Research Geneticist (Plants)
Dr. John Stommel
Research Leader; Plant Geneticist
Phone: (301) 504-5583
Staff:
Judith Dumm - Biological Science Technician
Mikhail Kozlov - Biological Science Technician
Biographical Information
Dr. Stommel has been with the Genetic Improvement of Fruits and Vegetables Laboratory (formerly the Vegetable Laboratory) since 1989, conducting research on tomato, pepper and eggplant. He serves as the Research Leader for the Genetic Improvement of Fruits and Vegetables Laboratory and conducts research to characterize the inheritance of economically important attributes in Solanaceous fruit crops and develop improved breeding lines and cultivars of these crops.
He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Stommel also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
Dr. Stommel's has released award winning ornamental/culinary pepper cultivars and tomato breeding lines with improved fruit quality for use in development of improved hybrids. His breeding and genetics research program is collaborative with ARS scientists in the Food Quality Laboratory, Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit, and Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA; Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; and several private companies for which Cooperative Research and Development Agreements have been established.
Research Interests
- Developing new pepper varieties for ornamental and dual ornamental/culinary markets
- Identify regulatory elements that influence anthocyanin accumulation in Solanaceous fruit crops
- Characterize the inheritance of fruit quality attributes in Capsicum and identify related QTL
- Determine the inheritance of fruit firmness attributes and tissue-specific carotenoid accumulation in tomato
- Improvement of eggplant culinary quality and phytonutrient content
Publications (click on publication tab at left)
