LSU Science Café: Lessons from Sunflower

The Green Revolution and the Plant Economy

The Green Revolution was a transformative era in global agriculture, marked by unprecedented leaps in crop yields in the middle of the 20th century. This remarkable success was driven by the adoption of hybrid breeding techniques and increased agricultural industrialization. Since then, our grasp of genetic traits and their contributions to yield has advanced dramatically. These breakthroughs in genotype-to-phenotype predictions have redefined breeding goals, shifting from sheer yield maximization toward yield stability—a move aimed at ensuring consistent production to feed a rapidly growing global population despite unpredictable stresses and climate change. In this talk, we delve into LSU research on the effects of hybrid breeding on phenotypic variation by focusing on the iconic sunflower.

Jordan Dowell is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences who joined LSU in 2023. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and then his Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida. A prestigious USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture fellowship helped jump-start his career and lab here at LSU. Dowell is a chemical ecology and comparative biochemist who works to understand the evolution of chemical diversity and its effects in a variety of plant and fungal systems, from sunflowers to common grey mold.

Photo credit: Jordan Dowell

LSU Science Café is presented in partnership with Campus Federal Credit Union and WRKF.

The event is open to the public and advance registration through Eventbrite is recommended.

Please have your registration ticket printed or readily available on your electronic device upon arrival.

Doors open at 5:00 PM. Event begins at 6:00 PM.

Host or Publisher LSU Office of Research & Economic Development