Dr. Guihua Bai is a Research Plant Molecular Geneticist and the Director of Central Small Grain Genotyping Lab of US Department of Agriculture. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Wheat Genetics and Breeding in Department of Agronomy. The mission of his research program is to develop genetic and genomic resources and use them to improve hard winter wheat in the US Great Plains. Prior to joining Kansas State University in 2002, Dr. Bai worked on wheat genetics and breeding as an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University, a Molecular Biologist in USDA Mycotoxin Unit at Peoria, a post-doc fallow in University of Illinois, Urbana, IL and Texas Tech University in Lubbock TX.

Research

Dr. Bai's wheat genetics program focuses on developing high-throughput genotyping tools and DNA markers for different wheat traits of regional interest and implementing of these tools and markers in regional wheat breeding programs in the US Great Plains. His specific research objectives are to identify QTLs and DNA markers for wheat disease and insect resistance and grain yield components, clone some of the genes and study their functions using gene editing and transgenic approaches, and pyramiding genes/QTLs for resistance to Fusarium head blight and other diseases to locally adapted wheat germplasm using marker-assisted backcrossing.

Visit the USDA Small Grain Genotyping Lab

Education

• Ph.D. Plant Pathology, Purdue University, IN 1995
• M.S. Plant Genetics and Breeding, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China, 1985
• B.S. Agronomy, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China, 1982