Diter von Wettstein

Diter von Wettstein (born Dietrich Holger Wettstein Ritter von Westersheim; 20 September 1929 – 13 April 2017) was a plant geneticist whose research included barley mutants, chloroplast development, chlorophyll biosynthesis, plant breeding, and cereal biotechnology. He held positions at the University of Stockholm, the University of Copenhagen, the Carlsberg Laboratory, and Washington State University.

Early life, education, and family von Wettstein was born in Göttingen, Germany. He was the son of Austrian botanist Friedrich "Fritz" Wettstein Ritter von Westersheim and Else Therese Jesser von Wettstein; his father studied the genetics, polyploidy, cytoplasmic inheritance, and developmental physiology of mosses. His mother studied botany in Vienna and algae in Uppsala. His grandfather was also a botanist, Richard von Wettstein Ritter von Westersheim, a professor of botany in Prague and director of the Botanical Garden there.

In 1953, von Wettstein received two doctoral degrees, one from the University of Tübingen in biology and biochemistry and one from the University of Stockholm in genetics; the second doctoral degree in Sweden facilitated him obtaining a position there. In 1957, he received a DSc degree in genetics from the University of Stockholm. His early work included barley mutagenesis, genetics of chlorophyll synthesis, and electron microscopy of developing chloroplasts. In 1958, he held a Rockefeller fellowship for research and training in the United States, including work at the California Institute of Technology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Stanford University. He was as being among the earliest researchers to demonstrate structural changes in plastid development from the proplastid to chloroplast stage. von Wettstein's research group helped elucidate these early steps in chlorophyll biosynthesis, and they later cloned several genes in the chlorophyll biosynthesis pathway.

His applied research included barley traits relevant to malting, beer production, animal feed, stem rust resistance, and wheat proteins associated with celiac disease. He was a member of scientific academies and organizations including the European Molecular Biology Organization, Academia Europaea, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences, and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Received a decoration for outstanding service to the Republic of Austria.