A new class studying the effects of water molds on soybeans will be offered through UNL’s agronomy and horticulture department.

Breeding for Disease Resistance, a case study on Oomycete diseases in soybeans, is available as a self-paced graduate course for one credit.

The course fits the needs of traditional graduate students specializing in plant breeding and genetics, but also fits the needs of employees in the seed industry, who are earning a plant breeding and genetics professional certificate, and as a Continuing Education Unit for Certified Crop Advisers.

The class helps learners apply both basic genetic ideas and the latest discoveries by soybean geneticists and pathologists to understand how products in the soybean see marketplace are different.

The class offers flexibility for professionals and students alike because it is a distance-education course. While it follows the UNL academic calendar, the fact that it’s a self-paced class allows professionals to take the class during the off-growing season.

Graduate students like the course because they can finish the course earlier in the semester before homework, papers and tests are due for other classes.

Information learned in this soybean course can be applied to other plants that are susceptible to Oomycetes.

Other high-profile plants susceptible to the pathogens are corn, rice, wheat, potatoes and other vegetables.

For more details about the course, visit the Plant & Soil Science eLibrary at http://passel.unl.edu/communities/oomycete.