David H. Byrne

Professor
Department of Horticultural Sciences

Texas A&M University

College Station, TX 77843-2133

                                                            Phone: 979-862-3072 FAX: 979-845-0627

E-mail: d-byrne@tamu.edu

David Byrne received his B.S. in Plant Science from Rutgers University in 1975. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Breeding in 1980 from Cornell University. Dr. Byrne is a Member of the Graduate Faculty of Texas A&M University, and can serve as a Chair, Co-Chair or Member of Graduate Student Advising Committees. He became a Member of the Graduate Faculty in August 1984.

Dr. Byrne's research includes stone fruit and rose breeding and genetics.

The fruit breeding research involves peach, plum and apricot cultivar development for medium and low-chill regions, development of in vitro embryo rescue and regeneration techniques as aids in practical breeding, development of rootstocks tolerant to calcareous soils, characterization and comparison of cultivated and wild Prunus germplasm with isozyme, RAPD, and morphological characters and the use of these markers in breeding programs.

The rose breeding research involves the development of blackspot resistant rose germplasm, development of efficient transformation systems, utilization of traits from diploid rose species by creating artificial amphidiploids, genetics of commercially important traits and marker loci in families derived from interspecific hybrids, and the use of genetic markers as an aid in the selection of commercially important traits and for the characterization and comparison of wild and cultivated rose germplasm.

"My approach to advising graduate students is to give guidance and direct experience in their research program and to aid in formulating their study plans to best compliment their overall objectives."

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS