CORVALLIS -- Discovery of unauthorized genetically-engineered wheat growing on an eastern Oregon farm last month led to a federal investigation and sparked global controversy, jeopardizing international export markets for a crop worth $300 million to $500 million to the state's economy annually.

But it also put a spotlight on an Oregon State University department that more typically toils in obscurity doing the technical and even arcane work of agricultural research.

"Some of what we do is becoming more apparent" in the wake of the flap over genetically modified wheat, said Russ Karow, chair of OSU's Crop and Soil Science Department.

The probe by federal agriculture investigators began with Carol Mallory-Smith, a professor of weed science -- "Not wheat science, weed science," she says -- who confirmed plant samples sent from the field carried a "Roundup Ready" gene that made them resist the herbicide glyphosate.

Mallory-Smith, a former English major who turned to botany and has been at OSU 19 years, saw her findings validated by the U.S. Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, which is attempting to track the source of the genetically-modified wheat.

Karow said Mallory-Smith, although unknown to the general public, is a nationally recognized expert in herbicide resistance and gene flow, in which genetic traits transfer from one plant to another.

The department, one of the largest within the College of Agricultural Science, does research and instruction involving biotechnology, genetics, weeds and seeds, cropping systems, alternative crops and soil management.

The department's role in the wheat investigation is a high-profile exception to its usual work. Mallory-Smith's specialty is weeds, especially those that resist herbicides and decrease the yield and quality of crops ranging from peppermint and wheat to clover and meadowfoam, which produces oil-bearing seeds.

Other crop and soil researchers are engaged in similarly quizzical work. The department's barley breeder, Pat Hayes, has come up with a hull-less variety that, like wheat kernels, can be more easily milled for food products. Barley is more commonly used to make beer or as animal feed. The new hull-less variety is described in research literature as "naked," and its varietal name followed suit: It's called "Streaker."

"You can imagine where that came from, with this being a college campus," said Karow. "One of his malt barleys is 'Half Pint.' "

Elsewhere in the department, researchers are developing aroma hops to make Oregon beer even more robust, while other scientists map forest soils using satellite technology.

The most popular person in the department may be Associate Professor Andrew Ross, an Australian cereal chemist who tests the baking quality of flour milled from grains developed by OSU. Department colleagues eagerly anticipate his post-research deliveries of freshly baked bread.

The next big thing for the department may be a fermentation science center, which would tie together researchers involved in developing beer, wine, spirits, bread, yogurt and cheese. Oregon is increasingly known for artisan food and drink, and a bill pending in the Legislature would provide money for an OSU center to further the effort.

"There's a market for it and hard-core science behind it," Karow said.

Wheat breeding, which takes years, is probably the department's best-known work. At Hyslop Farm, a test site near campus, breeders intentionally grow disease-bearing wheat next to new varieties, to determine if the new ones can stand up to such things as stripe rust and strawbreaker footrot.

Farmers, agricultural companies and commodity groups maintain close ties with OSU's researchers.

The Oregon Wheat Commission provides the department $1 million annually for wheat breeding research and consults regularly on higher crop yield and other traits sought by farmers. The wheat commission also allocates $300,000 a year to offset fuel, fertilizer and maintenance costs at OSU's agricultural research stations around the state.

"We have a very good relationship with OSU," says Blake Rowe, the commission's chief executive.

It's paid off over the years. Many Pacific Northwest wheat farmers grow varieties developed by OSU. The Stephens variety, for example, developed in the late 1970s by legendary breeder Warren Kronstad, was the most widely-grown wheat variety in the northwest for 30 years.

At Washington State University, which has a similar wheat-breeding program, research director Jim Moyer says breeders are collaborative yet fiercely competitive, and "some of the most passionate and dedicated members of the faculty."

Being directly accountable to farmers, whose income depends on successful crops, provides the focus that defines the researchers, Moyer says.

"They are the last step," he says. "They're releasing the varieties (farmers') livelihoods depend on."

At OSU, scientists say their role in the federal wheat investigation appears to be finished and they can return to relative anonymity.

"I would have been happy," Mallory-Smith said, "if they'd come back and said our results don't match your results."

--Eric Mortenson