Major Figures in the History of Plant Breeding at UC Davis

Robert ("Bob") W. Allard

Ph.D. Genetics (1946) University of Wisconsin

ˆ top of page ˆ

Over the course of his forty years of service at Davis, Allard established himself as one of the most outstanding population geneticists in the world, not to mention an internationally-recognized specialist in ecological genetics, evolutionary genetics, and plant breeding.  During his early years at the university, he did pioneering work in the development of educational programs in population genetics and plant breeding.  His book in these areas, Principles of Plant Breeding (originally published in 1960 but now in its 3rd edition), quickly became a standard in the field and has enjoyed continued wide adoption as textbook and reference.  As an undisputed spokesman of the field, he authored the entry on "Plant Breeding" in the 1974 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

While in his early research Allard focused primarily on the genetic processes basic to plant breeding practices, his later research objectives were threefold:  1) To derive theoretical models of population dynamics; 2) To obtain experimental estimates of genetic and ecological parameters to enter into these models; and 3) To utilize the information so gained to achieve an improved understanding of the biology of populations, including implications on evolution, ecology, and applied breeding.  By the middle of the 1970's, no less than 20 labs around the world had developed investigative programs in population genetics patterned after his innovative work.  His bibliography of over 125 scholarly articles reflects the insightful mind of a prolific researcher.  But his service to the university went well beyond his own research.  As departmental chair, Allard led the fledgling Department of Genetics through a difficult period of early rapid growth; and his commitment to education and service to the university never waned, as evidenced by his 1974 election as the UC Davis Faculty Research Lecturer, the highest award the faculty bestows on its colleagues.

ˆ top of page ˆ

Fred N. Briggs

Ph.D. Genetics (1922) UC Berkeley

Over a research career devoted to the genetics of resistance and the breeding and improvement of cereal grains, Briggs earned himself a reputation as a pioneer in the application of genetics to crop improvement. This status is due in large part to his development and advancement of a breeding technique that has been called one of the significant plant breeding developments of the 20th Century: backcrossing, a breeding methodology that allows the introgression of desired traits (e.g. disease resistance) without significantly altering high quality. Using this method, Briggs developed several disease-resistant grain varieties for commercial production in California, including net blotch-resistant barley and rust- and bunt-resistant wheat. A co-author with P.F. Knowles of the important 1967 text Introduction to Plant Breeding, Briggs did much to educate the next generation of plant breeders even as he worked from his position as Department Chair and Dean to forge key and lasting collaborations between university and external researchers (e.g. the California Cooperative Rice Research Foundation). On May 24, 1972, Briggs Hall on the UC Davis campus was named in honor of his valuable career of service to the university and his contributions to California agriculture.

ˆ top of page ˆ

Royce S. Bringhurst

Ph.D. Genetics (1940) University of Wisconsin

If you've ever eaten a strawberry, the odds are that you've had a taste of Royce Bringhurst's handiwork.  When it comes to strawberries, history is divided neatly between pre-Bringhurst and post-Bringhurst.  In 1950, California had two low-yielding strawberry varieties.  Nearly four decades of work by Bringhurst and his long-term research partner Victor Voth, however, brought this number to over thirty and established the strawberry as an economically-significant crop for the state.  In their breeding program, Bringhurst and Voth evaluated more than 20,000 seedlings annually, selecting efficiently for bigger size, higher yields, and reduced photoperiod sensitivity.  Some of the varieties that emerged from their program more than quadrupled the annual yield per acre of this crop.  Underpinning Bringhurst's mastery of breeding systems and variety development in strawberry were his keen research interests in disease resistance and the cytogenetics and evolution of polyploidy in Fragaria.  By the time of his retirement in 1989, Bringhurst was recognized as the world authority in strawberry breeding; and with over 80% of the US strawberries being cultivars developed at UC Davis, his legacy remains to this day.

ˆ top of page ˆ

Gordie ("Jack") C. Hanna

B.S. Agronomy (1928) UC Davis

While Hanna's research encompassed the breeding and production of tomatoes and asparagus as well as variety adoption studies with cabbage, broccoli, and sweet potatoes, the legacy of this much celebrated Davis alum and staff member is his cultivar VF145, the world's first mechanical harvesting tomato.  When he first began trying to breed such a tomato in 1942, Hanna kept his idea to himself, unsure of what others at the university would think of it.  Perhaps for good reason: when his concept started to circulate, it was met with little support, in terms of both its technical feasibility and its anticipated negative impact on California agricultural labor.

Hanna persisted in his vision, however, and after 20 years had developed what would become known as the "square tomato," a fruit firm and strong enough to withstand mechanical harvesting.  With his cultivar in hand in 1961, he began collaborating with UCD agricultural engineer Coby Levenson, who designed the first mechanical harvester.  By 1964, when the Bracero program, which had provided the United States with affordable agricultural labor from Mexico for over 20 years, was terminated, Hanna's tomato and Levenson's harvester were poised to save the state's $3 billion/year tomato industry.  Though the unveiling of their mechanized system was not without heated controversy, the state's tomato acreage planted to mechanical harvesting tomatoes grew from 7% to 85% in just three years; and the industry bears Hanna's influence to this day.

ˆ top of page ˆ

Paulden ("Paul") F. Knowles

Ph.D. Genetics (1943) UC Berkeley and UC Davis

Paul Knowles' interest in new crops for California agriculture led him to a research career focused mainly on oil seed crops, in particular safflower.  Due in large part to his research, safflower was shown to be well-adapted to California and consequently became established as an economically important crop in the state.  In the late 1950's and mid 1960's, Knowles traveled over 32,000 miles with his wife and son overland across North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia gathering germplasm of wild and domesticated safflower species, an effort which produced most of the species now in the USDA world safflower collection.  Together with his students, Knowles worked out the cytotaxonomic relationships among not only all the safflower species but also between these species and their wild relatives.  His interest in genetic modification of the fatty acid composition of vegetable oils led him to bring this fundamental knowledge to bear via the development of additional oils in safflower.  One of his plant introductions, for example, carried the gene ol, which modifies safflower oil from a high linoleic to a high oleic type.  Knowles' cultivar UC1 was the first commercial safflower variety with this important trait.

Over his 35 year tenure at UC Davis, Knowles published 160 papers on flax, soybean, safflower, and cruciferous species.  Indeed, in addition to his interests in the breeding, genetics, cytogenetics, and germplasm conservation of safflower, he made important contributions to sunflower improvement and soybean research.  He lectured frequently and was strongly committed to the teaching of plant breeding, as evidenced by the important 1967 text Introduction to Plant Breeding that he co-authored with Dr. Fred Briggs.  And as chair of the Department of Agronomy and Range Sciences, the "father of California safflower" used his position to spearhead a statewide organization of plant breeders to promote inter-institutional communication and exchange.

ˆ top of page ˆ

R. Merton Love

Ph.D. Genetics (1935) McGill University

ˆ top of page ˆ

An internationally-honored range scientist whose ideas fundamentally challenged the tenets of classical rangeland ecology, Love devoted his career to improving the productivity of California rangeland.  His forage resource development program was directed towards securing grasses, legumes, forbs, and shrubs adapted for use as intensive dryland pasture; more extensively managed pasture; browse for domestic and wild animals; improved habitat for game; soil binders for watersheds, beaches, parks, and wildlands; and less fire-hazardous groundcover.  To achieve these goals, he screened thousands of native and exotic plants, many of which he collected himself, and released those best adapted for planting.  In this way, he introduced Rose Clover (from Turkey), now widely used as a grazing plant in the state, and helped establish Hardinggrass (native Mediterranean), Orchardgrass (Israel), Smilo, and other perennials on the range.  His earlier research on the cytogenetics of cereals and range grasses also helped lead to the development, in cooperation with Canadian plant breeders, of a rust-resistant bread wheat.

Perhaps Love's greatest contribution, however, was his demonstration of the applicability of agronomic principles to rangeland improvement, in contrast to the "climax" approach of the classical rangeland ecologists.  The value of his research was further enhanced by his insight into its practical application, and he was very successful in getting farmers, ranchers, extension personnel, and government officials to adopt his recommended practices.  As author or co-author of 150 publications and consultant to the Ford Foundation, FAO, USAID, and other organizations in 15 countries on 4 continents, Love's contributions to the development of forage resources and the conversion of comparatively unproductive brushlands to the production of food and fiber are significant and far-reaching. 

The history of civilization is the history of agriculture since man's ability to grow more food than his immediate needs has made possible all other fields. 

RM Love, 1963

ˆ top of page ˆ

Harold ("Hal") P. Olmo

Ph.D. Genetics (1934) UC Berkeley

The idea to explore Afghanistan's remote regions for crop plants that could be grown in California came from renowned UCD horticulturalist Hal Olmo.  In the 1930's, he joined a cadre of "plant explorers" who traversed the Afghan mountains by horseback and camel in search of wild and cultivated varieties of fruits, nuts, and grains.  As his career progressed, Olmo came to focus his attention almost exclusively on grapes, becoming not merely a grape geneticist and breeder but also a kind of grape archaeologist.  As part of his long-term research to trace the origins of the grapevine, he made a now almost legendary, adventure-filled collecting trip in 1948 to the border district of Afghanistan and Iran, where he discovered specimens of the original Vitis vinifera.  Over a career spanning nearly five decades, Olmo utilized these genetic resources to develop two dozen table grape and two dozen wine grape varieties.  His work on the chardonnay grape was responsible for developing it from insignificance into California's most important wine grape variety, now grown on nearly 100,000 acres throughout the state.

His proudest accomplishment, however, stemmed from in his early work on Vitis rotundifolia, or muscadine, the original American wild grape.  In the 1930's, he had discovered that muscadine was highly resistant to Phylloxera, nematodes, and fan leaf virus.  When Phylloxera and nematodes hit California vineyards, Olmo worked with Lloyd Lider and Austin Goheen to breed muscadine's resistance into the rootstocks of other varieties, an accomplishment that lies at the heart of the ongoing viability of the state's table grape and wine industries today.  A true legend of the vineyard, Olmo's impact is far-reaching indeed: cuttings from some of the wild grapevines that he brought from Afghanistan during the 1940s and grew in UC Davis vineyards were recently sent back to Afghanistan because they are now extinct there and needed to rebuild that country's devastated agricultural economy.

See also:     http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5560052
               http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Archives/Show_Article/0,1275,4888,00.html

ˆ top of page ˆ

Charles ("Charley") M. Rick, Jr.

Ph.D. Genetics (1940) Harvard

ˆ top of page ˆ

Considered the world authority on the genetics, cytogenetics, and evolution of the tomato, Charley Rick's 42-year career at UC Davis is legendary.  Part Charles Darwin and part Indiana Jones, Rick was as much at home in his campus office, laboratory, and greenhouse as he was in the Andes, the Galapagos, and other places where he repeatedly went in search of wild tomato genetic materials which might, through crossing, improve the tolerance of domestic commercial varieties to drought, salinity, cold, and other stresses.  By the end of his career, Rick had gathered over 2,600 tomato specimens from North and South America and Europe, making his government-funded germplasm collection the largest in the world.   With this collection, he made landmark contributions in plant genetics, evolution, and genome mapping.  Later in his career, Rick established and directed the Tomato Genetics Resource Center, a facility now bearing his name that continues to this day to serve as a permanent bank of genetic material for the tomato and other members of the nightshade family.  His collected germplasm has been and continues to be used to improve tomato production around the world.

Dr. Rick published 150 papers in research journals and 146 research notes in the Report of the Tomato Genetics Cooperative, a group which he himself founded in 1949.  There were also many applied phases to his research on the tomato:  producing hybrids for commercial planting; establishing the value of male sterility in tomato breeding; investigating the effect of planting design on natural cross-pollination and seed production; developing means of identifying mutants early in their development; discovering linkage relations in mutants; and describing the effect in breeding of non-random gene distributions.  An excellent lecturer and committed teacher, Rick participated extensively in international research projects and symposia and traveled widely as a visiting scientist and lecturer, even into retirement.

See also: 

http://newton.nap.edu/html/biomems/crick.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1144059
http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/051002/dl_rick.html

ˆ top of page ˆ

J. Neil Rutger

M.S. Agronomy (1962) UC Davis
Ph.D. Genetics (1964) UC Davis

Honored for his research on induced mutations in rice genetics, Rutger was very successful in developing high-yielding, semi-dwarf rice cultivars and valuable germplasm lines.  In his research, he developed methods of asexual seed production in rice (apomixis) and searched for transposable genetics elements to use as "tags" for cloning genes whose primary products were unknown.  This latter research goal represented a necessary step to applying then-emerging molecular techniques to rice improvement.  Eventually serving as the USDA agricultural research leader stationed at Davis, Rutger's independent work and collaborations with other university scientists led to valuable insights into the inheritance of genetic and cytoplasmic male sterility, cold tolerance, and the interspecific transfer of disease resistance.

ˆ top of page ˆ

Charles ("Charlie") W. Schaller

Ph.D. Agronomy and Plant Pathology (194*) University of Wisconsin

Over his 39-year career at UC Davis, Schaller won international renown for his work on California barley.  His professional interests in plant breeding methods, the genetics of disease resistance, and host-pathogen interactions led him to identify numerous genes controlling resistance to the major barley diseases.  The 10 barley and 3 wheat cultivars he developed and released were high-yielding, early to mature, and disease resistant.

ˆ top of page ˆ

G. Ledyard Stebbins

Ph.D. Biology (1931) Harvard

A seminal scientific figure of the 20th century, Stebbins at the time of his death had established himself as the world's leading authority on plant evolution.  Working with eight other scientists, he was one of the architects of the intellectual watershed known as the "evolutionary synthesis," wherein knowledge from the study of fossils, genetics, cells, and the evolutionary history of organisms was incorporated into the theories of Charles Darwin, modernizing them and creating the field of evolutionary biology.  By demonstrating the now "obvious" idea that plants are subject to evolutionary processes just as animals are, Stebbins almost single-handedly established the discipline of plant evolutionary biology.  The importance of this synthesis to the fields of plant breeding and biodiversity management cannot be overstated.

ˆ top of page ˆ

Stebbins' research interests included apomixis in some genera of the Aster family, the cytogenetics of peonies, and the production and analysis of species hybrids in grasses.  His intensive studies on polyploidy led him to significant work on chromosome doubling, a technique he perfected and used to synthesize new species of grasses.  As leader of the forage grass improvement project of the College of Agriculture, he produced over fifty new strains, representing over 20 new species, in just five years.  Through all of these investigations, Stebbins formulated certain hypotheses about the relationship between chromosome pairing, fertility or sterility, and the behavior of derived polyploids in the progeny of interspecific hybrids.  From related work on the developmental and biochemical genetics of stomatal patterns in grasses and mutant difference in barley, he deduced generalizations about the evolutionary importance of genetically-based mechanisms for regulating gene activity.

Stebbins was a prolific lecturer and celebrated teacher and labored indefatigably to communicate his ideas to both the scientific community and the public at large.  His professional bibliography includes 252 publications and over half-a-dozen books; the landmark Variation and Evolution in Plants (1950) and Chromosomal Variation in Higher Plants (1971) are still regarded as significant in their field.  His lifelong interest in the developmental aspects of genetics, in selection, and in natural hybridization, led him to become a vocal advocate for gene banks and biodiversity preservation.  In 1980, the UC Regents honored the eminent plant evolutionist with the dedication of the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve, a 577-acre parcel of protected land set aside for research located about 20 miles west of the Davis campus. An avid naturalist and conservationist, Stebbins said the honor was far more satisfying than having his name on a campus building.

See also: 

http://biosci.ucdavis.edu/alumni/newsletter/spring00/stebbins.html
http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/012800/DL_stebbins.html

ˆ top of page ˆ