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Professor Richard Trethowan

Research interests

I want to produce more food with less water: I am interested in developing crop cultivars that use water more efficiently. We can introduce genetic variation for stress tolerance into commercial cultivars from ancestral forms of some of the world’s most important food crops. This work benefits the agriculture industry in many ways: it increases productivity, raises income, and improves the sustainability of farming systems.

A combined genetic and agronomic approach to improving productivity – while maintaining the resource base – is vital in the context of climate change.

Background

Richard was appointed as a Professor of Plant Breeding in the Faculty in 2006. He has a B.Sc and a PhD from the University of Sydney, and is currently Director of the IA Watson Grain Research Centre within the Plant Breeding Institute. He leads the Crop and Food Systems research group within the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and is the Product Delivery Coordinator for Wheat In Asia for the Generation Challenge Program. Prior to 2006 he led the Wheat Breeding Program for Rainfed Areas at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, headquartered near Mexico City.

Recent publications

  • Hernandez-Segundo, E., F. Capettini, R. Trethowan, M. van Ginkel, A. Mejia, A. Carballo, J. Crossa and M. Vargas. 2009. Main Mega-Environments identification for Barley based on twenty-seven years of grain yield data evaluation from experimental locations worldwide. Crop Science 49:1705-1718.
  • Akhtar M.M., Faqir Muhammad Azhar, Asif Ali Khan, Zulfiqar Ali and Richard Trethowan. 2009. Genetic variability of heat tolerance, and its effect on yield and fiber quality traits in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Plant Breeding 128: 356-362.
  • Trethowan, R.M. and M. Turner. 2009. New Targets in Wheat Improvement. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 4, No. 009. CAB international (Online ISSN 1749-8848) http://www.cababstractsplus.org/cabreviews.
  • Trethowan, R.M., and M. van Ginkel. 2009. Synthetic Wheat – an Emerging Genetic Resource. Pp 369-386. In Wheat: Science and Trade, Chapter 16. B. Carver (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, Ames, Iowa, USA.
  • DeLacy, I.H., P.N. Fox, Graham McLaren, Richard Trethowan, and Jeffrey W. White. A Conceptual Model for Describing Processes of Crop Improvement in Database Structures. Crop Science 49: 2100-2112.
  • Trethowan, R.M., M. Turner and T. Chattha. 2009. Breeding strategies to adapt crops to a changing climate. In ‘Climate change and food security: Adapting agriculture to a warmer world’. Chapter 9. Editors David Lobell and Marshall Burke (in press).
  • Carolina Saint Pierre, Richard Trethowan and Matthew Reynolds. 2009. Stem water-soluble carbohydrates, stem solidness and grain yield under drought and well-irrigated conditions. Functional Plant Biology (in press Sept 2009).
  • Lage, J., Trethowan, R.M., Hernandez, E. Identification of site similarities in western and central Asia using CIMMYT international wheat yield data (2008) Plant Breeding, 127 (4), pp. 350-354.
  • Trethowan, R.M., Mujeeb-Kazi, A. Novel germplasm resources for improving environmental stress tolerance of hexaploid wheat (2008) Crop Science, 48 (4), pp. 1255-1265.

Contact

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