Information about program

Bill Berzonsky is an Associate Professor in the Plant Science Department, College of Agricultural and Biological Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Agronomy/Plant breeding from the University of Missouri and has been at SDSU since 2008. He teaches several graduate classes at SDSU.

The primary objective of the winter wheat breeding effort at SDSU is varietal development and release. The specific breeding objectives of the program include:

• High yield and stability of yield
• Superior milling and baking quality, including hard white wheat
• Desirable agronomic characteristics, such as optimum maturity and plant height, long coleoptile, and straw strength
• Resistance to diseases, such as wheat streak mosaic and barley yellow dwarf viruses, leaf blights, Fusarium head blight (scab), leaf rust, and stem rust
• Tolerance to environmental stresses, such as freezing, drought, and heat

• Crimson (1997)
• Tandem (1997)
• Harding (1999)
• Expedition (2002)
• Wendy (2004) * hard white
• Alice (2006) * hard white
• Darrell (2006)
• Lyman (2009) 

Publications

Refereed Articles:

Baenziger, P., R. Graybosch, D. Van Sanford, and W. Berzonsky 2009. Winter and Specialty Wheat.  In  M.J. Carena et al. (eds.), Cereals.

Dowell, F.E.,  E.B. Maghirang, R.A. Graybosch, W.A. Berzonsky, and S.R. Delwiche. 2009. Selecting and sorting waxy wheat kernels using near-infrared spectroscopy.  Cereal Chem. (in press).

Berzonsky, W.A., and K.D. Richardson. 2007. Referencing science: Teaching undergraduates to identify, validate, and utilize peer-reviewed online literature. J. Nat. Res. Sci. Edu. 37:8-13.

Berzonsky, W.A., B.L. Gebhard, E. Gamotin, G.D. Leach, and S. Ali. 2007. A reciprocal backcross monosomic analysis of the scab resistant spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar, ‘Frontana’. Plant Breed. 126:234-239.

Davies, J., W.A. Berzonsky, and G.D. Leach. 2006. A comparison of marker-assisted and phenotypic selection for high grain protein content in spring wheat. Euphytica 152:117–134.

Ransom, J.K., W.A. Berzonsky, and B.K. Sorenson. Hard white wheat. Producing North Dakota’s next market opportunity. 2006.  NDSU Ext. Serv. Publ. A-1310.

Berzonsky W.A., K.D. Hartel, S.F. Kianian, and G.D. Leach. 2004. Registration of four synthetic hexaploid wheat germplasm lines with resistance to fusarium head blight. Crop Sci. 44:1500-1501.

Hartel, K.D., W.A. Berzonsky, S.F. Kianian, and S. Ali. 2004. Expression of a Triticum turgidum L. var dicoccoides source of Fusarium head blight resistance transferred to synthetic hexaploid wheat. Plant Breed. 123:516-519.

Boehm, D.J., W.A. Berzonsky, and M. Battacharya. 2004. Influence of nitrogen fertilizer treatments on spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) flour characteristics and the effect on fresh and frozen dough quality. Cereal Chem. 81:51-54.

Graybosch, R. A., E. J. Souza, W.A. Berzonsky, P.S. Baenziger, D. J. McVey and O.K. Chung. 2004. Release of nineteen waxy spring wheats. Crop Sci.44:1491-1492.

Chakraborty, M., K. Matkovic, D.G. Grier, E.L. Jarabek, W.A. Berzonsky, M.S. McMullen, and D.C. Doehlert. 2004. Physicochemical and functional properties of tetrapoid and hexaploid waxy wheat starch. Starch/Staerke 56:339-347.