By Mwihaki Mundia

The Integrated Genotyping Service and Support (IGSS) platform, Africa’s first genome profiling platform, has been running at the Biosciences eastern and central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute Hub (BecA-ILRI Hub) since 2014. Cathrine Ziyomo, a molecular breeder with a doctorate in agronomy and plant genetics from the University of Minnesota, assumed leadership of the platform in 2018.

The platform seeks to build a critical mass of African breeders technically competent in the use of DNA markers for crop improvement. Not only does the platform provide high-density genotyping services to researchers in Africa for the first time, but it also provides training and support, enabling national agriculture research system (NARS) scientists to interpret and use results from its sophisticated analyses.

Under Ziyomo’s leadership, the platform has increased accessibility and utilization of genotypic data to deliver high yielding and farmer preferred crop varieties. Her team has generated an impressive number of genotyped samples brought in by breeders from research institutions across Africa.

My goal is to enable use of modern molecular breeding technologies by African plant and animal breeders through good quality service provision at an affordable cost

The IGSS platform collaborates with NARS scientists to build their skills by focusing on strategies to modernize strong breeding programs, helping breeders interpret the results from the platform to help make selection decisions from the data.

With services that span phenotype and genotype data analysis to data management and storage to breeding scheme design, Ziyomo and her team use the high-end technology platform available at the BecA-ILRI Hub to offer molecular breeding solutions to researchers from NARS breeders, private-sector seed companies, other CGIAR centres, other projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), African Biosciences Challenge Fund (ABCF) fellows and academic research institutions across the continent.

‘We offer rapid, high-quality genome profiling services—services that have proven of interest to a diverse group of African breeders’, says Ziyomo.

Before the establishment of the IGSS platform at the BecA-ILRI Hub, breeders and researchers in Africa would have to send their samples to laboratories in developed nations such as the United States. The follow-up support required to properly interpret the results presented a logistical nightmare. By contrast, Ziyomo and her team maintain a highly efficient system for IGSS clients by visiting the breeders in their home institutions and helping them with analysis and selection decisions and designing breeding schemes.

When Ziyomo joined IGSS, she realized early on that the sustainability of the platform depended on aggregating huge volumes of samples from partners that would pay the full cost of the genotyping service. One of her greatest accomplishments has been securing resources from private seed companies, fully funded projects in academic institutions, CGIAR centres and NARS for crops that are of great importance to Africa’s food security. In 2019, the platform surpassed its own goals by genotyping 67,218 samples from a diversity of crop, forage and animal species.

CAPTION: ‘We offer rapid, high-quality genome profiling services—services that have proven to be of interest to a diverse group of African breeders’, says Ziyomo.

Her team comprises eight members, all based at the BecA-ILRI Hub, who work alongside her to provide support and collaboration. ‘My experience at IGSS has been highly rewarding because I have had the independence to be creative and innovative, while still being able to deliver on my targets’, says Ziyomo. ‘I have had the autonomy to expand my networks across all of Africa while still maintaining the collaborators established by the previous project lead.’

Her time as the IGSS team leader has allowed her to identify new collaborators, which has markedly increased the number of samples genotyped on the platform.

In her spare time, Ziyomo enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and running, travelling, cooking, reading and interior design.