Ernest Robert Sears (October 15, 1910, Bethel, Polk County, Oregon – February 15, 1991) was an American geneticist, botanist, pioneer of plant genetics, and leading expert on wheat cytogenetics.[1] Sears and Sir Ralph Riley (1924–1999) are perhaps the two most important founders of chromosome engineering[2][3] in plant breeding.[4][5]
Biography
After graduating from high school in 1928, Sears graduated in 1932 with a B.S. in agriculture from Oregon State University. At Harvard University he graduated in genetics with an M.A. in 1932 and a Ph.D. in 1936. Upon graduation he became a geneticist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) at the University of Missouri, where he worked on wheat cytogenics (as well as wheat evolution, phylogeny, and systematics) for the next 55 years until his death.[6]
Sears was a pioneer of methods of transferring agriculturally desirable genes into cultivated wheat from its wild relatives. Notably, he did important work on wheat genes for resistance to powdery mildew, common bunt, wheat leaf rust, and stem rust.[1] The methods pioneered by Sears are also important for introducing genes for plant resistance against insects.[6]
Sears recognized the importance of nullisomics in wheat.[7] He was the author or coauthor of more than 100 articles in refereed journals, as well as 6 book chapters.[4]
Sears retired from the USDA in 1980 but continued to work in the University of Missouri's greenhouses and in his campus office until his death in 1991.[6] He credited part of his success to working with Lewis Stadler and Barbara McClintock. For 40 years Sears collaborated in research with his second wife.[6]
He married in 1936 Caroline Fredericka Eichorn (1912–2001).[9] His first marriage produced one son. After divorcing his first wife, he married in 1950 Liese Maria ("Lotti" or "Lottie") Steinitz (1916–1995).[6] His second marriage produced one son and two daughters.[1] In May 2001 the University of Missouri opened the Ernest R. and Lotti M. S. Sears Plant Growth Facility.[10]
——; Rodenhiser, H. A. (1948). "Nullisomic analysis of stem-rust resistance in Triticum vulgare var. Timstein". Genetics. 33 (1): 123–124. PMID18933701.
—— (1953). "Addition of the genome of Haynaldia villosa to Triticum aestivum". American Journal of Botany. 40 (3): 168–174. doi:10.2307/2438774. JSTOR2438774.
——; Okato, M. (1958). "Intergenomic chromosome relationships in hexaploid wheat". Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress on Genetics. Vol. 2. pp. 258–259.
—— (1962). "The use of telocentric chromosomes in linkage mapping". Genetics. 47: 983.
—— (1966). "Chromosome mapping with the aid of telocentrics". Proceedings of the 2nd International Wheat Genetics Symposium. Hereditas Supplement. Vol. 2. pp. 370–381.
—— (1966). "Nullisomic-Tetrasomic Combinations in Hexaploid Wheat". In R. Riley; K. R. Lewis (eds.). Chromosome Manipulations and Plant Genetics. London: Oliver and Boyd. pp. 29–45. doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-6561-5_4. ISBN978-1-4899-6259-1.
Rosalind, Morris; —— (1967). "The cytogenetics of wheat and its relatives". In K. S. Quisenberry; L. P. Reitz (eds.). Wheat and Wheat Improvement. Madison, Wisconsin: American Society of Agronomy. pp. 19–87.
—— (1973). "Agropyron—wheat transfers induced by homologous pairing". Proceedings of the Fourth International Wheat Genetics Symposium. pp. 191–99. (See Agropyron.)
—— (1977). "Genetics Society of Canada Award of Excellence Lecture: An Induced Mutant with Homoeologous Pairing in Common Wheat". Canadian Journal of Genetics and Cytology. 19 (4): 585–593. doi:10.1139/g77-063.
——; Sears, L. M. S. (1978). "The telocentric chromosomes of common wheat". Proceedings of the Fifth International Wheat Genetics Symposium. Vol. 1. pp. 389–407.
——; Sears, L. M. S. (1978). "The telocentric chromosomes of common wheat". In S. Ramanujams (ed.). Proceedings of the 5th International Wheat Genetics Symposium. New Delhi: Indian Agricultural Research Institute. pp. 389–407.
Loegering, W. Q.; —— (1981). "Genetic control of disease expression in stem rust of wheat". Phytopathology. 71 (4): 425–428. doi:10.1094/Phyto-71-425.
—— (1982). "A Wheat Mutation Conditioning an Intermediate Level of Homoeologous Chromosome Pairing". Canadian Journal of Genetics and Cytology. 24 (6): 715–719. doi:10.1139/g82-076.
—— (1985). "The transfer of short segments of alien chromosome to wheat". In R. B. Singh; R. M. Singh; B. D. Singh (eds.). Advances in Cytogenetics and Crop Improvement. Ludhiana: Kalyani Publishers. pp. 75–79.
——; Miller, T. E. (1985). "The history of Chinese spring wheat". Cereal Research Communications. 13 (2/3): 261–263. JSTOR23783009.
^ abcRiley, Ralph (1995). "Ernest Robert Sears 1910—1991"(PDF). National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs. 67. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press: 344–392.