Associate Professor
Department of Horticultural Sciences
Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center
Texas A&M University,Station, TX 77843-2133
Phone: 979-845-2937
Cell: 979-229-8746
FAX: 979-845-0627

Stephen King received his B.S. and M.S. in Agronomy from the University of Arkansas in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Breeding in 1994 from Cornell University. Dr. King is a Member of the Graduate Faculty of Texas A&M University, and can serve as a Chair, Co-chair or Member of Graduate Student Advising Committees.

Dr. King began his plant breeding career with Petoseed (which later became Seminis) in 1994. He worked on Eastern melons for the U.S. market and greenhouse cucumbers for Europe, developing several successful varieties in each crop. In 1997, he created and managed the Biotech Germplasm Development Group for Seminis. In this capacity, Dr. King conducted over 100 field and greenhouse trials of 14 different genetically engineered vegetable crops for over 20 traits.

Dr. King joined the faculty of Texas A & M in September, 2002. His research interests include plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology with a special interest in developing applications for new technologies to solve specific problems in the industry or to address specific needs of the consumer. Dr. King’s focus is on watermelon breeding, but he will also manage specific projects in other crops. Current projects include a survey of total carotenoids and other health beneficial compounds in watermelon which will be followed by a study of the genetics and heritability of specific health promoting compounds, including lycopene and Beta carotene. Dr. King is also interested in improving seedless watermelon through applied breeding and the application of new technologies.

“Graduate students under my advisement will find that my approach takes advantage of my broad industry experience in plant breeding and applied biotechnology. My philosophy for solving challenging problems is to start with a solid basis for the science of the problem followed with the passion to work hard on a solution and the willingness to be a team player. Of these traits, passion is probably the most important, so I encourage students to identify problems that they will find challenging and rewarding to solve in areas where they want to become world-class experts.”

Texas Statewide Watermelon Trials

Vegetable & Fruit Improvement Center

Watermelon PI collection images

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Davis, A.R., P. Perkins-Veazie, Y. Sakata, S. López-Galarza, J.V. Maroto, S.G. Lee, Y.C. Huh, Z. Sun, A. Miguel, S.R. King, R. Cohen, J.M. Lee. 2008. Cucurbit Grafting. Critical Reviews in Plant Science. 27:50-74.

King, S.R., A.R. Davis, W. Liu and A. Levi. 2008. Grafting for disease resistance. HortScience. 43:1673-1676.

Davis, A., P. Perkins-Veazie, R. Hassell, A. Levi, S. King and X. Zhang. 2008. Grafting effects on vegetable quality. HortScience. 43:1670-1672.

Dodig, D., M. Zoric, D. Knezevic, S.R. King and G. Surlan-momirovic. 2008. Genotype x environment interaction for wheat yield in different drought strss conditions and agronomic traits suitable for selection. Australian J. Agric. Res. 59:1-10.

Davis, A., and S. King. 2007. MSW-28 a full flavor crisp watermelon line with high lycopene and medium brix. HortScience. 42:1715-1716.

Bang, H., S. Kim, D.I. Leskovar, and S.R. King. 2007. Development of a codominant CAPS marker for allelic selection between canary yellow and red watermelon based on SNP in lycopene β-cyclase (LCYB) gene. Mol. Breeding. 20:63-72.

King, S.R., and A.R. Davis. 2006. A comparison of novel grafting methods for watermelon in high-wind areas. Pages 258-264 in: Proceedings of Cucurbitacea 2006. G.J. Holmes, ed. Universal Press, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Leskovar, D.I., H. Bang, S. Kim, K.S. Yoo, S.R. King, and K. Crosby. 2006. Environmental and genetic factors on carotenoids and quality in watermelon fruits. Acta Horticulturae (ISHS). 744:233-241.

Yoo, K.S., L. Pike, B. Patil, D. Leskovar, K. Crosby and S. King. 2006. Challenges of phytochemical analysis and its application in developing new fruits and vegetables with improved health benefits. Acta Horticulturae (ISHS). 744:101-106.

Davis, A. R., Levi, A., Kim, S. Hernandez, A. and King, S. R. 2006. RNA extraction method from fruit tissue high in water and sugar. HortScience. 41:1292-1294.

Bang, H., W. Liu and S.R. King. 2006. A new male sterile mutant identified in watermelon with multiple unique morphological features. Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report. 28-29:47-48.

King, S.R., and A.R. Davis. 2006. Pilot survey results to prioritize research needs in the watermelon industry. Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report. 28-29:43-46.

Levi, A., Davis, A. R., Hernandez, A., Wechter, W. P., Thimmapuram, J. Trebitsh, T., Tasmor, Y., Katzir, N., Portnoy, J. and King, S. 2006. Genes expressed during the development and ripening of watermelon fruit. Plant Cell Rept. 25:1233-1245.

Davuluri, G. R., Van Tuinen, A., Fraser, P., Manfredonia, A., Newman, R., Burgess, D., Brummell, D., King, S., Palys, J., Uhlig, J., Bramley, P., Pennings, H. and Bowler, C. 2005. Fruit-specific suppression of DET1 enhances tomato nutritional value. Nature Biotechnol. 23(7):890-895.

Tadmor, Y., King, S., Levi, A., Davis, A., Meir, A., Wasserman, B. Hirschberg, J., and Lewinsohn, E. 2005. Comparative fruit colouration in watermelon and tomato. Food Res. Intl. 38:837-841.

Davuluri, G.R., A.Van Tuinen, A.C. Mustilli, A. Manfredonia, R. Newman, D. Burgess, D.A. Brummell, S.R. King, J. Palys, J. Uhlig, H.M.J. Pennings, and C. Bowler. 2004. Manipulation of DET1 expression in tomato results in photomorphogenic phenotypes caused by post-transcriptional gene silencing. The Plant Journal. 40:344–354.