314. Li J, Webster MA, Wright J, Cocker JM, Smith MC, Badakshi F, Heslop‐Harrison P, Gilmartin PM. 2015. Integration of genetic and physical maps of the Primula vulgaris S locus and localization by chromosome in situ hybridization. New Phytologist http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.13373/full. dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.13373 Heteromorphic flower development in Primula is controlled by the S locus. The S locus genes, which…
Tag: breeding
Agriculture and Climate Change in Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Breeding, Climate Change Adaptation, Agronomy, and Water Security
313. Noorka IR, Heslop-Harrison JS 2014. Agriculture and Climate Change in Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Breeding, Climate Change Adaptation, Agronomy, and Water Security. In: Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation, Ed Leal Filho W. 1-8. Springer Berlin Heidelberg http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40455-9_74-1 Link to NoorkaHeslopHarrisonBreedingClimateChangeAuthorVersion with colour figures. Link to typeset first page of publication. The agriculture of Southeast Asia and the Middle East…
Diversity and characters in Ethiopian linseed Linum #PAGXXIII Negash Worku
Many people have talked about Orphan crops – those where there has been little genetic or other research – and the characterization, evaluation and exploitation of germplasm at the #PAGXXIII Plant and Animal Genome Conference this week. Today, I am talking about work by Negash Worku on the Diversity and Characters in Ethiopian Linseed Accessions….
Transposable Elements in the Musa and Banana Genome: PAGXXIII conference talk
There has been a lot of talk about transposable elements during the Plant and Animal Genome #PAGXXIII meeting this week. As half or more – often 75% – of all the DNA in a plant or animal genome is typically made of class I retrotransposons and class II DNA transposons, this widespread interest is right!…
Needs for understanding water and food security
“The earth’s land surface receives about 110,000 km3 of rainfall annually. More than half of this water is evapotranspired (transmitted from soils and through plants to the air); about 20,000 km3 falls on land that is cultivated in some form; and about 40,000 km3 becomes available in dams, lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers for human…
Molecular cytogenetics research group October 2014
At our lab. meeting a couple of weeks ago, we were happy to welcome two new PhD students to the group. Here we all are in the lobby of our Adrian Building. We are from six countries, and work on a diverse range of molecular cytogenetics projects. From left to right, left of DNA molecule:…
Chromosomal evolution in Brachiaria forage grasses with Fabiola Carvalho Santos
Fabiola Santos from University of Londrina, Brazil, is working on the Chromosomal evolution and the organization of repetitive DNA sequences in diploid and polyploid Brachiaria forage grasses in the molecular cytogenetics group in Leicester. Brachiaria is most important cultivated forage grass genus in Brazil (with billion-dollar production), and the genus includes diploid and polyploid species with similar…
An Overview of Peanut Genome Structure
308. DJ Bertioli, ACG Araujo, S Nielen, P Heslop-Harrison, PM Guimarães, T Schwarzacher, S Isobe, K Shirasawa, Leal-Bertioli SCM. 2014. An overview of peanut genome structure. Chapter 6 in Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Peanuts. Eds Nalini Mallikarjuna, Rajeev K. Varshney. Peanut genome structure manuscript Author Version pp. 114-138. CRC Press, Florida. http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/abs/10.1201/b16872-7 ABSTRACT Cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea…
Animal Cytogenetics, Gene Mapping and Chromosome Research – The 21st Colloquium Ischia, Naples, Italy
Cytogenetics of animals is moving forward rapidly with the integration of sequencing and robust phylogenies with methods of chromosome analysis. The 21st International Colloquium on Animal Cytogenetics and Gene Mapping held June 2014 covered a range of topics in comparative, molecular, veterinary and environmental cytogenetics, as well as a session on cytogenetics of non-mammalian vertebrates and…
The origin of an old, resource-efficient crop, Broomcorn millet or Panicum miliaceum
307. Hunt HV, Badakshi F, Romanova O, Howe CJ, Jones M, Heslop-Harrison JS. 2014. Reticulate evolution in Panicum (Poaceae): the origin of tetraploid broomcorn millet, P. miliaceum. Journal of Experimental Botany 65 (12), 3165-3175. DOI:10.1093/jxb/eru161 . (Link to local copy J. Exp. Bot.-2014-Hunt-3165-75) Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) is a tetraploid cereal which was among the first domesticated crops, but is now a minor…
From vegan to meat: human diet and trophic levels
Where are humans in the food chain? Bonhommeau et al. address this question in PNAS, apparently for the first time, in detail across all countries and over the period from 1961 that FAO statistics on food consumption and production are available (FAOstat.FAO.org). If we ate only the primary producers – plants – we would have a…
Fertilizer statistics: changes and usage
Fertilizer has been critical to crop yields from the start of agriculture, and the application of artificially fixed nitrogen has been fundamental to crop yield increases since the 1970s. However, finding definitive data about absolute amounts, costs, effects on yields and changes in application is tricky – with dispersed literature, many units, confusion with sales…
Food and nutrition security in dry areas: ICARDA 2012 report and research-for-development obstacles
ICARDA_2012_Annual Report ICARDA – the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas http://www.icarda.org – is an international organization targeting crops for these critical regions. It’s annual report for 2012 has just been published and highlights their genetic, breeding and agronomy research. Their headquarters in Aleppo, Syria, was taken over – there are shocking YouTube…
Haploid callus from a diploid Musa accession for genome analysis
303. Nair AS, Heslop-Harrison P, Schwarzacher T. 2013. Production of haploid tissues and SNP analysis of the genome in Musa acuminata cv.‘Matti’ (AA). Plant Mutation Reports 3(1): 18-24. Haploid and doubled haploid plants are of considerable value in genetic studies, genomics and plant breeding, allowing characterization and exploitation of genes where only one allele is present. Inbred banana…
Wheat-Thinopyrum introgression work wins prize for Niaz Ali, Hazara, Pakistan
Dr Niaz Ali, Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan works on the introgression of characters from alien species into wheat, having completed his PhD in Leicester in 2012 with Dr Trude Schwarzacher. He presented his PhD work at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology (SEB http://www.sebiology.org/meetings /Valencia/Programmes.html) in the session on Exploiting genetic diversity for…
Molecular cytogenetics, genome evolution and agricultural genomics 