This document provides examples of different types of articles about genetics research and crop science. It includes sample press releases, journal articles, and news stories that have been translated for a general audience. The document encourages thinking about how to craft compelling stories about this research for different target audiences like farmers, policymakers, and consumers. It also shares an example of Russian plant scientists who sacrificed themselves during a famine to save valuable seed collections at their research institute. The overall message is about effectively communicating science to non-expert audiences.

1. Genes: Out of the
laboratory, into the
news.
Sharon Schmickle
Media Fellowship Program
Biosciences for Farming in Africa
October-November 2012

2. Opening by connecting
“Shopping for food: we all do it, whether at the
supermarket, or from traditional neighborhood
shops, or in a market. It’s the modern equivalent
of what our ancestors would have done in long-
gone hunter-gatherer days.”
--Noel Kingsbury, opening lines in the
introduction of Hybrid: The History and Science of
Plant Breeding

3. Please come with me
Open a door
Extend a hand
Lead the way

4. Speak to your audience
A story about crops might speak to:
Farmers
Policy makers
Business leaders
Consumers
All of the above

5. Typical press release
An international team of researchers, including a
University of Minnesota scientist, has developed
an integrated physical, genetic and functional
sequence assembly of the barley genome, one of
the world’s most important and genetically
complex cereal crops. Results are published in
today’s issue of Nature.
--University of Minnesota, 17 October 2012

6. Sample translation
No food is more basic than the lowly bean. From the
campfire cuisine of the American cowboys to modern
kitchens around the world, plants in the family known as
legumes have sustained billions of people since the Stone
Age.
Thus, the nutritional power packed into your next bowl of
beans is well known. The mystery has been the genetic
code that directs the growth of these valuable plants from
seed to mature pod.
Now, the University of Minnesota is leading an
international effort to crack that code.
-- Sharon Schmickle, Minneapolis Star Tribune

7. Typical journal article
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a major crop plant and a
model system for fruit development. Solanum is one of the
largest angiosperm genera1
and includes annual and perennial
plants from diverse habitats. Here we present a high-quality
genome sequence of domesticated tomato, a draft sequence of
its closest wild relative, Solanumpimpinellifolium2
, and compare
them to each other and to the potato genome
(Solanumtuberosum). The two tomato genomes show only 0.6%
nucleotide divergence and signs of recent admixture, but show
more than 8% divergence from potato, with nine large and
several smaller inversions.
--Nature, 31 May 2012

8. Translation
What is your idea of a dream tomato? Women selling the juicy
globes in the markets, no doubt, would wish for a slow-spoiling variety
so that today’s leftovers would sell tomorrow. Buyers, of course,
would want luscious flavor. Growers would hope for fortification
against yield-stealing pests.
The day when all of those wishes could come true has been
advanced by news published online in the journal Nature: tomato’s
genome has been decoded. Now that scientists have the full genetic
code of a common tomato, they have an unprecedented view of some
35,000 genes that make the tomato what it is.
-- Sharon Schmickle, B4FA web site

9. Another approach: tell a story
RUSSIA'S greatest plant scientists died of starvation rather than eat their
collection. . . . By 1941, the Soviet Union had established an enormous gene
bank of plants containing 187,000 varieties at the Institute of Plant Industry in
Leningrad (now St Petersburg). When the city was blockaded by the Germans,
so important was the collection some of the scientists gave their lives to save
it.
By January and February of 1942, temperatures had fallen to record lows of
minus 36-40 degrees. Workers, numb with cold and emaciated from hunger,
struggled to save the collection while bombs pounded nearby. And as the
citizens of Leningrad began to starve, so did the plant scientists. . . . Around
them were collections of peas, rice, corn and wheat.
--The Economist, 6 August 2010

10. Try extending your own hand
Form teams
Identify the audience for your article
Craft a story beginning that speaks to the
audience
Share your creation

11. Now what?
Your invitation was accepted.
Now you must deliver the full story with
Accuracy
Clarity
Fairness

12. Thank
You