Cultivar · Wheat cultivar
Fielder
Fielder is a soft white spring bread wheat released by the University of Idaho in 1974 that is now used chiefly as a model genotype in wheat tissue culture and genetic transformation because it is unusually amenable to regeneration and transformation.
Record
Cultivar / variety- Variety of
- Wheat
- Botanical taxon
- Triticum aestivum
- Type
- Cultivar
- Breeding method
- Cross-breeding (pedigree selection)
- Origin
- United States
- Released
- 1974
- Breeder / institution
- University of Idaho
- Registry status
- Historical · as of 2026-07-12
- Registries
- USDA GRIN — National Small Grains Collection · United States · as of 2026-07-12Soft white spring wheat conserved as germplasm; genebank presence reflects conservation and research use rather than current commercial registration.
- Intended use
- Soft white spring wheat (milling), Widely used model genotype for wheat tissue culture and genetic transformation
Registry listing or variety protection is jurisdiction- and date-specific and does not by itself indicate current commercial availability, universal cultivation approval, patent status, or a recommendation.
Fielder is a soft white spring bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) released by the University of Idaho in 1974. It has a semi-dwarf, stiff-strawed, awned form and the soft, low-protein grain typical of soft white wheats used for pastry and general soft-wheat products.
Fielder is best known today as a laboratory workhorse: it is one of the wheat genotypes most amenable to tissue culture and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, and it has been widely adopted as a model line in wheat functional-genomics and biotechnology research, with a dedicated genome assembly produced to support that work.
Origin and classification
- Species
- Triticum aestivum (hexaploid bread wheat)
- Market class
- Soft white spring wheat
- Released by
- University of Idaho, 1974
- Growth habit
- Spring
- Morphology
- Semi-dwarf, stiff-strawed, white-chaffed, awned
Use in research
Fielder is notable for how readily it regenerates in tissue culture and accepts introduced DNA, which makes it a preferred genotype for wheat genetic transformation. Because transformation and regeneration are difficult in many wheats, model lines such as Fielder are used to develop and test methods and to generate research materials.
Scope & limitations
Geographic scope: Documented United States soft white spring wheat cultivar, used internationally as a research and transformation model; agronomic adaptation is region- and season-specific.
Climate context: A spring soft white wheat now used mainly as a laboratory model rather than for large-scale production.
- Adaptation and trait notes are region- and season-specific, and performance varies by environment.
- Fielder is an older cultivar used mainly for research; its current commercial registration and availability are not asserted here.
Sources
This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.
- [1]GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System (opens in a new tab)Authoritative
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Cited for: Soft white spring wheat germplasm accession and characterization
- Type:
- Official registry
- Jurisdiction:
- United States / Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12
- [2]USDA ARS — Agricultural Research Service (opens in a new tab)Authoritative
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Cited for: Use of Fielder as a wheat tissue-culture and transformation genotype
- Type:
- Government agency
- Jurisdiction:
- United States
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12