Karl Kunze

Interdisciplinary | Barley | Plants | Breeding | Genetics

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PRIOR ACADEMIC RESEARCH INTERESTS

My post doctoral research position aimed to examine NDVI patterns of alfalfa varieties across harvests, locations and years working with Dr. Kelly Robbins. Our aim was to empirically determine the relationship between NDVI measurements and ground truth harvest and quality data. Accurately modeling NDVI growth curves for alfalfa has foundations implications of understanding phenotypic plasticity of crop systems while also aiming to make more efficient phenotypic selections based on NDVI to reduce harvest requirements.

My PhD research was in the Cornell small grains breeding program with Dr. Mark Sorrells. My research was defined into two major projects and three areas of interest. The principal project was the Organic Multi-use Naked Barley Project. Areas of research include multi-year and multi-location naked barley variety trials, genome wide association of multi-location and year organic diversity panels for disease resistance and measurements of components of weed competitive ability, with a particular focus on using aerial imaging to quantify growth rate.

My second PhD project was two fold, advance our winter malting barley breeding program here in New York State, and research of breeding methods and genetics of winter malting barley. In the past field seasons, I have been using aerial imaging on our winter malting barley preliminary yield trials to determine what important agronomic or quality traits (if any) are associated with aerial imaging, particularly over time. The second large component of our winter malting barley research has been to characterize pre-harvest sprouting, germination, dormancy and malting quality of the breeding population.

Publications

  1. Kunze, K. H., Rooney, T. E., Sweeney, D., & Sorrells, M. E. (2026). The SD1 locus affects primary seed dormancy in winter malting barley. The Plant Genome, 19, e70234. https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.70234

  2. Kunze, K. H., Meints, B., Massman, C., Gutiérrez, L., Hayes, P. M., Smith, K. P., Bergstrom, G. C., & Sorrells, M. E. (2024). Genome-wide association of an organic naked barley diversity panel identified quantitative trait loci for disease resistance. The Plant Genome, 17, e20530. https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20530

  3. Kunze, K. H., Meints, B., Massman, C., Gutiérrez, L., Hayes, P. M., Smith, K. P., & Sorrells, M. E. (2024). Genotype × environment interactions of organic winter naked barley for agronomic, disease, and grain quality traits. Crop Science, 64, 678–696. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21195

  4. Thapa, R., Kunze, K. H., Hansen, J., Pierce, C., Moore, V., Ray, I., … & Robbins, K. (2024). Remote sensing for estimating genetic parameters of biomass accumulation and modeling stability of growth curves in alfalfa. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 14(11), jkae200.https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae200

  5. Massman, C., Meints, B., Hernandez, J., Kunze, K., Smith, K. P., Sorrells, M. E., Hayes, P. M., & Gutierrez, L. (2023). Genomic prediction of threshability in naked barley. Crop Science, 63, 674–689. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20907

  6. Massman, C., Meints, B., Hernandez, J., Kunze, K., Hayes, P. M., Sorrells, M. E., Smith, K. P., Dawson, J. C., & Gutierrez, L. (2022). Genetic characterization of agronomic traits and grain threshability for organic naked barley in the northern United States. Crop Science, 62, 690–703. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20686

  7. Rooney, T. E., Kunze, K. H., & Sorrells, M. E. (2022). Genome-wide marker effect heterogeneity is associated with a large effect dormancy locus in winter malting barley. The Plant Genome, 15, e20247. https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20247

  8. Rooney, T.E., Sweeney, D.W., Kunze, K.H. et al. Malting quality and preharvest sprouting traits are genetically correlated in spring malting barley. Theor Appl Genet 136, 59 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-023-04257-6

  9. Bunting, J. S., Ross, A. S., Meints, B. M., Hayes, P. M., Kunze, K., & Sorrells, M. E. (2022). Effect of Genotype and Environment on Food-Related Traits of Organic Winter Naked Barleys. Foods, 11(17), 2642. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11172642

  10. Sweeney, D.W., Kunze, K.H. & Sorrells, M.E. QTL x environment modeling of malting barley preharvest sprouting. Theor Appl Genet (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-021-03961-5

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USDA OREI Multi-use Naked Barley Project.

OREI Multi-use Naked Barley eOrganic website.