Excellence in plant and microbial science
Microbes are found almost everywhere on Earth, and have evolved over the past 3.5 billion years to survive and thrive in diverse habitats, including in and on plants. The relationship between plants and microbes is complex; some microbes are beneficial, whilst others can cause devastating diseases.
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Mosses, liverworts, ferns and algae may offer an exciting new research frontier in the global challenge of protecting crops from the threat of disease
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Crop science is beginning to reap the benefits of Arthur Ernest Watkins’ work in the early 20th Century to assemble a diverse collection of local cultivars of wheat. As wheat scientist Robert Koebner wrote of this unassuming pioneer in the Genetics Society magazine, “Over 50 years since Watkins’ death and about 100 years since his...
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Secrets of photosynthesis have been discovered at atomic level, shedding important new light on this plant super-power that greened the earth more than a billion years ago
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Humans are attracted to symmetry: in our buildings, our gardens, in our potential partners. For plants, the symmetrical shapes of organs are a matter of survival because the form directly impacts the function
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Gene-editing techniques have helped to identify a temperature tolerance factor that may protect wheat from the increasingly unpredictable challenges of climate change
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Researchers have uncovered the intricate molecular mechanism used by parasitic phytoplasma bacteria, known for inducing 'zombie-like' effects in plants. This detailed revelation opens new horizons for groundbreaking applications in biotechnology and even in biomedicine.
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An unexpected genetic discovery in wheat has led to opportunities for metabolic engineering of versatile compounds with potential to improve its nutritional qualities and resilience to disease
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A collaboration between the group of Professor Caroline Dean at the John Innes Centre and the group of Dr. Mariann Bienz at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, has shed new light on epigenetic silencing.
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