Fred Muehlbauer

I am interested in the genetics and breeding of crop plants with emphasis on the cool season food legumes, particularly lentil and chickpea. The project is currently developing cultivars and germplasm with resistance to important diseases such as ascochyta blight of chickpea and viruses of lentil. Research is also underway on the development of genetic maps for pea, lentil and chickpea that are needed to determine the genomic locations of important genes and to form the basis of marker assisted selection. To broaden the genetic base of lentil and chickpea, germplasm collection activities in the center of origin have been conducted and plans for additional collection are being made. This will make it possible to introgress divergent genes from closely related wild species into cultivated types. Other projects include the conversion of lentil to a fall sown crop that can be planted directly into cereal stubble for greatly improved erosion control and improved yields.