About

Kevin Crosby, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on plant breeding and genetics of vegetable crops, including melon, pepper, tomato, onion, and carrot. His main emphasis is on elucidating genetic mechanisms for stress tolerance and enhanced nutritional quality. Crosby has discovered several novel traits and studied their inheritance in both melon and pepper, ranging from root physiology and vigor to virus and insect resistance. His program has developed a genetic linkage map of melon with DNA markers linked to key traits and has produced thousands of novel families for genetic studies, resulting in elite breeding lines for commercial seed companies and nine cultivar releases. Additionally, Crosby has developed unique, high-antioxidant pepper lines with flavonoid and ascorbic acid levels more than 400% higher than commercial cultivars.

Research topics

• Biology
• Horticulture
• Botany
• Biochemistry
• Food science
• Agronomy
• Chemistry
• Microbiology
• Materials science
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Bioinformatics

Selected publications

• Identification of race 2 anthracnose resistance Quantitative Trait Loci using biparental and association panel of diverse watermelon germplasm accessions

  Theoretical and Applied Genetics · 2026-02-20

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Texas A&M Tomato Genotypes Exhibit Superior Yield and Physiological Responses under Heat Stress While Maintaining Fruit Quality Traits

  HortScience · 2026-02-24

  articleOpen access

  Tomato production in South Texas has been constrained by high temperatures, particularly in open-field systems, with growers primarily relying on winter greenhouse cultivation because of the high cost of summer cooling. This study evaluated the yield and physiological responses of eight commercial and 13 Texas A&M–developed tomato genotypes during summer production in Uvalde, TX, and reevaluated the high-yielding selections for thermotolerance and fruit quality in the second year. Five-week-old seedlings were transplanted into open-field clay loam soil in Spring 2024 and 2025, with fruits harvested through midsummer under average daily maximum temperatures of 32.8 and 33.3 °C, respectively. Two-year average yields of ‘TAM-C6’ and ‘TAM-C9’ exceeded ‘Supersweet 100’ among cherry types, whereas ‘TAM-FLW2’ and ‘TAM-FLW3’ exceeded ‘Celebrity Plus’ among slicer types. Key physiological traits associated with high yield included high pollen viability in ‘TAM-FLW2’ and ‘TAM-FLW3’, high leaf antioxidant capacity in ‘Hot-Ty’, and efficient photosynthate allocation in ‘TAM-C9’. In contrast, the low-yielding cultivars ‘Amish Paste’ and ‘Cherokee Purple’ had the highest lipid peroxidation and lowest transpiration rate, respectively. Fruit yield–quality trade-offs were observed, as ‘TAM-C6’ and ‘TAM-C9’ had lower fruit antioxidant compounds and/or total soluble solids (TSS) than ‘Supersweet 100’, whereas ‘TAM-FLW2’ and ‘TAM-FLW3’ showed lower TSS than ‘Celebrity Plus’. The slicer genotype ‘Hot-Ty’ demonstrated performance comparable to or superior in yield, flavor quality, and antioxidant content relative to ‘Celebrity Plus’. In conclusion, the Texas A&M genotypes ‘TAM-C6’, ‘TAM-C9’, ‘TAM-FLW2’, ‘TAM-FLW3’, and ‘Hot-Ty’ could offer strong potential for summer tomato production in hot climates, despite minor trade-offs in flavor and nutraceutical traits.

  PublisherDOI

• Fruit Quality and Fusarium Wilt Race 2 Resistance in <scp> <i>Cucumis melo</i> </scp> Breeding Lines and Their F ₁ Hybrids

  Plant Breeding · 2025-07-23

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Cucumis melo , a sweet‐tasting fruit from the Cucurbitaceae family, is popular in global markets. While some varieties of C. melo are used for pickling or salads, melons such as cantaloupes and honeydews are consumed as a dessert. Desirable appearance, shelf life and palatability are crucial in determining a variety's success. Specific traits are firmness (N), netting (HWC), abscission zone size (ABZ), seed cavity closedness (%), mesocarp colour, sugar content ( o Bx), size and shape. Besides quality, reducing yield losses from disease is a priority in plant breeding. A serious fungal disease is Fusarium wilt ( Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis ). There are four known races. Thirty‐three F 1 hybrids were derived from 21 breeding lines. The parents and hybrids were evaluated at target locations: Uvalde and Weslaco, TX, during the summer of 2024. The objective was to estimate genotype by environment interactions, broad‐sense heritability and narrow‐sense heritability of nine quality traits. Traits with high broad‐sense heritability estimates were net height, width, ABZ and colour. Net height, width, ABZ and firmness were mostly heritable in the narrow sense. All genotypes were inoculated with Fusarium wilt, Race 2. Hybrids meriting further testing for quality were 3/70, 3/162 and 8/90. Breeding lines such as BL40 and BL70 lacked resistance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Metabolomic profiling of novel muskmelon cultigens reveals regional variation in fruit composition across four U.S. growing locations

  Journal of Food Composition and Analysis · 2025-03-13

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Novel resistance to tobacco etch virus in peppers (Capsicum spp.)

  Euphytica · 2025-08-27

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Tobacco etch virus (TEV) is a pathogen that affects peppers all over the world. It causes serious losses, and it is difficult to control since it has many aphid vectors. Because these aphids move around, and transmit TEV in a non-persistent manner, many applications of pesticides would be necessary to reduce TEV incidence, leading to more environmental pollution and destruction of beneficial predator insects. Therefore, host plant resistance is the best solution for TEV. Peppers ( Capsicum spp.) exhibit ample genetic variability. Numerous resistance genes against TEV have been documented over the past 70 years. However, these are all recessive in nature. This has made deployment in hybrids more difficult and therefore, not many TEV resistant pepper cultivars have been released. The pepper breeding project at Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Research screened over 200 USDA plant introductions from 6 species for resistance to TEV with both natural field infection and controlled inoculations at Weslaco. ELISA tests and visual assessments of symptoms of the virus in the plants were performed. Four accessions not previously characterized as resistant were identified with mild or no symptoms. These included two C. chinense and two C. baccatum accessions. An interspecific population of C. annuum ‘serrano’ x C. baccatum var. baccatum was developed to study the resistance from that wild type. Chi-square analysis indicated that resistance is controlled by a single, dominant gene, which will facilitate the development of resistant varieties using traditional breeding procedures such as backcrossing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Recipient γδ T cells contribute to graft rejection after human intestinal transplantation

  Intestinal failure. · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Background: γδ T cells are widely distributed in solid organs, but their roles in transplantation are unclear. We want to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms of how γδ T cells participate in modulating alloresponses after human intestinal transplantation (ITx).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Metabolomic Profiling of Novel Muskmelon Cultigens Reveals Regional Variations in Fruit Composition Across Four Distinct U.S. Growing Locations

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Prevalence of Foodborne Pathogens and Indicator Microorganisms on Arizona and California Grown Commercial Cantaloupe Melons and in Environmental Samples

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Aromatic Symphony of Green and Orange-Fleshed Inodorus Honeydew Melons Across Growing Years and U.S. Locations Through Chemometric Evaluation

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Prevalence of foodborne pathogens and indicator microorganisms on Arizona and California grown commercial cantaloupe melons and in environmental samples

  Food Microbiology · 2025-12-27

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Daniel I. Leskovar

  Texas A&M University at Qatar

  96 shared

• John L. Jifon

  Texas A&M University

  58 shared

• Bhimanagouda S. Patil

  Texas A&M University

  56 shared

• Kil Sun Yoo

  Yeungnam University

  33 shared

• Jashbir Singh

  Texas A&M University

  25 shared

• Paul Brierley

  Texas A&M University

  24 shared

• Gene E. Lester

  Agricultural Research Service

  23 shared

• G.K. Jayaprakasha

  Texas A&M University

  22 shared

Education

• B.S., Horticultural Sciences

  Texas A&M University

• M.S., Horticulture/Plant Breeding

  University of Hawaii

• Ph.D., Plant Breeding

  Texas A&M University