Jane Dever

Director, Pee Dee Research and Education Center
Plant and Environmental Sciences Department, PeeDee Research and Education Center

Office: 233 Pitner
Phone: 843-519-0464

Email: jkdever@clemson.edu

Educational Background

Ph.D. Agronomy
Texas Tech University 1989

M.S. Crop Science
Texas Tech University 1986

B.S. Textile Eng. Technology
Texas Tech University 1983

Profile

Prior to joining Clemson April 1, 2024, as Director of the Pee Dee Research and Education Center and Professor in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Jane Dever was Associate Director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Lubbock Research and Extension Center and Professor of Plant Breeding in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. She is an American Society of Agronomy Fellow, Texas A&M Regents Service Fellow, and recipient of the Cotton Genetics Research Award. Past appointments include Bayer CropScience Global Cotton Breeding Manager, Senior Research Scientist at cotton biotechnology contract firm Biotex, Textile Engineer at Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, and Head of Materials Evaluation for Texas Tech’s Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute. She grew up on a cotton, wheat, and grain sorghum farm in Lubbock County, Texas.

Research Interests

Major research focus is developing new and differentiated germplasm with enabling technology and screening exotic germplasm collections for native traits to be used in breeding cotton. Objectives include improved fiber quality, yield component improvement in high-quality lines, drought tolerance, nematode tolerance, resistance to Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt and bacterial blight. Other research initiatives include incorporating native traits from screening programs to develop cultivars through classical breeding for organic production and investigating impacts of seed size and quality throughout the cottonseed value chain.

Publications

Clement, C. D., E-G No, L. Zhang, T. Wheeler, J. K. Dever, P. He, and L. Shan. 2025. Whole-genome characterization and phylogenetic placement of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum Isolates. PDIS-11-25-2248-RE.R1. Plant Disease, Accepted 7/31/2026.
Rakesh, J., L. Gowda, S. A. Gowda, H. Fang, F. M. Bourland, B. T. Campbell, M. A. Gore, J. K. Dever, J. Zhang, D. C. Jones, and V. Kuraparthy. 2026. Genome-wide association study of yield-components in US upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Crop Science 66(4): e70334. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.70334. First published July 13, 2026.
Zhu, Y., T. A. Wheeler, J. K. Dever, and J. F. Zhang. 2026. Resistance to Fusarium wilt race 4 in cotton: evaluation methods, germplasm evaluation, breeding, and genetic and genomic studies from a breeder’s perspective. Euphytica (2026) 222:84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-026-03738-1 Received: 22 July 2025 / Accepted: 22 April 2026
Heinrich, R., C. M. Kelly, V. A. Morgan, and J. K. Dever. 2025. Registration of CA 4019 Cotton Cultivar. Journal of Plant Registrations. 19 (3): e70034. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.70034 first published 11/25/25
Zeng, Linghe, J. Wu, F. M. Bourland, B. T. Campbell, J. K. Dever, J. Dudak, K. Edmisten, S. Hague, L. C. Hand, M. Jones, C. Kelly, B. McKnight, V. Morgan, B. Pieralisi, T. B. Raper, A. L. Thompson, W. Smith, B. Wilson, and J. Zhang. 2025. Genetic gain of lint yield in modern upland cotton cultivars based on national cotton variety tests. Crop Science.
Wheeler, T., C. M. Kelly, J. K. Dever, and M. N. Rondon. 2025. Evaluation of cotton lint yield and root-knot nematode density on commercial varieties with nematode resistance. J. Cotton Science. 29: 172-179.
Kandel, S.; Holguin, F.O.; Galvan, C.; Zhu, Y.; Dever, J.; Kelly, C.; Whitelock, D.; Zhang, J. Improvement of Cottonseed Oil and Fatty Acids Through Introgression Breeding in Upland Cotton. Plants 2025, 14, 3078. https://doi.org/10.3390/ plants1419307.
Gowda SA, Fang H, Tyagi P, Bourland F, Dever J, Campbell BT, Zhang J, Abdelraheem A, Sood S, Jones DC, Kuraparthy V. Genome-wide association study of fiber quality traits in US upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Theor Appl Genet. 2024 Sep 3;137(9):214. doi:10.1007/s00122024-04717-7.
Beasley, E., D. Q. Wann, S. Shanbhag. E. Lubbers, N. Suassuna, C. M. Kelly, D. Jones, J. K. Dever, and P. Chee. 2024. Registration of CA 4011 cotton germplasm lines with resistance to thrips and areolate mildew. Journal of Plant Registrations. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20395.
Mormile, B., T. Bauer, L. Wang, R. Rivero, S. Carpenter, C. Danmaigona-Clement, K. Cox, L. Zhang, X. Ma, T. A. Wheeler, J. K. Dever, P. He, A. Bogdanove, and L. Shan. 2025. Activation of three targets by a TAL effector confers susceptibility to bacterial blight of cotton. Nature Communications (16:1). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-55926-7
Avinash Sreedasyam, John T. Lovell, Sujan Mamidi, Sameer Khanal, Jerry W. Jenkins, Christopher Plott, Kempton B. Bryan, Zhigang Li, Shengqiang Shu, Joseph Carlson, David Goodstein, Todd Campbell, Jenny C. Koebernick, Jane K. Dever, Jodi A. Scheffler, Duke W. Pauli, Johnie N. Jenkins, Z. Jeffrey Chen, Fred Bourland, Warwick N. Stiller, Christopher A. Saski, Jane Grimwood, Peng W. Chee, Don C. Jones, and Jeremy Schmutz. 2024. Genome resources for three modern cotton lines guide future breeding efforts. Nature Plants. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01713-z