College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences

Technical Interests:

Quantitative and population genetics, computer simulations, molecular quantitative genetic discovery, marker assisted breeding, plant biomechanics, phenomics, and abiotic and biotic stress tolerance

Research Summary:

Common bean or dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a major nutritional and economically important crop in the US and worldwide.

Our program focuses on the development of superior dry bean varieties and germplasm for enhanced productivity, sustainability (economic and environmental) in all dry bean commercial classes using conventional and modern breeding technologies in order to maximize genetic gain and resource allocation. Our breeding targets agronomic performance, plant and root architecture, abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, disease resistance, canning quality, and nitrogen use efficiency. The methods we use to conduct our research include: 1) quantitative genetics and computational approaches applied to breeding; 2) phenomics 3) population genetics and diversity 4) experimental designs in agriculture. This research provides opportunities for graduate student education and training in fundamental and applied research areas of crop improvement.  

Teaching

Publications

Select Publications:

1. Gomez, F.E., Mullet, J.E., Muliana, A.H., Niklas, K.J. and Rooney, W.L., 2020. The genetic architecture of biomechanical traits in sorghum. Crop Science, 60(1), pp.82-99
2. Lee, S., Zargara O., Reisera C., Li, Q., Muliana A., Finlayson, S., Gomez, F.E., Pharr, M., 2020. Time-dependent mechanical behavior of sweet sorghum stems. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials,
3. Gomez, F.E., Carvalho, G., Shi, F., Muliana, A.H. and Rooney, W.L., 2018. High throughput phenotyping of morpho-anatomical stem properties using X-ray computed tomography in sorghum. Plant methods, 14(1), p.59.
4. Gomez, F.E., Muliana, A.H. and Rooney, W.L., 2018. Predicting Stem Strength in Diverse Bioenergy Sorghum Genotypes. Crop Science.
5. Gomez, F.E., Muliana, A.H., Niklas, K.J. and Rooney, W.L., 2017. Identifying morphological and mechanical traits associated with stem lodging in bioenergy sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). Bioenergy Research, 10(3), pp.635-647.

Dr. Gomez's Full CV