Marilyn Warburton obtained a BS and MS in plant breeding at the University of Arizona, and a PhD in molecular genetics at the University of California, Davis. She worked for 10 years at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, where she worked on the measurement of genetic diversity in maize and wheat to study constraints to conservation and use of plant genetic resources, and document gene flow between crops and wild relatives. She also worked on identification of maize genetic sequences associated with drought tolerance and provitamin A, which now allows breeders to improve maize nutrition via marker assisted selection.
In her current work, Warburton seeks to identify and use natural allelic diversity in maize to solve problems in biotic stress resistance at the Corn Host Plant Resistance Research Unit of the USDA Agriculture Research Service. She and colleagues work to identify and validate genetic sequences associated with resistance to toxic fungi and lepidopteran insects, and create new tools to enhance the practical utility of this data.
Warburton is the current president elect of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and an elected Fellow of that society. She serves on the board of the CSSA Agronomic Science Foundation and is the past Editor of the journal Crop Science.
