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Many economically important crops, such as wheat, cotton and coffee are allopolyploids, i.e., they originated from hybridisation of two or more species followed/preceded by whole genome duplication. The cells of these organisms therefore contain at least two different subgenomes which mutually coexist together. These subgenomes also express their corresponding “homoeologous” genes and understanding their interaction …

Solving the living puzzle: Homoeolog interaction in polyploid genomes Read More »

Ever since I was a teenager, I have been inspired by the “Golden Rice” story and amazed by how the application of plant sciences can have tremendous impacts on the world. This fascination has since driven me to dedicate my time and energy to contribute to the development of crops that can adapt to the …

My Journey in Wheat Read More »

Cereals, like other plants, live in association with a myriad of microorganisms collectively referred to as the plant microbiome. These interactions are particularly dynamic in the rhizosphere, the thin interface between roots and soil1. The rhizosphere microbiome can provide cereals with “external traits” derived from the ability of these microbes to, for instance, gain access …

Unravelling the genetic relationships between cereals and their microbiome Read More »

When I was 13 years old, I spoke to the 2008 UN climate change conference. There I learned about the intertwined relationship of climate change, agriculture, and global food security. I concluded that more efficient and resilient plants could be the key to safeguard the planets biodiversity and global food production. And I decided that …

Increasing future wheat yields, one spikelet at a time Read More »

One classic question that always cropped up during school careers sessions and interviews was “where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?” When I remember my answer as a quiet, farming obsessed, 15 year old, “starting a career in plant breeding after completing a PhD” certainly didn’t cross my mind. But after two particularly …

From Farm to Research to Farm again Read More »

It just takes one small pathogen to change the world. While human pathogens are a direct attack on human health, plant pathogens can devastate harvests, damage food quality, and destroy livelihoods.

Imagine that you are about to prepare a cake to share with your friends. The ratio between the different ingredients (e.g. water, butter, yeast and flour) will determine how soft, moist and dense the cake will be. Likewise, different tissues at different growth stages require different proportions of genes to be expressed. With the wheat …

Gene expression bias in polyploid wheat Read More »

My overriding memory of learning about plant science in school is weighing hundreds of dried peas which at 16, I didn’t find particularly thrilling. As a result, when I started university, I thought I was mostly interested in human biology and pathology. I’ll admit this was also partially motivated by an obsession with forensics programmes …

Weighing up a career in plant science Read More »

I did my PhD at the University of Liverpool performing mutant identification and epigenetic studies in wheat. These analyses heavily involved the use of bioinformatics. As I had no prior bioinformatics experience, having previously worked identifying treatment response biomarkers for human chronic lymphocytic leukemia, it was a steep learning curve for me, particularly in my …

The plight of the wheat bioinformatician: when your genome reference sequence changes more often than Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Read More »

When you work with someone for four years, inevitably you get to know them extremely well a lot better than you ever imagined in some cases. When doing a PhD or other research project in plant biology, funny enough, we also get to know our plants very well. I saw Brachypodium distachyon for the first …

Brachypodium distachyon – “the cute grass” Read More »