Phytopathologist with a passion for plant breeding

When Margaret Rekoske talks about Cercospora, she immediately shares the laurels with others. “Like everything in breeding it was truly a team effort to define, refine, crossbreed and multiply the trait,” she says about discovering the trait that makes sugarbeet resistant to the fungal disease Cercospora. What began in KWS’ international Cercospora breeding team in Shakopee and Einbeck has now culminated in the market launch of the varieties in North America under her leadership as head of breeding.

The search for the new trait to combat Cercospora took 20 years. “At the time it was the largest problem in North America, maybe globally,” says the American. There were tolerant hybrid varieties. And pesticides still worked well back then. However, “the issue has been that those varieties often came with a negative impact to yields when the disease wasn’t present.”

The laborious search for a clear picture – like with a gigantic jigsaw puzzle – therefore began with conventional breeding methods and marker and data analyses. The team searched for the necessary genetic material in hundreds of thousands of sugarbeets, “reducing it down to a usable piece of DNA that we can work with and then start breeding with.” The goal: Sugarbeets that are not only tolerant, but also deliver a high yield at long last.

“I want to make a difference”

The first varieties with the “CR+” trait were put on the market last year. “Not only KWS, but the sugar industry and farmers have seen a big benefit in the big picture, and the farmer's results have been tremendous in the past year. CR+ is a real game-changer.” The head of our sugarbeet breeding in Shakopee near Minneapolis is delighted: “It makes me feel satisfied, having such an impact on somebody’s farm. One of my goals, just as a human, has always been to do something that would make a difference and that would reduce the chemical footprint of agriculture.”

The CR+ trait is the latest result of Margaret Rekoske’s research for KWS – but certainly not the only one. “The main focus of my job is working with product development, bringing new varieties to the market for North America specifically. Cercospora is clearly a big need, but there are many other aspects. The whole bandwidth of additional traits that make up a suitable variety is needed. All of them together deliver the right variety for the specific markets.”

In her 32 years with KWS, she was also involved in the development of important systems for testing sugarbeet, such as a new method of finding resistances to a root aphid that occurs in America. KWS was in a worse position than its competitors at the beginning of the 1990s. A greenhouse test was developed in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and helped examine a large number of genetics with great precision and reliability. That set KWS apart from the competition and laid the foundation for the success of its genetics in the North American market.

Work on herbicide-tolerant varieties

She and the team are currently working on herbicide-resistant varieties for the U.S. sugarbeet market based on multiple tolerances for controlling weeds. The new technology “Truvera” is the successor to the successful product Roundup Ready® and is designed to offer tolerances to the herbicides glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba. The project advanced to the approval phase at the beginning of 2020.

Margaret Rekoske’s task is now to ensure the development of high-yielding varieties that are very well adapted to the North American market. That means she identifies “the right genetics to incorporate the trait. The trait alone isn’t enough: Getting it from a concept to a trait that you can use is where the work is. There is a lot of molecular work that has to occur and a lot of data that has to be generated.”

Breeder instead of a mechanical engineer

Yet Margaret Rekoske came to breeding by chance. “It wasn’t a straight pass.” She actually wanted to be become a mechanical engineer. “But I couldn’t get my physics class. Then I focused on my other passion, the interest in plants, and by chance I got a summer job, waiting for my engineering internship.”

That job was at Northrup-King, which was participating in the seed company Betaseed, a joint venture together with KWS. KWS took over all the shares in 1989 – one year before Margaret Rekoske began her professional career at Betaseed, which is now KWS Seeds. Given the very positive experience at Betaseed together with her colleagues there, she shifted the focus of her university courses to agriculture, biology and phytopathology and dropped her original career aspiration.

An ideal employer

She does not regret her choice. She embarked on her professional career in phytopathology, i.e. research into diseases. “Then it became interesting to me why different plants are resistant and others are not. That was the main driver why I wanted to become a plant breeder – not to just identify the differences but to make a difference.”

She found the ideal employer for that in KWS. She praises the company’s focus on product development. “What KWS makes in profits it returns right back in research in a way probably unique for this type of company. I was also supported and encouraged by my colleagues and was able to take over more and more management duties over time.”

That is one aspect. The other is the personal corporate culture. “It’s a kind of company that is like a family where you know your co-workers, people treat each other with good respect, and this continues – and I mean this in a warm and professional way.”

Teamwork is what counts

Now she herself is in the position of passing this feeling on to the next generations. “First you are very hands-on, and this is where you get your satisfaction. And as you mature, you get more satisfaction on supporting your team and seeing the individuals grow in their career.” As her actions show, Margaret Rekoske does not see herself as a lone wolf, but as part of a global team.