About

Kevin P Smith is a professor in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. His research is focused on understanding the genetics of traits that will make barley profitable and sustainable in the Midwest, with an emphasis on applying genetic understanding to develop improved varieties through breeding. He oversees breeding programs for both spring-sown and fall-sown (winter) barley varieties, with the spring program having been in place since the early 1920s and primarily targeting traits relevant to the malting and brewing industries, such as yield, malting quality, and disease resistance, particularly Fusarium head blight. The winter breeding program, initiated in 2009, aims to improve winter hardiness, yield, and malting quality, with the broader goal of increasing crop diversity, ecosystem services, and crop yields in Minnesota cropping systems. His work involves implementing and evaluating various breeding methodologies, including the use of genetic markers identified through bi-parental QTL mapping and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). He employs marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) approaches to enhance breeding efficiency. Kevin Smith's contributions extend to advancing the understanding of genotype × environment interactions, disease resistance, and grain quality traits in barley and other crops such as oat and Silphium. His research aims to improve crop resilience, productivity, and quality through genetic and breeding innovations.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Medicine
• Agronomy
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Squalene, fatty acids, and minor oil constituents in silflower (Silphium integrifolium) oils from nine varieties grown in Minnesota

  Industrial Crops and Products · 2026-01-15

  articleOpen access

  Our previous study found that silflower ( Silphium integrifolium Michx.) seed oil had a squalane content and great potential as a new edible oil. The current study aimed to examine the squalene level and other properties with thirty silflower oils from nine genotypes grown in three locations in Minnesota in 2022 and 2023. Oil contents of 30 different seeds determined by hexane extraction of unhulled seeds were 19.41–25.92 %, and squalene levels in oils were 2.98–4.07 %. Two major fatty acids, linoleic acid (C18:2) and oleic acid (C18:1), were 66.52–73.62 % and 15.25–20.32 %, respectively. Contents of α-tocopherol, total phenolics, chlorophyll, free fatty acid, and total polar compounds contents were 277.5–765.6 μg/g, 16.29–33.97 mg GAE/100 g oil, 179.2 mg/kg - 977.6 mg/kg, 0.07 % - 0.53 %, and 5.21–11.18 %, respectively. Correlations between oil properties and growing conditions during two different growing seasons, P1 (90 days until flowering) and P2 (flowering to harvest), were analyzed. Oil content had a positive correlation with P1 temperature. Squalene content in oil was higher with lower P1 precipitation and higher P2 maximum temperature and precipitation. Oleic acid content increased, and linoleic acid content decreased when P2 temperature and precipitation were high. In general, α-tocopherol, total phenolics, free fatty acids, and total polar compounds negatively correlated with P1 temperature and precipitation while chlorophyll level had the opposite trend. This study provides more data on the properties of silflower oil and preliminary insight into the factors affecting these properties. • Squalene levels in 30 silflower oils were 2.98–4.07 %. • Oil content determined by hexane extraction of unhulled seeds ranged from 19.41 % to 25.92 %. • Contents of linoleic acid and oleic acid were 66.52–73.62 % and 15.25–20.32 %. • Content of α-tocopherol was 277.5–765.6 μg/g. • Squalene content was affected by precipitation and temperature.

  PublisherDOI

• The hidden lives of Viking Age women:

  Oxbow Books · 2025-02-02

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Exploring the Unique Characteristic of Naked Barley to Manage Deoxynivalenol Accumulation Resulting from Fusarium Head Blight

  Research Square · 2025-10-21

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Whole-genome resequencing of the wild barley diversity collection: a resource for identifying and exploiting genetic variation for cultivated barley improvement

  G3 Genes Genomes Genetics · 2025-11-08 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  To exploit allelic variation in Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum, the Wild Barley Diversity Collection was subjected to paired-end Illumina sequencing at ∼9 × depth and evaluated for several agronomic traits. We discovered 240.2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) after alignment to the Morex V3 assembly and 24.4 million short (1 to 50 bp) insertions and deletions. A genome-wide association study of lemma color identified one marker-trait association (MTA) on chromosome 1H close to HvBlp, the cloned gene controlling black lemma. Four MTAs were identified for seedling stem rust resistance, including 2 novel loci on chromosomes 1H and 6H and one co-locating to the complex RMRL1-RMRL2 locus on 5H. The whole-genome sequence data described herein will facilitate the identification and utilization of new alleles for barley improvement.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Genomewide association and prediction of phenotypic stability in barley

  The Plant Genome · 2025-09-27 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Climate change threatens crop production through an increase in the occurrence of extreme abiotic stress. Breeding and growing crop cultivars that are more tolerant of these stresses may be accomplished by selecting for phenotypic stability (opposite of plasticity), which may be aided by understanding the genetic architecture and marker‐based predictive ability of plasticity. Using data from a multi‐environment experiment in barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.), our objectives were to (1) identify genomic regions associated with the mean per se and linear plasticity for five agronomic and malting quality traits, (2) determine the genomewide prediction accuracy of plasticity, and (3) assess the impact of subsampling environments on estimates and predictions of plasticity. We calculated trait genotype means and linear plasticity (slope) for 233 lines (both founders and offspring) grown in 42 environments. We identified 87 marker‐trait associations and nearly all significant single nucleotide polymorphisms for the slope overlapped with previously discovered mean per se QTL for the same trait. Genomewide prediction accuracy of slope was moderate as measured using cross‐validation ( r MP = 0.32–0.69) and when predicting the slope of an unobserved offspring test population ( r MP = 0.26–0.61). Increasing the number of sampled environments from which to use phenotypic data led to more precise estimates of the slope, greater rates of marker‐trait association discovery, and greater genomewide prediction accuracy; however, a modest number of environments was sufficient for obtaining accurate predictions. Our results suggest more shared genetic control of the plasticity and mean per se of traits, but genomewide prediction may be used to select for plasticity without resource‐intensive multi‐environment trials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Response to plant defense elicitation is genotype and context dependent in diverse oat ( <i>Avena sativa</i> L.) germplasm

  Journal of Experimental Botany · 2025-07-10 · 1 citations

  article

  Pests and pathogens contribute to substantial crop yield losses, and these losses are predicted to be exacerbated by varying and new pest pressures associated with climate change. As such, characterizing variation in immune responses is critical for developing new plant breeding approaches for multiple biotic stress resilience. We thus tested the extent to which plants vary in responsiveness to defense elicitation and associated growth-defense trade-offs, and how these responses depended on field and pathogen conditions. Using a panel of >250 spring oat (Avena sativa L.) genotypes, we evaluated phenotypic and genetic variation in defense elicitation by measuring avenanthramides, specialized defensive metabolites, and disease resistance, as well as yield and growth traits. We found that defense elicitation increased the concentration of defensive avenanthramides across trials, and reduced the severity of crown rust and Fusarium head blight. There was substantial genetic variation in responses, and also genotype-by-elicitation state interactions in field trials. While plant growth was reduced in some trials, there were no loci identified by genome-wide association mapping for either growth or defense regulation. These results demonstrate that targeting variation in regulation of defense can contribute to breeding for resilient crops, and that breeders could develop genotypes with reduced growth-defense trade-offs.

  PublisherDOI

• Sodium azide mutagenesis induces a unique pattern of mutations

  PLoS Genetics · 2025-06-03 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  The nature and effect of mutations are of fundamental importance to the evolutionary process. The generation of mutations with mutagens has also played important roles in genetics. Applications of mutagens include dissecting the genetic basis of trait variation, inducing desirable traits in crops, and understanding the nature of genetic load. Previous studies of sodium azide-induced mutations have reported single nucleotide variants (SNVs) found in individual genes. To characterize the nature of mutations induced by sodium azide, we analyze whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 11 barley lines derived from sodium azide mutagenesis, where all lines were selected for diminution of plant fitness owing to induced mutations. We contrast observed mutagen-induced variants with those found in standing variation in WGS of 13 barley landraces. Here, we report indels that are two orders of magnitude more abundant than expected based on nominal mutation rates. We found induced SNVs are very specific, with C → T changes occurring in a context followed by another C on the same strand (or the reverse complement). The codons most affected by the mutagen include the sodium azide-specific CC motif (or the reverse complement), resulting in a handful of amino acid changes and few stop codons. The specific nature of induced mutations suggests that mutagens could be chosen based on experimental goals. Sodium azide would not be ideal for gene knockouts but will create many missense mutations with more subtle effects on protein function.

  PublisherDOI

• Whole-Genome Sequencing of the Wild Barley Diversity Collection: A Resource for Identifying and Exploiting Genetic Variation for Cultivated Barley Improvement

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-11-20 · 4 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract To exploit allelic variation in Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum , the Wild Barley Diversity Collection was evaluated for several agronomic traits and subjected to paired-end Illumina sequencing at ∼9X depth, generating 109.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms after alignment to the Morex V3 assembly. A genome-wide association study of lemma color identified one marker-trait association (MTA) on chromosome 1HL close to HvBlp , the cloned gene controlling black lemma. Four MTAs were identified for stem rust resistance: one co-locating to the complex RMRL1-RMRL2 locus on 5HL, and three novel loci on 1HS, 1HL, and 5HL. Six MTAs for days to heading (DTH) on vernalized plants were identified on all chromosomes except 1H and 6H. Two MTAs for DTH on non-vernalized plants were identified on chromosomes 1HL and 2HS. All MTAs for DTH were novel. The whole genome sequence data described herein will facilitate the identification and utilization of new alleles for barley improvement.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Registration of CDL‐111 and CDL‐167 oat germplasm lines with pyramided adult plant crown rust resistance

  Journal of Plant Registrations · 2024-05-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Oat ( Avena sativa L.) production worldwide is constrained by crown rust (caused by Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae ), which can cause significant yield losses. The disease is often controlled by spraying fungicides or planting resistant cultivars. Developing host resistance, however, is a challenge due to the high genetic variability of the pathogen. Race‐specific resistance usually succumbs to new races in just a few years. As such, the USDA‐ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory developed mapping populations to identify adult plant resistance (APR) loci from Avena sativa donors. Resistant lines from the mapping populations were selected and crossed with buckthorn ( Rhamnus cathartica L.) nursery selection lines BT1020‐1‐1 and BT1021‐1‐1, which possess a different gene for crown rust resistance derived from Avena strigosa . From the crosses, CDL‐111 (Reg. no. GP‐122, PI 702639) and CDL‐167 (Reg. no. GP‐123, PI 702640), both containing three APR quantitative trait loci, were selected as germplasm for resistance breeding. High‐throughput markers for selection were developed and implemented in pyramiding the APR loci.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Disease resistance gene count increases with rainfall in <i>Silphium integrifolium</i>

  Ecology and Evolution · 2024-09-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Intracellular plant defense against pathogens is mediated by a class of disease resistance genes known as NB‐LRRs or NLRs (R genes). Many of the diseases these genes protect against are more prevalent in regions of higher rainfall, which provide better growth conditions for the pathogens. As such, we expect a higher selective pressure for the maintenance and proliferation of R genes in plants adapted to wetter conditions. In this study, we enriched libraries for R genes using RenSeq from baits primarily developed from the common sunflower ( Helianthus annuus ) reference genome. We sequenced the R gene libraries of Silphium integrifolium Michx, a perennial relative of sunflower, from 12 prairie remnants across a rainfall gradient in the Central Plains of the United States, with both Illumina short‐read ( n = 99) and PacBio long‐read ( n = 10) approaches. We found a positive relationship between the mean effective annual precipitation of a plant's source prairie remnant and the number of R genes in its genome, consistent with intensity of plant pathogen coevolution increasing with precipitation. We show that RenSeq can be applied to the study of ecological hypotheses in non‐model relatives of model organisms.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Gary J. Muehlbauer

  University of Minnesota System

  92 shared

• Douglas R. Rosing

  National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

  64 shared

• Yukitaka Shizukuda

  National Institutes of Health

  56 shared

• Dorothy Tripodi

  National Institutes of Health

  54 shared

• Charles D. Bolan

  National Institutes of Health

  51 shared

• Myron A. Waclawiw

  National Institutes of Health

  51 shared

• Susan F. Leitman

  National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

  51 shared

• Ross Arena

  University of Illinois Chicago

  47 shared

Labs

• Smith LabPI

Education

• PhD, Plant Pathology

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  1997

Awards & honors

• Fellow, Crop Science Society of America, 2023