Mark Sorrells

About

Mark Earl Sorrells is a professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Breeding and Genetics Section at Cornell University. He is also an Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future Fellow and a Cornell Institute for Food Systems Fellow. His research program has a long history of over 100 years through the Cornell Small Grains Project, focusing on developing innovative approaches to crop improvement. His work utilizes technologies such as molecular genetics, physiology, pathology, and breeding to develop superior crop varieties suitable for both conventional and organic cropping systems. Sorrells collaborates with plant breeders and geneticists worldwide, including international centers, on projects involving molecular markers to assess genetic relationships, construct linkage maps, and clone genes. His basic research emphasizes comparative genomics, association mapping, allele characterization, and genomic selection methods. His projects include mapping, cloning, and characterizing genes related to traits such as preharvest sprouting resistance, milling and baking quality, kernel size and shape, stem rust resistance, and nutritional quality. Additionally, he has evaluated ancient and specialty grains under organic management, contributing significantly to the field of crop genetics and breeding.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Botany
• Agronomy
• Biotechnology
• Computational biology
• Evolutionary biology

Selected publications

• Designing Future Crops: Genomics-Assisted Breeding Comes of Age

  Trends in Plant Science · 2021 · 533 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Over the past decade, genomics-assisted breeding (GAB) has been instrumental in harnessing the potential of modern genome resources and characterizing and exploiting allelic variation for germplasm enhancement and cultivar development. Sustaining GAB in the future (GAB 2.0) will rely upon a suite of new approaches that fast-track targeted manipulation of allelic variation for creating novel diversity and facilitate their rapid and efficient incorporation in crop improvement programs. Genomic bre…

  DOI

• Exceptional subgenome stability and functional divergence in the allotetraploid Ethiopian cereal teff

  Nature Communications · 2020 · 197 citations

  Teff (Eragrostis tef) is a cornerstone of food security in the Horn of Africa, where it is prized for stress resilience, grain nutrition, and market value. Here, we report a chromosome-scale assembly of allotetraploid teff (variety Dabbi) and patterns of subgenome dynamics. The teff genome contains two complete sets of homoeologous chromosomes, with most genes maintaining as syntenic gene pairs. TE analysis allows us to estimate that the teff polyploidy event occurred ~1.1 million years ago (mya…

  DOI

• Counting on Crossovers: Controlled Recombination for Plant Breeding

  Trends in Plant Science · 2020 · 102 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• If it ain't broke, don't fix it: evaluating the effect of increased recombination on response to selection for wheat breeding

  G3 Genes Genomes Genetics · 2022-11-04 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  Meiotic recombination is a source of allelic diversity, but the low frequency and biased distribution of crossovers that occur during meiosis limits the genetic variation available to plant breeders. Simulation studies previously identified that increased recombination frequency can retain more genetic variation and drive greater genetic gains than wildtype recombination. Our study was motivated by the need to define desirable recombination intervals in regions of the genome with fewer crossover…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Coherent spore dispersion via drop-leaf interaction

  Science Advances · 2024-01-31 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  The dispersion of plant pathogens, such as rust spores, is responsible for more than 20% of global crop yield loss annually. However, the release mechanism of pathogens from flexible plant surfaces into the canopy is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the interplay between leaf elasticity and rainfall, revealing how a flexible leaf structure can generate a lateral flow stream, with embedded coherent structures that enhance transport. We first modeled the linear coupling between…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jean‐Luc Jannink

  Cornell University

  141 shared

• Shiaoman Chao

  Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center

  65 shared

• James A. Anderson

  University of Minnesota

  64 shared

• Jorge Dubcovsky

  54 shared

• Eduard Akhunov

  Kansas State University

  47 shared

• Gerard R. Lazo

  Western Regional Research Center

  44 shared

• Jan Dvořák

  41 shared

• Shahryar F. Kianian

  Cereal Disease Laboratory

  40 shared

Awards & honors

• Crop Science Society of America Named to a list of the world…
• Ron Phillips Plant Genetics Lectureship (2017)
• Crop Science Society of America Outstanding Research Award (…

Similar researchers at Cornell University

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• Larry Smarth-51
• Walter De Jongh-34