chilton’s research was ranked eighth in a chronological list
of the most important milestones in the history of plant developmental
biology. To complement the growth of papers from prominent scholars,
the Libraries continually adds to its Special Collections holdings
rare and seminal books documenting the establishment and growth
of genetics and plant genomics as research disciplines.
The path from Mendel to sequencing genomes and creating the science
of the twenty-first century has taken contributions from many scholars,
including a number of prominent researchers at NC State working
in a variety of disciplines. The NCSU Libraries is dedicated to
documenting NC State’s contributions to plant and forestry
genomics while capturing seminal contributions in the history of
genetics scholarship. The Libraries welcomes support for this important
collecting initiative and encourages other donors to expand the
research center’s collections. Those who would like to support
the processing, growth, and possible digitization of these resources
should call either Jim Mulvey, director of library development,
at (919) 515-3339, or Greg Raschke, associate director for collections
and scholarly communication, at (919) 515-7188.
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