This issue of In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plant is focused on advances in “Plant Biotechnology in Africa”. The beginnings of this Special Issue are from the past experiences of the Editor-in-Chief, David Songstad, who has worked in the private sector and U.S. Government over 35 years. The first prevailing influence was when David worked for Monsanto and met Dr. Florence Wambugu who came to Saint Louis, Missouri, from Kenya at the invitation of Dr. Ernie Jaworski to work on virus resistance sweet potato in the early 1990s. This was David’s first instance of recognizing the importance of transferring the technology of plant biotechnology for the betterment of the world.

Another influence was Dr. C. S. Prakash when he came to visit Drs. David Songstad and John Howard at Pioneer Hi-Bred in the 1990s to talk about the plant biotechnology work at Tuskegee University. Specifically, they visited about the sweet potato and peanut biotech research at Tuskegee, and the overlap with interests at Pioneer, to continue the work initiated by George Washington Carver. Prakash introduced David to Dr. Marceline Egnin, a Professor at Tuskegee focused on plant transformation research, and this initiated a long-lasting friendship between Prakash, Marceline, and David which continues to this day. Prakash and Marceline invited David and many other scientists to Tuskegee University to participate in workshops on educating and collaborating with African biotechnology scientists and policy makers, primarily to provide examples from the United States on how to establish risk assessment policy regarding transgenic plants. These workshops began in 2007 with the most recent occurring in 2019. Meeting and visiting with plant biotechnology scientist from labs across Africa was very rewarding and David is glad that the efforts through these workshops were helpful.

While working for Monsanto, David also participated with the Water Efficient Maize for Africa or “WEMA” team in meetings to facilitate the delivery of transgenic drought tolerant maize to Africa through the partnership with the Gates Foundation and various Africa collaborators. He led the corn transformation team that produced the transgenic plant that became DroughtGard Maize (MON87460) which was delivered to African farmers as part of WEMA.

More recently, while employed at Monsanto and afterwards, David was influenced by several scientists at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center which was located right across Olive Blvd. from Monsanto in Creve Coeur, Missouri. This began with meeting Dr. Roger Beachy shortly after he became President Director of the Danforth Plant Science Center and reconnecting with Dr. Paul Anderson, who David worked with at Pioneer, through collaboration with Monsanto in his role as Director of the Institute for International Crop Improvement at the Danforth Plant Science Center. Equally important were meeting Dr. Nigel Taylor and Dr. Veena Veena. Their influence on David regarding the plant biotechnology research at the Danforth Center focused on crops important to Africa, such as cassava. Veena and Nigel’s commitment to the Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) and the International Association for Plant Biotechnology (IAPB) continues, both of which are involved with the journal In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plant as Associate Editors.

More recently, in 2018, David was invited to speak at a United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP14) at Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt, as part of a delegation including Dr. Ray Shillito. David attended this conference as the Past President of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) and discussed the role of genome editing in promoting agriculture, highlighting Issue Paper 60 “Genome Editing in Agriculture: Methods, Applications, and Governance”. This was also an opportunity for David to visit with scientists from Africa and their domestic food production advances and challenges.

Therefore, over the course of the past 30 to 35 years, David was influenced in many ways regarding the importance of agriculture in Africa and the need to promote plant biotechnology as a tool to enhance the production of food. However, another significant influence was Marietta Wheaton Saunders, the Managing Director of the Society for In Vitro Biology for 30 years. She saw the value of a Special Issue for increasing the Impact Factor of In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plant and she was very interested and supportive of this current Special Issue at the time of her passing. The Special Issue on Plant Biotechnology for Africa is hereby dedicated to the memory of Marietta Wheaton Saunders.

Marietta Wheaton Saunders.