Sir Ralph Riley (23 October 1924 to 27 August 1999) was a British geneticist who founded and first led the Cytogenetics Department at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge in 1954 and later directed the institute from 1972 to 1978. In 1957 he discovered the Ph gene, which controls the pairing of chromosomes between wheat and its wild relatives, a breakthrough that made it possible to transfer useful traits such as disease resistance from wild species into cultivated wheat, work later described as the first genetic engineering in agriculture. UK wheat yields rose substantially during his time leading the institute.
Facts
Defining ContributionDiscovered the wheat Ph1 gene controlling homoeologous chromosome pairing, enabling disease-resistance and other useful genes to be transferred into cultivated wheat from wild relatives. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Ralph Riley (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationlead section, occupation
was a British geneticist.
early life section
He was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire in 1924 and served in the army during the Second World War.
personal life section
He died in Cambridge on 27 August 1999.
career section
In 1957, he discovered the method of doing so by finding the Ph gene. This gene controlled the pairing between the chromosomes of wheat and wild relatives of wheat and soon he was able to demonstrate the cytogenetic ways by which useful genes, such as those that confer novel disease resistances, could be transferred into wheat from a host of wild species.
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