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UGI External Seminar - Dr Jemima Brinton, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

29 September 2021, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm

Dr Jemima Brinton

Title: Dissecting the genomic and developmental architecture underlying yield in polyploid wheat

Event Information

Open to

UCL staff | UCL students | UCL alumni

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Jackie Gadd

Location

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Abstract : Exploiting natural variation for the genetic improvement of crops plays a central role in increasing productivity to meet the needs of the growing worldwide population. However, challenges still remain in how to most effectively use natural variation to access and improve traits, such as final crop yield. Crop yield is a highly complex trait, representing the output of a complex network of genetic and environmental interactions throughout the entire life history of a plant. In this talk, I will discuss our work using a genome-wide haplotype-led approach to characterise genetic diversity in modern-day polyploid bread wheat. I will also discuss how this broad genomic characterisation can be combined with detailed developmental studies of specific yield components to develop targeted strategies for assembling desired combinations of traits.

About the Speaker

Dr Jemima Brinton

Kew Future Leader Fellow at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

I am a Kew Future Leader Fellow and my research aims to improve productivity and other agronomically important traits in cereal crops through understanding grass diversity. To achieve this, I use a range of genetic, genomic and transcriptomic approaches. In particular, I am interested in understanding the genomic basis of the huge diversity in spike and grain morphology observed across the grass family. My background is in wheat genetics and genomics, with the focus of my PhD work being on understanding the control of grain size and yield in hexaploid bread wheat through a combination of genetics, physiology, microscopy and transcriptomics. I have also looked more broadly at genomic variation between wheat varieties in order to inform strategies to identify beneficial diversity for introduction to breeding programmes.

 

More about Dr Jemima Brinton