USDA-ARS Plant Genetic Resources Management and Characterization Training

Organization

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

USDA-ARS-PWA-

All documents must be in English or include an official English translation.

10/9/2026 3:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone

• Applications are reviewed on a rolling-basis.

A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), located in Pullman, Washington.

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency with a mission to find solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. ARS will deliver cutting-edge, scientific tools and innovative solutions for American farmers, producers, industry, and communities to support the nourishment and well-being of all people; sustain our nation’s agroecosystems and natural resources;

and ensure the economic competitiveness and excellence of our agriculture. The vision of the agency is to provide global leadership in agricultural discoveries through scientific excellence.

The Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) that are maintained in the USDA ARS National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) genebank in Pullman, WA (called the Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research Unit, PGITRU) represent the raw genetic diversity used to create new varieties of crop plants for US farmers. The PGITRU has over 100,000 accessions of beans, horticultural crops, grasses, pulses, and forages.

Training and research into the best protocols to store and regenerate these accessions to ensure they are genetically pure and disease free, and how to genetically and phenotypically characterize them, are the main objectives of this training opportunity. The crops and native species maintained in the PGITRU are those of economic and ecologically importance to the Western US.

Research seed viability testing, regeneration protocols including breaking dormancy of crop wild relative species, and more efficient long-term seed storage conditions. Learn and apply high-throughput genomics and phenomics tools to characterize PGITRU accessions. Learn and apply methods to test for and remove disease organisms in genebank accessions. Learn about data collected, including storage and retrieval.

You will collaborate closely with USDA ARS crop plant curators and PGITRU unit members while learning and conducting research. Specific research projects will depend on the interests of the participants but will include research on the bean (Phaseolus) and horticultural species collections (including garlic, lettuce, or sugar beets) that are generally researched on in the greenhouse. Genotyping activities will be outsourced, and data receipt and initial quality assessment will be coordinated with the genotyping service institution.

You can learn to handle and analyze genotypic data including filtering, storage, querying and analyzing to answer questions about genetic identity, relationships, and diversity. Pathology tools such as ELISA or PCR to determine the presence of pathogens and high-throughput analyses of agronomic traits and seed nutritional traits can be learned by the participant. You will interact with unit collaborators to upload genotypic and phenotypic data directly into the GRIN-Global database or to link all data via an external public platform for access.

The program has office, laboratory, greenhouse, field space, equipment, and supplies for planned experiments. Staff, collaborators, and lead scientists will support you in technical aspects of project.

Data that curators can use to develop new protocols to ensure the most efficient maintenance of genetically pure, disease-free accessions; genetic and phenotypic characterization data that curators can use to improve collection management and promote its efficient use. Genetically and phenotypically characterized PGR collections can be used to identify the best accessions for in-house and stakeholder breeding efforts. This will allow US breeders to create new varieties that are more…