Stephen Kresovich
Director
Institute for Genomic Diversity
158 Biotechnology Building
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853-2703
Tel: 607 255-2300
Fax: 607 255-6249
e-mail: sk20@cornell.edu
Announcements & upcoming events
Training & Educational Resources
Research Interests:
Over the past decade, tremendous progress has been made in our understanding
of crop genome organization, variation, and evolution, particularly as
it relates to potential discovery and exploitation of useful diversity
in plants. Critical to this progress has been advances in molecular biology/genetics,
genomics, as well as thoughtful applications of the theories of evolutionary
biology and plant breeding. It is well recognized that a crop genome is
a dynamic unit whose organization and variation has been molded by evolutionary
processes and human intervention.
My research objectives are: (1) to identify regions of the sorghum and
maize genomes which have been fixed through evolution, domestication,
or crop improvement and associate these selective sweeps with useful types
and traits, (2) to characterize and understand the relationship between
DNA sequence variation and desirable phenotype, (3) to identify both conserved
sequences across grass/grain families and genera and rapidly evolving
sequences between species and individuals to predict gene diversity and
function, (4) to characterize molecular diversity of sorghum and maize
in natural populations, landraces, and elite germplasm, and (5) to develop
and test strategies to efficiently discover, conserve, and use variation
in natural populations and genebank collections by integrating current
advances in genomics, bioinformatics, and plant genetics/breeding. In
support of Cornell University's commitment to global conservation and
agricultural initiatives, I serve as Director of the Institute for Genomic
Diversity.
In July 2005, I became the Cornell's Vice Provost for Life Sciences. In
this position I am responsible to promote and administer the New Life
Sciences Initiative, including the hiring of new faculty, planning for
new buildings, developing shared core research facilities, and supporting
educational and training activities based on Cornell's comprehensive investments
in the life sciences.
Selected Publications:
Salas Fernandez, M.G., I. Kapran, S. Souley, M. Abdou, I.H. Maiga, C.B. Acharya, M.T. Hamblin, and S. Kresovich. Submitted. Collection and characterization of yellow endosperm sorghums from West Africa: a novel genetic pool for biofortification. Crop Sci.
Brown, P.J., W.L. Rooney, C. Franks, and S. Kresovich. In press. Efficient mapping of a plant height QTL in a sorghum association population with introgressed dwarfing genes. Genetics.
Wisser, R.J., S.C. Murray, S. Kresovich, and R.J. Nelson. In press. Recurrent selection mapping of quantitative trait loci for northern leaf blight resistance in maize. Genetics.
Murray, S.C., W.L. Rooney, S.E. Mitchell, A. Sharma, P.E. Klein, J.E. Mullet, and S. Kresovich. In press. Genetic improvement of sorghum as a biofuel feedstock: II. QTL for leaf and stem structural carbohydrates. Crop Sci.
Murray, S.C., A. Sharma, W.L. Rooney, P.E. Klein, J.E. Mullet, S.E. Mitchell, and S. Kresovich. In press. Genetic improvement of sorghum as a biofuel feedstock: I. QTL for stem and grain nonstructural carbohydrates. Crop Sci.
Salas Fernandez, M.G., M.T. Hamblin, L. Li, W.L. Rooney, M.R. Tuinstra, and S. Kresovich. In press. Quantitative trait loci analysis of endosperm color and carotenoid content in sorghum grain. Crop Sci.
Thuillet, A.C., M.I. Tenaillon, L.K. Anderson, S.E. Mitchell, S. Kresovich, S. Stack, B. Gaut, and J.F. Doebley. 2008. A weak effect of background selection on trinucleotide microsatellites in maize. J. Hered. 99:45-55. Abstract
Casa, A.M., G.H. Pressoir, P.J. Brown., S.E. Mitchell, W.L. Rooney, M.R. Tuinstra, C.D. Franks, and S. Kresovich.2007. Community resources and strategies for association mapping in sorghum. Crop Sci. 48:30-40. Abstract
Hamblin, M.T., M.G. Salas Fernandez, M.R. Tuinstra, W.L. Rooney, and S. Kresovich. 2007. Sequence variation at candidate loci in the starch metabolism pathway in Sorghum bicolor: prospects for linkage disequilibrium mapping. Plant Genome S125-S134. Abstract
Brown, P.J., P. Klein, E. Bortiri, C. Acharya, W.L. Rooney, and S. Kresovich. 2006. Inheritance of inflorescence architecture in Sorghum. Theor. Appl. Genet. 113:931-942. Abstract
Casa, A.M., S.E. Mitchell, J.D. Jensen, M.T. Hamblin, A.H. Paterson, C.F. Aquadro, and S. Kresovich. 2006. Evidence for a selective sweep on chromosome 1 of cultivated sorghum. Plant Genome 1:S1-S15. pdf
Hamblin, M.T., A.M. Casa, H. Sun, S.C. Murray, A.H. Paterson, C.F. Aquadro, and S. Kresovich. 2006. Challenges of detecting directional selection after a domestication bottleneck: lessons from Sorghum bicolor. Genetics 173:953-964. full text or pdf
Wei Zhao, Payan Canaran, Rebecca Jurkuta, Theresa Fulton, Jeffrey Glaubitz,
Edward Buckler, John Doebley, Brandon Gaut, Major Goodman, Jim Holland,
Stephen Kresovich, Michael McMullen, Lincoln Stein, Doreen Ware (2006)
Panzea: A Database And Resource For Molecular And Functional Diversity
In The Maize Genome. Nucl. Acids Res. 34:D752-757 pdf
Kresovich, S., A.M. Casa, A.J. Garris, S.E. Mitchell, and M.T. Hamblin. 2006. Improving the connection between effective crop conservation and breeding. In: Plant Breeding: Hallauer Symposium, pp. 90-96, Blackwell, Oxford.
Yu, J., G. Pressoir, W.H. Briggs, I.V. Bi, M. Yamasaki, J.F. Doebley, M.D. McMullen, B.S. Gaut, D.M. Nielsen, J.B. Holland, S. Kresovich, E.S. Buckler. 2006. A unified mixed-model method for association mapping that accounts for multiple levels of relatedness. Nat. Genetics. 38:203-208. abstract
Feltus, F.A., G.E. Hart, K.F. Schertz, A.M. Casa, S. Kresovich, S. Abraham, P.E. Klein, P.J.Brown, A.H. Paterson. 2006. Alignment of genetic maps and QTLs between inter- and intraspecific Sorghum populations. Theor. Appl. Genet. 112:1295-1305. abstract
Rice, E.B., M.E. Smith, S.E. Mitchell, and S. Kresovich. 2006. Conservation and change: a comparison of in situ and ex situ conservation of Jala maize germplasm. Crop Sci. 46:428-436. absract or full text
Sorghum Genomics Planning Workshop Participants (2005) Toward Sequencing
the Sorghum Genome. A U.S. National Science Foundation-Sponsored Workshop
Report. Plant Physiology 138: 1898-1902 pdf
Hamblin, M.T., M.G.S. Fernandez, A.M. Casa, S.E. Mitchell, A.H. Paterson,
and S. Kresovich. 2005. Equilibrium processes cannot explain high levels
of short- and medium-range linkage disequilibrium in the domesticated
grass Sorghum bicolor. Genetics 171:1247-1256. pdf
Casa, A.M., S.E. Mitchell, M.T. Hamblin, H. Sun, J.E. Bowers, A.H. Paterson,
C.F. Aquadro, and S. Kresovich. 2005. Diversity and selection in sorghum:
simultaneous analyses using simple sequence repeats (SSRs). Theor. Appl.
Genet. 111:23-30. abstract
Wisser, R.J., Q. Sun, S. Hulbert, S. Kresovich, and R.J. Nelson. 2005.
Identification and characterization of regions of the rice genome associated
with broad-spectrum, quantitative disease resistance. Genetics 169:2277-2293. pdf
Garris, A.J., T.H. Tai, J. Coburn, S. Kresovich, and S.R. McCouch. 2005.
Genetic structure and diversity in Oryza sativa L. Genetics 169:1631-1638. pdf
Vigouroux, Y., S.E. Mitchell, Y. Matsuoka, M.T. Hamblin, S. Kresovich,
J.S.C. Smith, J. Jaqueth, O.S. Smith, and J.F. Doebley. 2005. A genetic
diversity map of the maize genome using microsatellites. Genetics 169:1617-1630. pdf
Flint-Garcia, S.A., A.C. Thuillet, J.M. Yu, G. Pressoir, S.M. Romero,
S.E. Mitchell, J. Doebley, S. Kresovich, M.M. Goodman, and E.S. Buckler.
2005. Maize association population: a high-resolution platform for quantitative
trait locus dissection. Plant J. 44:1054-1064. abstract