Eric Bishop von Wettberg
Chair, Department of Animal and Veterinary Science
Director, VT Agricultural Experiment Station
Professor
Faculty Fellow, Gund Institute for Environment
63 Carrigan Drive
211 Jeffords
Burlington, VT 05405
United States
- Ph.D., Ecology and Evolution, Brown University - Providence RI
- B.A., Biology, Swarthmore College - Swarthmore PA
VT Agricultural Experiment Station
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Gund Institute for the Environment Fellow
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Areas of expertise
- Crop genetics, evolution, genomics, breeding, domestication and sustainability
- Legumes and germplasm
- Animal grazing and sustainability
- Agriculture, food, ecology, conservation
BIO
A great many crops are deficient in genetic diversity as a result of extreme population bottlenecks resulting from domestication and breeding. This limits their capacity for adaptation to new or altered habitats and their resilience in the face of climate change.
Eric's laboratory studies the consequences of population bottlenecks for adaptation to harsh environments, merging approaches from genomics and evolutionary ecology. They also study ways in which genetics changes to crops or alterations to cropping systems can increase the amount of carbon sequestered in agricultural soils. They aim to develop a thorough understanding of the evolutionary ecology and population genetics of wild relatives of crops to breed better crops, conserve crop genetic resources, and build resilience to climate change into agricultural systems. They primarily work on legumes, with a focus on chickpea, lentils, fenugreek, fava bean and forages. They also work on grass-based production systems in Vermont.
Courses
- BCOR 011 Exploring Biology
- PSS 172 Crop Breeding
- PSS 134 Agro-terrorism and Bio-piracy
- HCOL 185 Crop Domestication
- PSS 296 Hydroponics
- FS 340 Food Systems Science and Policy
Publications
Bio
A great many crops are deficient in genetic diversity as a result of extreme population bottlenecks resulting from domestication and breeding. This limits their capacity for adaptation to new or altered habitats and their resilience in the face of climate change.
Eric's laboratory studies the consequences of population bottlenecks for adaptation to harsh environments, merging approaches from genomics and evolutionary ecology. They also study ways in which genetics changes to crops or alterations to cropping systems can increase the amount of carbon sequestered in agricultural soils. They aim to develop a thorough understanding of the evolutionary ecology and population genetics of wild relatives of crops to breed better crops, conserve crop genetic resources, and build resilience to climate change into agricultural systems. They primarily work on legumes, with a focus on chickpea, lentils, fenugreek, fava bean and forages. They also work on grass-based production systems in Vermont.
Courses
- BCOR 011 Exploring Biology
- PSS 172 Crop Breeding
- PSS 134 Agro-terrorism and Bio-piracy
- HCOL 185 Crop Domestication
- PSS 296 Hydroponics
- FS 340 Food Systems Science and Policy
Publications
Publications
- Biodiversity data: The importance of access and the challenges regarding benefit sharing
- A chickpea genetic variation map based on the sequencing of 3,366 genomes
- Cicer turcicum: A New Cicer Species and Its Potential to Improve Chickpea
- Potential and limits of exploitation of crop wild relatives for pea, lentil and chickpea improvement.
- Functional dissection of the chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) stay-green phenotype associated with molecular variation at an ortholog of Mendel’s I gene for cotyledon color: implications for crop production and carotenoid biofortification.
Associations and Affiliations
- Secretary and Scientific Executive Committee, International Legume Society
- Editorial Board, Plants People Planet
- Associate Editor, The Plant Genome