My research lab is now closed, however I
maintain an interest in all aspects of cereal genetics. In
recent years our research concentrated on the comparative
genetics of the economically important grasses, including
evolutionary, breeding and genomics applications. Biodiversity
studies were a significant part of the programme, with projects
on genome-wide genotyping of wheat to understand breeding
programmes and ‘genome scanning’ in rice to facilitate assembly
and exploitation of core ex situ collections.
Particular traits of importance in wheat
adaptation, such as pre-harvest sprouting and grain dormancy,
and plant height all received attention. Although wheat was our
major interest, we had collaborations with breeders in
developing countries for pearl millet, finger millet and foxtail
millet, where we have developed molecular maps.
