• David Laurie's Research

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Curriculum Vitae

• 1976 BSc. Biological Sciences, Class 1. University of East Anglia
• 1980 PhD. University of Birmingham

David Laurie

Head of Department

Crop Genetics

Contact details

david.laurie@bbsrc.ac.uk

Research interests

Plants have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to ensure that they flower when the chances of pollination, seed development and seed dispersal are highest. For most plants this means that flowering is restricted to a particular time of year.

The timing of flowering is also very important for crops as it has major impacts on yield and quality. But how does a plant “know” what time of year it is? Many plants, including cereals, use environmental cues, particularly the length of the day (photoperiod) and extended periods of low temperature (vernalization).

During domestication the ways in which crops use these signals has been altered by selection so that they can now be grown in regions outside the ecogeographical limits of their wild ancestors.

My research focus is on genetic variation in barley and wheat for response to photoperiod and vernalization. For example, UK winter wheat (sown in the autumn) has a requirement for vernalization but spring wheat does not.  In most UK wheats flowering is promoted by long day lengths but many wheats from Southern Europe and the rest of the world flower whatever the day length.

The aims of my group are;

To understand how wheat and barley recognize and respond to environmental cues.

To understand how this variation can provide adaptation to different farming environments.

and
To provide knowledge and resources that plant breeders can use to enhance adaptation and sustainability of production, both in current environments and in new environments arising from climate change.
 

To understanding flowering in wheat and barley my group links closely with research in model plants, particularly Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress).  We want to understand whether the genetic basis of flowering time regulation is conserved. In other words, do cereals and Arabidopsis have the same regulatory pathways inherited from their common evolutionary ancestor? Where they have, Arabidopsis provides fast-track access to important genes in cereals.