Individual Listing

BATCHELOR HALL, KEEN HALL
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521

Ehlers, Jeff

Specialist
Specialist

College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Nematology


Biography

My work focuses on genetic improvement of cowpea, one of the world's most important grain legume crops. I conduct an applied breeding program to develop cowpea cultivars for California (mainly blackeye grain types) and improved germplasm for African collaborators in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria. We are identifying and incorporating genes for resistance to pests such as cowpea aphid and pod sucking bugs and to viruses, and fungal diseases with the aim of developing production systems that require few pesticides. We are also concentrating on grain quality traits such as sucrose content, persistent green color, and large seed size with bright white color.  

Former Institution

Int. Instit. of Trop. Agric. (IITA), Nigeria, 1985-88

Degrees

BS Plant Science 1979

UC Riverside

MS Vegetable Crops 1981

UC Davis

PhD Genetics 1984

UC Davis

Research Area

Plant Breeding

Publications

7. Ehlers, J. D., W. C. Matthews, A. E. Hall, and P. A. Roberts. 2000. Inheritance of a broad-based form of nematode resistance in Cowpea. Crop Sci. 40: 611-618.

8. Ismail, A. M., A. E. Hall, and J. D. Ehlers. 2000. Delayed-leaf-senescence and heat-tolerance mainly are independently expressed in cowpea. Crop Sci. 40: 1049-1055.

9. Aguiar, J. L., W. A. Williams, W. L. Graves, M. McGiffen, V. Samons, J. D. Ehlers, and W. C. Matthews. 2001. Factor for Estimating Nitrogen Contribution of Cowpea as a Cover Crop. J. Agron. Crop Sci. 186: 145-149.

10. Ouedraogo, J. T., B. S. Gowda, M. Jean, T. J. Close, J. D. Ehlers, A. E. Hall, A. G. Gillaspie, P. A. Roberts, A. M. Ismail, G. Bruening, P. Gepts, M. P. Timko and F. J. Belzile 2003. An improved genetic map for Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) combining AFLP, RFLP, RAPD and biochemical markers and biological resistance traits. Genome 45:175-188.


11. Wang, G., J. D. Ehlers, E. J. Ogbuchiekwe, S. Yang, and M.E. McGiffen. 2004.
Competitiveness of erect, semi-erect, and prostrate cowpea genotypes with sunflower
(Helianthus annuus L.) and purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.). Weed Science 52:815-820.

(In press)

1. Roberts, P.A., W. C. Matthews, and J. D. Ehlers. 2005. Root-knot nematode resistant cover crops in tomato production systems. Agron. Jour. accepted on 1/31/05; 33 manuscript pages.