March 2009 Archives

It has been a dream of mine to combine my experience with analytical chemistry with my passion for plant breeding.  What better opportunity than to begin breeding projects to enhance either the yield or the specific composition of plant-derived natural products? 

Catharanthus alkaloids: Consider the alkaloids in vinca (Catharanthus roseus).  This family of bioactive compounds have been used for decades as anticancer drugs.  In particular, the compounds vincristine and vinblastine --- extracted and purified from vinca roots --- are used in treating specific types of cancer.  The raw product --- vinca roots, mostly --- is grown on a commercial scale in India and Madagascar. 

But most of us in horticulture know Catharanthus as vinca, and think of it as an ornamental plant.  Can you breed for increased alkaloid content?  The answer, of course, is "Yes".  There are actually patents in the literature that describe this very process.  

At G2, we consider natural product content to be a characteristic for which you can breed.

Flavor: Have you ever wished that you could grow an intensely-flavored garden-ripe tomato that also had good disease-resistance so that you could easily grow it all season long?  Or a gloriously sweet, lusciously aromatic muskmelon, but in a single serving-sized fruit on a short-vined plant in your home garden?  How about a disease-resistant bush snap bean with that rich green bean flavor that occurs with some of the heirloom pole beans?  At G2, we consider flavor and aroma to be traits for which you can breed. 

Fragrance: There have been a number of new lilac releases over the past decade.  All are smaller forms, good plants for foundation plantings, or large containers.  Most of these are really nice garden plants, but none of them has that intensely fragrant lilac scent which we all associate with the May-blooming species, Syringa vulgaris.  At G2, we consider fragrance enhancement to be an approriate goal for a breeding program.

Some of you may be reacting by saying "Yes, but flavor and fragrance aren't really bioactive natural products like those vinca chemicals, are they?"  In many cases, the bioactive components in the living plant or its fruit become the natural product once they are extracted and concentrated. 

Natural product yield:  Imagine being able to increase the amount of purple pigment that a crop like this basil produces.  Not only would the intensely purple basil have ornamental potential, if the plant produced enough biomass per hectare, perhaps the purple pigment could be extracted on a commercial scale, especially if it were to be produced under organic conditions.  A natural colorant.  Produced under sustainable or organic agricultural conditions.  High yield of the natural product.  At G2, we consider yield enhancement of natural products to be something for which you can breed.

Specific composition enhancement:  There are many herbal products which contain trace amounts of secondary products which may have significant side effects.  For instance, pennyroyal is a flavorful mint with many potential therapeutic uses.  However, pennyroyal also contains the hepatotoxic compound pulegone, which severely limits its use.  Is it possible to breed pennyroyal to be pulegone-free (or at least reduce the amount of pulegone)?  At G2, we consider specific composition changes to be attainable breeding objectives.

G2 has the facilities to do simple chemistry in our facility.  To conduct more sophisticated chemistry, we would outsource to one of the good labs.  I spent almost 20 years growing and managing an outsourced analytical chemistry services business, and know this scientific and market space very well.  Furthermore, once the required sample analysis volume reaches a critical threshold, we will always consider the cost-effectiveness of building the capacity internally.  We consider this experience one of G2's significant advantages in considering natural product germplasm enhancement projects.

We know plant breeding and genetics.  

We know analytical chemistry and biochemistry.   

We'd enjoy the challenge of combining those two areas of knowledge and expertise. 

If this captures your curiosity, give us a call.

What's a Research Grower?  For G2, and more specifically, for Mike Owen, it means "Head Grower and Research Farm Manager."  Remember, please, that G2 is a start-up.  We all wear multiple hats, depending on the day of the week, and the situation.  In our day-to-day operation, Mike runs the farm and greenhouses.

Mike grew up in southeastern PA, and worked as a high school student in a local greenhouse, where he learned some of his best work habits.  This early experience continues to be of value to Mike to this day. 

Mike Owen is a graduate of the Longwood Gardens (LG) Professional Gardener (PG) training program, which is a post-high school equivalent of a BS Horticulture educational program focused at developing professional gardeners, and in particular, professional gardeners seeking careers in public gardens.  This program (Longwood's Professional Gardener Training Program) takes young horticulturists and trains them to be public garden horticulturists and growers.  Graduates of the LG PG program now work around the world in public and private gardens, in academia, and in industry. 

Longwood clearly knows a good thing when they see one.  After Mike graduated from the LG PG program, he was retained by LG, and ultimately spent 26 years there.  While with LG, he managed their interns; propagation and production for the conservatory and outdoor gardens; and the entire Longwood orchid collection. 

Mike was the site manager for the construction of LG's production facilities, and as such, developed a good working relationship with the greenhouse construction industry.  This lead to a consulting arrangement with Rough Brothers.  The combination of Mike's orchid experience and his conservatory construction management experience created for Mike an extremely unique opportunity: he was offered the site responsibility for Ventura Farms, a 2000 A private estate outside of Thousand Oaks, CA, in Ventura County.  Mike had three primary responsibilities at Ventura Farms: To construct and manage a 30,000 SF conservatory; to procure and produce ornamental plants, vegetables and rare fruits in an ecologically friendly and sustainable fashion; and to develop what is now one of the largest private orchid collections in the U.S. 

Five years later, with the conservatory constructed; the orchid collection well in hand; and management of the grounds running smoothly, Mike decided that he and his wife needed a break from the California life, and relocated to ... the banks of the Missouri River in Montana.  Mike is an avid trout fisherman --- notice the pattern on his shirt in the picture above --- and living on the Missouri had been a lifelong dream.  However ... as Mike discovered, fishing (or working as a guide for tourists) has its career limitations.  Mike began wondering if there were opportunities for him to re-enter the horticultural industry in some way, and began watching the online job postings. 

In January, 2008, G2 posted a job announcement for a Research Grower, and Mike responded.  This job was in PA.  Mike and his wife grew up in and still have family in PA.  But even more significantly, G2's mailing address is in Bellefonte, PA.  Bellefonte is home of The Big Spring, where a high-quality, high-volume limestone spring emerges from the earth, and supplies one of Pennsylvania's best trout streams.  Just outside of Bellefonte, upstream from where The Big Spring enters Spring Creek, is Fisherman's Paradise.  Spring Creek is one of the world's premier trout fisheries.  Last year, the International Youth Fly Fishing World Championships were held on Spring Creek, between Fisherman's Paradise and State College.  Spring Creek actually runs adjacent to parts of Penn State University. 

The entirety of central PA is full of wonderful trout water.  Spruce Creek.  Penn's Creek.  Honey Creek.  Elk Creek.  Pine Creek.  Spring Creek.  To a flyfisher, Bellefonte is a very recognizable name. 

So ... Mike applied for our grower position.  Immediately, his LG experience jumped out at us.  How many commercial growers have the breadth and depth of production experience that someone maintaining the Conservatory at Longwood Gardens would have?  Running a research greenhouse is different from running a production facility.  More species, fewer numbers of any one species or variety, many different plant maturities growing at the same time.  We felt that a grower with LG experience could be a very good fit for G2. 

During the phone interviews, the Montana experience lead to conversations about fishing.  After all, it's a significant change in direction.  So ...

When Mike flew into State College, we picked him up at his hotel in town.  We took "the long way" out to G2's research farm.  The back roads along Spring Creek from State College.  To Fisherman's Paradise (about 1.5 mi from the farm).  And finally to the farm itself, with the greenhouses in the midst of construction.  We both think that he had the job --- and we had a grower --- by the time we got to the farm.

Since he has been with G2, Mike has become an integral part of what G2 is doing.  He worked side-by-side with the contractors during construction of our research greenhouses, earning their almost immediate respect for his knowledge of greenhouse construction.  He managed and worked side-by-side with the seasonal help transplanting, planting, weeding.  He cleared fencerow with the seasonal crew and worked with a local landscape firm to develop an arboretum feel to the landscaping of G2's research farm.  He routinely does our daily hand-watering, spraying and fertilization.  He's built our hot-water-heated propagation benches; our potting benches; our shade structure. 

Mike is also in a consulting role to the development of The Arboretum at Penn State.  It is clear to all of us that Mike's experience in conservatory construction and management is something we need to be comfortable in sharing with our campus friends and colleagues. 

If you come to visit G2's research farm, you will notice that it runs smoothly.  We give Mike Owen full credit for this.  He makes the rest of our lives much easier because he manages the farm and greenhouses so well.  We get to focus on breeding because Mike is handling the greenhouses and farm. 

And for us, this is the way it should be.