Coyne To Discuss Yellow Pea Research At MSU EARC Field Day

Dr. Clarice Coyne will be speaking about increasing yellow pea seed protein yields by increasing seed protein concentration and total yield at the MSU EARC Field Day. She said, "We're conducting a multi-year field research study in Montana and Washington on the genetic control of pea seed protein concentrations targeting the plant-based protein market."

Coyne is a USDA Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research Unit curator/geneticist in Pullman, WA. She specializes in curation and genetics of the USDA 22,000 accession collection of pea, lentil, chickpea, faba bean and related species plant genetic resources. She works in close collaboration with USDA pea and lentil breeder Dr. Rebecca McGee, Professor Dorrie Main, Dr. Yu Ma, both of Washington State University, and Dr. Chengci Chen, .

The main objective of her research is to identify new sources for high pea seed protein concentration and understand the genetic components to assist breeders in efficiently developing high yielding cultivars with high pea seed protein concentrations.

The research team is close to completing the pea seed protein concentration determination of the 2800 pea plots grown in 2019 and 2020. "Next, working with Dr. Mike Grusak's USDA, Fargo. lab, we'll determine the seed mineral nutrient concentrations in those 2800 plots. We'll be able to confirm the most important genes for stable production of peas with both high protein and high mineral nutrients like iron and zinc and high yield," added Coyne. 

This research targets the MonDak growing region by conducting a three-year study in Montana with two field sites in Sidney and the Richland County area.  

She said, "By conducting the field research here and analyzing the harvested seed protein concentrations, we can make specific recommendations on the best performing cultivars in terms of both yield and protein."