Author
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ROSS, KATHLEEN |
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GUSTAFSON, J |
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Submitted to: Wheat Genetics International Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 6/6/2003 Publication Date: 9/1/2003 Citation: Ross, K., Gustafson, J.P. 2003. Focus on the genome: the inspired collaboration of e.s. mcfadden and e.r. sears. In: Proceedings of International Wheat Genetics Symposium, September 1-6, 2003, Paestum, Italy. p. 512-514. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: In the spring of 1938, E. R. Sears visited E. S. McFadden for the first time at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station where the USDA Agronomist had been stationed since the devastating outbreak of wheat rust in 1935. One year later, McFadden renewed his acquaintance with Sears in a letter discussing the evolution and phylogeny of the Triticeae, Sears's ongoing development of aneuploids, and their first seed exchange. From October of 1939 until McFadden's death in early 1956, E.R. Sears, the consummate cytogeneticist, and E.S. McFadden, the astute breeder, maintained a prolific and productive correspondence including years of direct collaboration. It was McFadden's observations and hypotheses that provided the impetus for Sears's critical crosses and the cytological analyses that verified the structure of the hexaploid genome. Furthermore, McFadden's determination to use wide crosses in wheat breeding was made practical by the methodologies and cytological tools developed by E.R. Sears. Meiotic chromosome associations provided direct evidence for genome homologies in crosses of suspected wild progenitors of the cultivated species, contributing simultaneously to the arenas of breeding, cytology, genetics, phylogeny, taxonomy, and evolution. Implications for recent applications will be discussed. |
