My research aims to determine agronomic, genetic, human, and social aspects of sustainably reducing wheat yield gaps. Agronomically, two projects address the management of nitrogen (N) fertilizer to increase winter wheat grain yield while maintaining (or increasing) grain protein concentration (GPC), including (i) late-season N application and (ii) in-season N by cultivar interactions. A third project is a statistical approach to determine seeding rates that maximize yield and reduce yield variability as dependent on yield-environment. A fourth project characterizes the genetic architecture of winter wheat traits that contribute to yield GxE. From the human and social components, I am conducting key informant and structured discussion analyses with major players across the wheat value chain to identify indicators and metrics needed for the development of sustainable bread.
Journal articles
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Nicolas Giordano, Victor O. Sadras, Mary J. Guttieri, Giovana Cruppe, Guihua Bai, Allan Fritz, Amy Bernardo, Paul St. Amand, Pablo Abbate, Andres Berger, Jeffrey Boehm, Amanda de Oliveira Silva, Sally Jones-Diamond, Scott Haley, Jane Lingenfelser, Guorong Zhang and Romulo P. Lollato, “Genetic modulation of yield and phenotypic plasticity of yield in winter wheat,” Journal of Experimental Botany Vol 77, no. 9 (2026): 2743–2756. doi:
10.1093/jxb/eraf478Breeding for yield and agronomic adaptation / increased phenotypic plasticity of yield over time. -
Nicolas Giordano, Victor O. Sadras, Mary J. Guttieri, Trevor J. Hefley, Jorge A. Romero Soler, Clark Neely, Jeffrey T. Edwards, Amanda de Oliveira Silva, Allan K. Fritz and Romulo P. Lollato, “High yield stability and susceptibility to stripe rust associate with large yield gaps in rainfed winter wheat,” Field Crops Research Vol 333 (2025): 110118. doi:
10.1016/j.fcr.2025.110118Yield stability and stripe rust susceptibility / associate with large yield gaps in rainfed wheat. -
Nicolas Giordano, Dustin Hayes, Trevor J. Hefley, Josefina Lacasa, Brian L. Beres, Lucas A. Haag and Romulo P. Lollato, “A Bayesian framework to model variance of grain yield response to plant density,” Plant Methods Vol 21 (2025): 38. doi:
10.1186/s13007-025-01355-yA Bayesian framework models yield variance / to find the minimum-risk plant density. -
Romulo P. Lollato, Luiz O. Pradella, Nicolas Giordano,Luke P. Ryan, Luana M. Simao, Jorge A. Soler, Brent R. Jaenisch, Rick Horton,“Winter wheat response to plant density in yield contest fields,” Crop Science doi:
10.1002/csc2.21296Current seeding rate recommendations could be lowered / for intensively managed fields. -
Nicolas Giordano, Victor O. Sadras, Adrian A. Correndo and Romulo P. Lollato, “Cultivar-specific phenotypic plasticity of yield and grain protein concentration in response to nitrogen in winter wheat” Field Crops Research Vol 306, (Jan 2024): doi:
10.1016/j.fcr.2023.109202We propose a yield-protein plasticity framework / to assess G × N interactions. -
Nicolas Giordano, Victor O. Sadras and Romulo P. Lollato, “Late-season nitrogen application increases grain protein concentration and is neutral for yield in wheat. A global meta-analysis,” Field Crops Research Vol 220, no. S5 (Jan 2023): doi:
10.1016/j.fcr.2022.108740Greater grain protein concentration response / to late season N / is expected in high yielding environments. -
Victor O. Sadras, Nicolas Giordano, Adrian A. Correndo, C. Mariano Cossani, Juan M. Ferreyra, Octavio P. Caviglia, Jeffrey A. Coulter, Ignacio A. Ciampitti and Romulo P. Lollato, “Temperature-driven developmental modulation of yield response to nitrogen in wheat and maize,” Frontiers in Agronomy Vol 4 (2022): 903340. doi:
10.3389/fagro.2022.903340High nitrogen supply may be positive, neutral, or negative for yield / under high temperature.