Ancestry of Sanford Stadium hedges goes into the lab

In a terrific story combining genome analysis, a love for the hedges and UGA history— a Franklin College faculty member and his students found that the same family of hedges have stood tall for nearly 100 years:

Plant biology professor and hedges researcher James Leebens-Mack decided to sequence the genome of the Sanford Stadium hedges. His goal was to combine service-learning with his own areas of research, comparative genome biology and the Chinese privet. It just so happens the Sanford hedge species is a member of the olive family, which contains the privet.

So Leebens-Mack, bioinformatics course co-teacher and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Arthur Edison, and their students assessed the genome of the Sanford Stadium hedges.

The genes and chromosomal structure of the Chinese privet has changed relative to its ancestors over millions of years, so how has UGA’s botanical mascot shifted over the past century?

“I knew that in the olive family there was missing knowledge about privet genome evolution. I also knew the genome could provide clues to how we reduce the privet’s impact as an invasive species here in the eastern U.S.,” Leebens-Mack said. “The genome that we generated for the Sanford Stadium hedges advances both foundational understanding and practical horticultural practices. There is something in the genome that we can target to control privet as a pest plant.”

In addition to comparing the hedges with the types of environments they grow in, Leebens-Mack tested whether the hedges in Sanford Stadium today were genetic clones or cousins of the hedges first planted in 1929.

When they were removed from the stadium for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, it had been close to 70 years since the original hedges were placed in Sanford Stadium. Clippings were taken and kept in nurseries and replanted after the Olympic games, but no one checked to verify that the plants in Sanford Stadium today are truly clones of those removed in 1996.

Until now.

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Such inventive thinking from Leebens-Mack, bringing his students and his scholarship into the living history of an iconic campus landmark. One of the best anywhere.

Image: Professor Jim Leebens-Mack takes clippings from the hedges at Sanford Stadium for genome sequencing research. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)