The judging committee of the Wolf Prize in Agriculture for the year 2016 unanimously decided to award the prize to Professor Trudy McKay, from the University of North Carolina in the USA, for pioneering research in the field of the genetic architecture of complex traits, and for discovering basic principles in quantitative genetics with broad implications for research and agricultural practice .
The judging committee of the Wolf Prize in Agriculture for the year 2016 unanimously decided to award the prize to Professor Trudy Mackay, from the University of North Carolina in the USA, for pioneering research in the field of the genetic architecture of complex traits, and for discovering basic principles in quantitative genetics with broad implications for research And actually the farmer.
Today, it is clear that many traits important for plant and herbal cultivation, as well as traits related to diseases in humans, are affected by a large number of genes operating in a complex control system. Professor McKay was one of the first to realize this. Throughout her career, McKay has been and continues to be engaged in the study of quantitative genetics in order to understand the complex relationship between genes that affect complex traits, and between them and the environment. Furthermore, McKay was among the first to realize that the great progress that has taken place in recent decades in the creation of innovative genomic tools makes it possible to get to the bottom of the genes involved in the control of quantitative traits.
Early in her career, McKay recognized the many possibilities inherent in a model organism such as the Drosophila fly in studying these important questions. She has developed a number of innovative, smart and elegant approaches and strategies, such as the use of "transposable elements" P-elements, and high-precision (resolution) mapping of Loci regions that affect quantitative traits (quantitative trait loci, QTL) by complementation tests. These approaches allowed her to discover basic genetic principles underlying the control of important and complex traits to understand such as lifespan, behavioral responses, and tolerance to alcohol. These principles have been proven to be of applied importance in many species and diverse fields, including agricultural applications and applications in human genetics. Recently, recognizing the possibilities inherent in the possibility of whole genome sequencing, she initiated the development of the Drosophila genetic reference panel, which has proven to be of extraordinary importance in understanding the architecture of complex genetic traits.
Professor Trudy McKay was and is a key woman in creating the intellectual basis for modern quantitative genetics. She shared these principles with the scientific community and the student community in a large number of excellent review articles, and in a contribution to the main textbook in the field "introduction to quantitative genetics" which she co-authored with Falconer. Recently, she pioneered the principle of system genetics and enabled the first analysis at the whole genome level with the help of genomic selection - a basic tool that led to a revolution in breeding.
A combination of genomic information with genomic selection is expected to continue to dramatically change plant breeding programs.
