Dr Sadiye Hayta

Senior Scientist Designing Future Wheat

Sadiye oversees the transformation and genome editing of wheat at the John Innes Centre within the Crop Transformation facility (BRACT).

This role involves collaborations on many different projects, with both internal groups and external institutes and universities.

Sadiye has established close interactions with wheat research groups at the John Innes Centre, in particularly the groups of Professor Cristobal Uauy and Professor Graham Moore.

Her interest is innovations in transformation and genome editing technologies to meet specific research goals in wheat.

She focusses on innovative strategies to further improve wheat transformation and editing technologies. This includes work to further extend the efficiency of wheat transformation and the range of amenable genotypes; as well as to develop advanced genome editing technologies adapted for use in wheat.

Sadiye has developed an efficient and robust Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method in wheat.

The developmental gene fusion GRF-GIF technology, developed by the Dubcovsky lab at UC Davis, combined with this transformation system improved transformation efficiencies and extend the genotypes of wheat transformation, allowing new genome-editing tools to be used directly in more elite wheat varieties.

Sadiye provides training and advice in wheat transformation and genome-editing to staff, students and visiting workers through the Crop Transformation facility.

She was also responsible for developing the first transformation system for Primula vulgaris. A technology which will play a major step forward in understanding the genes responsible for floral heteromorphy, a focus of the Gilmartin group’s ongoing work program.

Selected Publications

See all of Dr Sadiye Hayta's publications