Gurdev Khush in 2002, at a symposium honoring Charley Rick's legacy (hence the fisherman's hat).
Gurdev Khush honored for rice breeding
by Roger T. Chetelat
Dr. Gurdev Khush, a pioneering cytogeneticist and plant breeder, has been honored for his work on developing high yielding rice varieties. Prior to his work with rice, Khush was a postdoctoral scientist in Charley Rick's lab, where he made major contributions to the development of tomato as a model organism for genetic research by developing integrated physical and genetic maps of the tomato chromosomes.
An image by Khush showing all 12 tomato chromosome pairs at pachytene.
Khush and Rick mapped many single gene mutations to their chromosomes and chromosome arms. By treating pollen with X-rays, they created chromosomal deletions, which, combined with careful cytological observations, they used to map genetic markers relative to the centromeres on each chromosome. Khush and Rick also isolated and studied the chromosomal behavior of various types of trisomics (plants with extra chromosomes), which were used to assign mutant genes to chromosomes in the early days of tomato genetics. Many of these trisomic stocks are still maintained by the TGRC.
