Robert E. Allan Plant Breeding
Symposium

Biography of Dr. Robert E. Allan

Dr. Robert E. Allan, USDA-ARS research geneticst with the Wheat Genetics, Quality, Physiology and Disease Research Unit, Pullman, Washington, retired on January 3, 1996, after more than 40 years devoted to wheat genetics, breeding, and production research.

Bob Allan received a B.S. degree from Iowa State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agronomy from Kansas State University. He started his USDA-ARS career at Pullman in 1957 when Dr. Orville Vogel hired him as a Research Agronomist. Bob conducted pioneering genetic research on wheat semidwarfism. He identified the Rht1 and Rht2 semidwarf genes of Norin 10 and other parents used in the Green Revolution of wheat. He demonstrated gibberellic acid insensitivity of specific semidwarf genes. Bob Allan has developed special genetic stocks including near isogenic lines that have facilitated studies on yield, adaptation, disease incidence, environmental stress, nutrient use and other physiological traits. This germplams is now in high demand from plant breeders and molecular biologists. He has been responsible for the public release of eight wheat varieties and over 100 germplasm lines. By using disease-resistance genes from a wild grass and by developing selection methods using biochemical markers, he developed wheat varieties with stable resistance to major soilborne and foliar diseases. He worked with ARS and university scientists to develop the first two varieties, Madsen and Hyak, with resistance to strawbreaker foot rot, a major soilborne wheat disease in the U.S. and Europe. These varieties with genetic resistance to foot rot have greatly reduced the use of fungicides and saved Pacific Northwest growers millions of dollars annually. Bob specialized in breeding club wheat varieties, grown in the Pacific Northwest, that have superior milling and baking properties, and are in high demand for export. He developed two multiline club wheats, comprised of mixtures of component lines with different genes for disease resistance. His multiline, Rely, is the leading semidwarf club grown in the Pacific Northwest. At the time of Bob's retirement, his wheat varieties were grown on over 1 million acres.

Bob served as Research Leader of the Wheat Genetics unit from 1972 to 1994. Since 1981 he has been the coordinator of the Western Regional Wheat Testing Program. He is an adjunct professor at Washington State University and the University of Idaho, and has advised a number of graduate students. Bob is a fellow in ASA and CSSA. In 1995 he received a National USDA-ARS Technology Transfer award also received the 1996 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.

Bob continues his wheat research part-time as a Washington State University scientist and as a collaborator with the USDA-ARS Wheat Genetics unit. He and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Allan, an assistant professor of pharmacy at Washington State University, continue to live in Pullman.