Donald Forsha Jones (April 16, 1890 – June 19, 1963) was a United States

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

geneticist and practical

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

breeder at the

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) is the Connecticut state government's agricultural experiment station, a state government component that engages in scientific research and public outreach in agriculture and related fields. I ...

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

. Beginning at the station in 1914, he made high-yielding

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

practical by his invention of the double-cross hybrid. In Jones' method, four

inbred Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and o ...

corn lines are used. The seed from two initial crosses are used to grow up parental hybrids for the production fields. The production fields yield seed in sufficient quantity to make the scheme practical. Until Jones invented the double-cross method, the yield from the parent lines (the inbreds) was insufficient to allow practical production of hybrid corn seed. Jones’ work received significant public attention and was used to make the first commercial hybrid corn in the 1920s. He was the sole geneticist at the Connecticut Station from 1915 until 1921, when Paul Mangelsdorf became his assistant there. Jones was the president of the

Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the American Soc ...

in 1935. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1934, and to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

in 1939.

Publications

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References

External links

National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Donald F American botanists American geneticists 1890 births 1963 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Genetics (journal) editors