Mohsen Mohammadi

Assistant Professor of Agronomy

Department: Agronomy

Phone: 765.496.6851

Fax: 765.494.2926

Office: Lilly 2-339

E-mail: mohamm20@purdue.edu

Area of Expertise: Small grains breeding and quantitative genetics

Mohammadi Lab

Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi is an assistant professor of wheat breeding and quantitative genetics in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. He studied plant breeding and genetics during his MS and molecular biology during his PhD, but trained as a traditional and marker-based plant breeder. In his PhD, he identified novel dehydration responsive genes in wheat roots using global transcriptional profiling. Prior to joining Purdue Agronomy, he has been a traditional and marker-based breeder at wheat breeding program of Iran and the barley breeding project of University of Minnesota. At University of Minnesota, he worked on genome-wide association studies of food and malt quality traits in the US barley germplasm and evaluating accuracies of genome-wide prediction schemes for improvement of malt quality traits. He also developed genome-wide breeding algorithm to predict genetic variance expected from biparental crosses. At Purdue Agronomy, he took over Professor Herbert Ohm’s Small Grains Breeding Program in 2015. His role is to provide learning environment for genetics, quantitative genetics, and breeding.

Education

2003 – 2008 PhD in Plant Science, University of Alberta

1998 – 2000 MSc in Plant Genetics and Breeding, University of Tehran

1994 – 1998 BSc in Agronomy and Plant Breeding, University of Tehran

Teaching Responsibilities

AGRY 611 Quantitative Genetics

AGRY 320 Undergraduate Genetics

Research Interests

We use field plot research, marker-assisted selection, and genome-wide prediction to improve breeding efficiency and deliver high yielding disease and pest resistant soft red winter wheat germplasm. We are interested in understanding mechanisms that lead to higher yield potential and learning physiological responses of wheat to resource-deficient environments.

Small Grains Breeding Program Background

Soft red winter (SRW) wheat, accounting for nearly 15-25 percent of total wheat production in the US, is grown primarily in the Eastern States. In 2014, 455 million bushels (slightly greater than 12 million tonnes) of SRW wheat was produced. Breeding programs from public and private sectors work independently and collaboratively to address production issues such as local adaptation, yield, and resistance to diseases and pests. Being a part of this relatively large breeding community, Purdue’s Small Grains Breeding Program has been a significant player in the introduction of exotic germplasm, known to carry disease and pest resistance genes, into native SRW wheat germplasm. The existing infrastructure, design of the breeding program, the wealth of the germplasm were, to a great extent, tailored over the past decades by Ralph Cadwell, Fred Patterson, and Herbert Ohm. Much of the unique niche of the Purdue’s Small Grains Breeding Program comes from the endeavors of Herbert Ohm who thought of introducing novel native traits into Purdue agriculture. The Purdue’s Small Grains Breeding Program historically bred for high yielding and disease resistant oat varieties that sometimes demonstrated global adaptation even to Northern Plains. In addition to wheat and oat, we are collaborating with breeders at the University of Minnesota, North Dakota State University, and Oregon State University to screen adapted spring and winter barley germplasm for Indiana.

Selected Publications

Daba* S, Tyagi P, Bockelman H, Brown-Guedira G, & M. Mohammadi. 2017. Association genetics of kernel weight, a competent of sink strength, in a historical US wheat population (poster presentation). PAG XXV - Plant & Animal Genome Conference. January 14-18, 2017. San Diego, CA, USA

Bajgain* P, Daba S, Tyagi P, Brown-Guedira G, & M. Mohammadi. 2017. Population genomics and signatures of selection in a historical and contemporary soft red winter wheat population (poster presentation). PAG XXV - Plant & Animal Genome Conference. January 14-18, 2017. San Diego, CA, USA.

Mohammadi* M, Tyagi P, Daba S, Beyer S, Bockelman H, Brown-Guedira G. 2016. Association genetics and candidate gene identification for root length and branching in a historical and modern US wheat population (poster presentation). 4th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium. December 13 – 15, 2016. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Mexico.

Daba* S, Gaire R, & M. Mohammadi. 2016. Evaluation of germplasm resistance to Fusarium head blight disease (poster presentation). 2016 National Fusarium Head Blight Forum. St. Louis at the Arch, MO. USA. USWBSI - US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative.

Shukle R, Cambron S, Moniem H3, Schemerhorn B, Redding J, David Buntin G, Flanders K, Reisig D, Mohammadi M. 2016. Effectiveness of genes for hessian fly (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) resistance in the southeastern United States. J Econ Entomol 109(1):399-405

Mohammadi# M, Tiede# T, Smith K. 2015. PopVar: A genome-wide approach for predicting genetic variance and correlated response in bi-parental breeding populations, Crop Science, 55: 1-10

Tiede T, Kumar L, Mohammadi M, & Smith K. 2015.Predicting genetic variance in bi-parental breeding populations is more accurate when explicitly modeling the segregation of informative genomewide markers. Molecular Breeding 35: 199

Mohammadi M, Budde A, Horsley R, Ullrich S, Blake T, Hayes P, Hole D, Obert D, Cooper B, Chao S, Smith K. 2015. A genome-wide association study of malting quality across eight U.S. barley breeding programs. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 128: 705-721

Mohammadi M, Endelman J, Nair N, Shiaoman C, Jones S, Muehlbauer G, Ullrich S, Baik B-K, Wise M, Smith K. 2014. Association mapping of grain hardness, polyphenol oxidase, total phenolics, amylose content, and β-glucan in US barley breeding germplasm, Molecular Breeding34: 1229-1243

Mohammadi M, Torkamaneh D, Patpour M. 2013. Seedling stage resistance of Iranian bread wheat germplasm to race Ug99 of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. Plant Disease 97:387-392

Mohammadi M, Srivastava S, Hall J, Kav N, Deyholos M. 2012. Two wheat (Triticum aestivum) pathogenesis-related 10 (PR-10) transcripts with distinct patterns of abundance in different organs. Molecular Biotechnology 51:103-108

Mohammadi M, Anoop V, Gleddie S, Harris L. 2011. Proteomic profiling of two maize inbreds during early gibberella ear rot infection. Proteomics 11: 3675-3684

Mohammadi M, Kav N, Deyholos M. 2008. Transcript expression profile of water-limited roots of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum var. Opata). Genome 51:357-367

Mohammadi M, Kav N, Deyholos M. 2007. Transcriptional profiling of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) roots identifies novel, dehydration-responsive genes. Plant, Cell and Environment 30: 630–645

Application Procedure

If you are a potential visiting scholar, postdoc, or graduate student, please send a letter of interest describing your project and past experience. We always welcome applications of undergraduate researchers who are willing to be a part of our research program.