Dr Yunbi Xu, molecular maize breeder/senior scientist, the head of Applied
Biotechnology Center, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), Mexico.
Yunbi got all his education in China including B.S. from Huazhong (Central China)
Agricultural College in agronomy in 1982, and MS (1985) and PhD (1993) from
Zhejiang Agricultural University in genetics and plant breeding. Yunbi was an assistant
and associate professor and the Deputy Director of Department of Agronomy, Zhejiang
Agricultural University (1985 to 1995), the Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral
Scientists at Cornell University (1995-1998), molecular breeder at RiceTec, Inc., Texas,
for hybrid rice breeding (1998-2003), research associate scientist at Cornell University
for genomics of water use efficiency in rice (2003-2006). Yunbi’s research fields are
genetics and plant breeding including molecular marker development, germplasm
evaluation, QTL mapping, marker-assisted selection, and molecular breeding, with focus
on rice (1982-2006) and maize (2006-). His publications include over 90 referred journal
articles, book chapters and conference papers, and two books (Molecular Quantitative
Genetics, China Agriculture Press, 1994; Molecular Plant Breeding, CABI Publisher,
2009). He is an editor for three international journals (Theoretical and Applied Genetics,
Molecular Breeding, and International Journal of Plant Genomics) and two Chinese
journals (Acta Agronomica Sinica and Chinese Journal of Agricultural Science).
Selected publications
Articles
Xu, Yunbi, D. This, R. C. Pausch, Wendy M. Vonhof, J. R. Coburn, J. P. Comstock, S. R.
McCouch. 2009. Water use efficiency determined by carbon isotope discrimination in rice:
genetic variation associated with population structure and QTL mapping. Theoretical and
Applied Genetics 118:1065–1081.
Gao, Shibin, Carlos Martinez, Debra J. Skinner, Alan F. Krivanek, Jonathan H. Crouch, and
Yunbi Xu. 2008. Development of a seed DNA-based genotyping system for marker-assisted
selection in maize. Molecular Breeding 22:477-494.
Xu, Yunbi and Jonathan H. Crouch. 2008. Marker-assisted selection in plant breeding: from
publications to practice. Crop Science 48:391-407.
Dwivedi S. L., Jonathan H. Crouch, David J. Mackill, Yunbi Xu, Matthew W. Blair, Michel
Ragot, Hari D. Upadhyaya and Rodomiro Ortiz. 2007. The molecularization of public sector
crop breeding: progress, problems and prospects. Advances in Agronomy 95:163-318.
Xu, Yunbi, Susan R. McCouch and Qifa Zhang. 2005. How can we use genomics to improve
cereals with rice as a reference genome? Plant Molecular Biology 59:7-26.
Xu, Yunbi, Henry Beachell, and Susan R. McCouch. 2004. A marker-based approach to
broadening the genetic base of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in the U.S. Crop Science 44:1947-1959.
Xu, Yunbi. 2003. Developing marker-assisted selection strategies for breeding hybrid rice. Plant
Breeding Reviews 23:73-174.
Xu, Yunbi. 2002. Global view of QTL: Rice as a model. p.109-134. In: M. S. Kang (ed),
Quantitative Genetics, Genomics, and Plant Breeding. CAB International.
Xu, Yunbi. 1997. Quantitative trait loci: separating, pyramiding, and cloning. Plant Breeding
Reviews 15:85-139.
Books
Xu, Yunbi. 2009. Molecular Plant Breeding. CABI Publisher, UK. 640pp.
Xu, Yunbi and Lihuang Zhu. 1994. Molecular Quantitative Genetics (in Chinese). China
Agriculture Press, Beijing, China. 291pp.