Delivering Sustainable Wheat: Delivering Resilience to Biotic Stress (Rothamsted Research)
Lead Research Organisation:
Rothamsted Research
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Technical Summary
WP2 aims to improve the resilience of wheat production systems to biotic stresses frequently encountered in high yielding UK-European (and global) wheat regions. This WP will investigate biotic threats which typically cause grain yield losses in the range 10 to 25% even after the correct application of fully integrated control options. The WP will focus on major anticipated/recurrent UK European- global threats including stem rust wheat blast Fusarium Head Blight (FHB)/Scab caused by Fusarium graminearum (Fg) and F. culmorum (Fc) Septoria Leaf Blotch caused by Zymoseptoria tritici (Zt) take-all root disease yellow rust and two aphid species (Rhopalosiphum padi (Rp) and Sitobion avenae (Sa)) that transmit various viruses and exploit comparative analyses. As a result of DFW and other investments we will in this WP deliver molecular targets in wheat and in the major wheat pests and pathogens which can be exploited to sustain future productivity in the short medium and longer terms. Our approach will mirror that used to counter infectious diseases of humans as exemplified by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. These were to: (1) increase host immunity (vaccination) (2) understand the molecular basis of infection and deploy selective antiviral chemistry and (3) monitor (surveillance) of pathogen strains and predict new emergence/ epidemics. WP2 will deliver resilient wheat crop protection via a similar triple-pronged cross institute approach. Specifically we will identify and characterise wheat germplasm and genes which will (1) boost wheats natural immunity to multiple diseases whilst also identifying genes/processes which pathogens may exploit (“susceptibility factors”) as potential weaknesses with emphasis on those exploited by multiple pathogens. We will also (2) functionally identify the genes that are pathogen weaknesses based on their importance for wheat infection. Through large-scale comparative genomics and pangenomics we will refine these lists for “Accessible SMART targets” for future interventions which can be selectively targeted in pathogens/pests as opposed to beneficial/non-target organisms. Finally we will (3) further develop and deploy state of the art surveillance strategies to enable rapid identification and response to new variants of existing threats as well as detect new and emerging threats to UK-global wheat production.
Planned Impact
unavailable
Organisations
- Rothamsted Research (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL (Collaboration)
- University of Bergen (Collaboration)
- National Institute of Agricultural Botany (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM (Collaboration)
- University of California, Davis (Collaboration)
- IPK Gatersleben (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Collaboration)
- Bayer (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EXETER (Collaboration)
- French National Institute of Agricultural Research (Collaboration)
- University of Neuchatel (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- ExPASy, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) (Collaboration)
- EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL - EBI) (Collaboration)
- University of Bath (Collaboration)
- JOHN INNES CENTRE (Collaboration)
- University of Edinburgh (Collaboration)
- National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB) (Collaboration)
- Federal University of Viçosa (Collaboration)
- Embrapa Trigo (Collaboration)
Publications
Armer VJ
(2024)
Navigating the Fusarium species complex: Host-range plasticity and genome variations.
in Fungal biology
Armer VJ
(2024)
The trichothecene mycotoxin deoxynivalenol facilitates cell-to-cell invasion during wheat-tissue colonization by Fusarium graminearum.
in Molecular plant pathology
Blyth HR
(2023)
Fungal plant pathogen "mutagenomics" reveals tagged and untagged mutations in Zymoseptoria tritici and identifies SSK2 as key morphogenesis and stress-responsive virulence factor.
in Frontiers in plant science
Chancellor T
(2024)
A fungal endophyte induces local cell wall-mediated resistance in wheat roots against take-all disease.
in Frontiers in plant science
Cuzick A
(2023)
A framework for community curation of interspecies interactions literature.
in eLife
Darino M
(2024)
Identification and functional characterisation of a locus for target site integration in Fusarium graminearum
in Fungal Biology and Biotechnology
| Description | British Mycological Society |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Application of microfluidics chip analyses to Fusarium graminearum research |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Society of Plant Pathoogy |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2023 |
| End | 09/2024 |
| Description | BBSRC SWBioDTP - Investigating the impact of antioxidants on crop disease. Student Noah Walker |
| Amount | £140,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/T008741/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2024 |
| End | 09/2028 |
| Description | BSPP Summer bursary: Exploring hexaploid wheat GE lines defective in key aspects of fructan biosynthesis as a new way to reduce Fusarium head blight susceptibility whilst maintaining grain yields - Kathlyn Murrell |
| Amount | £3,400 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The British Society of Plant Pathology |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2024 |
| End | 09/2024 |
| Description | DFW - Designing Future Wheat - Work package 2 (WP2) - Added value and resilience |
| Amount | £7,068,842 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BBS/E/C/000I0250 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2017 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | Empowering the UK Wheat Community to Achieve Gender Parity - PI Diane Saunders John Innes Centre. |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | APP44128 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2025 |
| End | 12/2025 |
| Description | Exploring resistance to take-all root disease in wheat by high throughput genotyping and functional characterisation of wheat defence genes |
| Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Royal Society of Biology (RSB) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2023 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | Fungicide testing programme |
| Amount | £3,712 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Plant Impact |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | |
| Description | Genetics Society: Summer Bursary project - Generating protease gene deletion mutants in the wheat-infecting fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum to understand the role(s) of proteases in plant disease formation - Morta Botha |
| Amount | £3,300 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Genetics Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2024 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | IIP - • Establishing a universal high-throughput digital phenomics platform to study wheat responses to various biotic fungal threats and potential biocontrol bacteria |
| Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 06/2024 |
| Description | IIP -Beyond the host plant, how Fusarium graminearum establishes beneficial interactions with the microbiome. |
| Amount | £18,896 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 06/2024 |
| Description | Jade Smith - Investigating fungal pathogen effector localisation within plant cells - SWBioDTP 2023-2027 |
| Amount | £130,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 229139594 SWBio DTP Rothamsted studentship - University of Bath |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2023 |
| End | 09/2027 |
| Description | NatCropProtect |
| Amount | £13,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2024 |
| End | 04/2025 |
| Description | Phenotyping Barley yellow dwarf virus resistance in wheat, and quantification of the virus titre in different tissues of susceptible and resistant plants |
| Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The British Society of Plant Pathology |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2023 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | RRes-Brazil partnership for protecting crops against bacterial / viral plant diseases and associated vectors |
| Amount | £10,914 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 05/2024 |
| Description | SWBioDTP - JAnderson Map based cloning and characterisation of plant loci conferring resistance to a root infecting fungus |
| Amount | £160,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/T008741/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2024 |
| End | 09/2028 |
| Description | Wheat Genetic Improvement Network Phase 5 C24770 |
| Amount | £3,000,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | C24770 |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2024 |
| End | 06/2029 |
| Description | X9 High-Throughput Genomics System for new and versatile research capabilities |
| Amount | £158,270 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2023 |
| End | 12/2023 |
| Title | Fungal conditional promoter expression system |
| Description | New promoter useful for testing for essential for life genes |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Invention Disclosure form completed and preliminary conversations with potential Industry users |
| Title | High Molecular Weight DNA extraction method for fungal tissues from soil dwelling species |
| Description | Through collaborations with Rothamsted Research, Michelle Grey modified a method for extracting high molecular weight DNA for long-read sequencing (PacBio HiFi reads) during the time she worked on the DFW project. Modifications included overnight lysis, a robust RNase-A digestion, Proteinase K digestion, twisting out DNA before washing and then splitting the sample during the wash phase. This worked well using the Nucleon PhytoPure and Macherey-Nagel kits. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This new protocol developed through a collaboration between Rothamsted Research and Earlham has lead to the development of a robust protocol to isolate HMW DNA from a range of very difficult fungal species that can then be used for both PacBio and IIlumina sequence used to de novo assemble chromosome scale whole genomes from new species. This protocol is now being exploited in the Fungal Tree of life project. |
| Title | Identification and functional characterisation of a locus for target site integration in Fusarium graminearum |
| Description | Background: Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a destructive floral disease of different cereal crops. The Ascomycete fungus Fusarium graminearum (Fg) is one of the main causal agents of FHB in wheat and barley. The role(s) in virulence of Fg genes include genetic studies that involve the transformation of the fungus with different expression cassettes. We have observed in several studies where Fg genes functions were characterised that integration of expression cassettes occurred randomly. Random insertion of a cassette may disrupt gene expression and/or protein functions and hence the overall conclusion of the study. Target site integration (TSI) is an approach that consists of identifying a chromosomal region where the cassette can be inserted. The identification of a suitable locus for TSI in Fg would avert the potential risks of ectopic integration. Results: Here, we identified a highly conserved intergenic region on chromosome 1 suitable for TSI. We named this intergenic region TSI locus 1. We developed an efficient cloning vector system based on the Golden Gate method to clone different expression cassettes for use in combination with TSI locus 1. We present evidence that integrations in the TSI locus 1 affects neither fungal virulence nor fungal growth under different stress conditions. Integrations at the TSI locus 1 resulted in the expression of different gene fusions. In addition, the activities of Fg native promoters were not altered by integration into the TSI locus 1. We have developed a bespoke bioinformatic pipeline to analyse the existence of ectopic integrations, cassette truncations and tandem insertions of the cassette that may occurred during the transformation process. Finally, we established a protocol to study protein secretion in wheat coleoptiles using confocal microscopy and the TSI locus 1. Conclusion: The TSI locus 1 can be used in Fg and potentially other cereal infecting Fusarium species for diverse studies including promoter activity analysis, protein secretion, protein localisation studies and gene complementation. The bespoke bioinformatic pipeline developed in this work together with PCR amplification of the insert could be an alternative to Southern blotting, the gold standard technique used to identify ectopic integrations, cassette truncations and tandem insertions in fungal transformation. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The method has been used in different projects of the lab to complement knock-out fungal strains and to express recombinant proteins in the fungus. |
| URL | https://fungalbiolbiotech.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40694-024-00171-8 |
| Title | Identification of a locus for target site integration in Fusarium graminearum |
| Description | We developed a vector system for target site integration (TSI) in an intergenic chromosomic region of the Fg genome. Insertion of the expression cassette in this chromosomic region (TSI locus1) does not alter either fungal growth of fungal virulence. Integrations in the TSI locus1 allow the expression of different genes fusions and activities of virulence specific promoters were not altered by integration into the TSI locus 1. Complementation tests were successfully done on three test genes. Finally, we established a protocol to study protein secretion in wheat coleoptiles using confocal microscopy and the TSI locus1 for stable expression of different gene fusions. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The TSI locus1 can be used for diverse studies including promoter activity analysis, secretion and gene complementation and localisation studies. Therefore, the vector system has already been used in multiple ongoing BBSRC funded research projects in the laboratory. A PhD student and a postdoctoral researcher have successfully used the vector system for gene complementation studies. The vector system will also be used to study protein secretion in a new collaborative project with US researchers. The project aims to identify fungal secreted proteinases that can be used to engineer fungal resistance in wheat. The new vector system is available from ADDGene. |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40694-024-00171-8 |
| Title | PHI-Canto |
| Description | This community curation tool and framework tool permits authors of in scope peer reviewed publication to manually enter all the data and findings from their publication into the open access PHI-base database, using controlled ontologies and evidence codes. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Highly fragment data sets on any pathogen host interaction or any chemical interaction with a pathogen species, published in all peer review articles is converted to FAIR data |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84658 |
| Title | PHI-Canto: Annotating a gene-for-gene interaction |
| Description | PHI-Canto: Annotating a gene-for-gene interaction. This is a specific type of host-pathogen interaction that determines the overall outcome of the interaction namely the resistance or susceptibility of the host and the ability of the pathogen to cause disease or not. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The authors of a relevant peer reviewed publication can curate their complicated data sets directly into the PHI-base database using the PHI-Canto tool. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/_og3umfy4WU |
| Title | PHI-Canto: Annotating an inverse gene-for-gene interaction |
| Description | PHI-Canto: Annotating an inverse gene-for-gene interaction into the PHI-base database. https://youtu.be/KKhomX11TMs |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The authors of a relevant peer reviewed publication can curate their complicated data sets directly into the PHI-base database using the PHI-Canto tool. The are genetically the rarer interaction types compared to gene-for-gene interaction types. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/KKhomX11TMs |
| Title | PHI-Canto: Why should I contribute? |
| Description | PHI-Canto: the personal and professional benefits to authors of contributing a peer reviewed article using this community curation tool https://youtu.be/QQGZBnUYZcA |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Soon after publication, more authors will spend the time curating their research articles via PHI-Canto into the PHI-base database |
| URL | https://youtu.be/QQGZBnUYZcA |
| Title | The Pathogen-Host Interactions Database (PHI-base) |
| Description | This is described in the Wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHI-base |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | PHI-base makes two data releases per annum in May and November. In the reporting period the following has occurred The latest release of PHI-base, version 4.15, was on 2 May 2023 (http://www.phi-base.org/releaseNote.htm). Compared to version 4.14, released on 1 November 2022, the increase in data is: 384 genes, 1,069 interactions, 237 publications, 2 new pathogens, and 2 new hosts. The number of diseases was reduced by one, due to data cleaning efforts removing redundant and incorrect disease names. We continue to freely share phenotyping data with Ensembl ( since 2011), FungiDB (since 2019) and UniProtKB (since 2020). UK and international resource usage trends: PHI-base > 25,800 and > 1007 full database downloads, > 6,000 unique users and > 400 registered API users. Total users > 119,700 during the reporting period April 2023-March 2024. |
| URL | http://www.phi-base.org/ |
| Title | Video - PHI-Canto: Choosing a suitable publication |
| Description | PHI-Canto: Choosing a suitable publication https://youtu.be/J6z4MlU8Bkc |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | How to select an in scope publication for author curation using the community curation tool - PHI-Canto |
| URL | https://youtu.be/J6z4MlU8Bkc |
| Title | Video - PHI-Canto: Introduction to PHI-base |
| Description | https://youtu.be/5GlKRM9qshk |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improved understanding of what PHI-base is about for first time users of the database |
| URL | https://youtu.be/5GlKRM9qshk |
| Title | Zymoseptoria IPO323 genome re-annotation |
| Description | New improved community annotation publicly available |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improved research tool for global community |
| URL | https://mycocosm.jgi.doe.gov/Zymtr1/Zymtr1.home.html |
| Title | A conserved fungal Knr4/Smi1 protein is vital for maintaining cell wall integrity and host plant pathogenesis |
| Description | Filamentous plant pathogenic fungi pose significant threats to global food security, particularly through diseases like Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and Septoria Tritici Blotch (STB) which affects cereals. With mounting challenges in fungal control and increasing restrictions on fungicide use due to environmental concerns, there is an urgent need for innovative control strategies. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of the stage-specific infection process of Fusarium graminearum in wheat spikes by generating a dual weighted gene co-expression network (WGCN). Notably, the network contained a mycotoxin-enriched fungal module that exhibited a significant correlation with a detoxification gene-enriched wheat module. This correlation in gene expression was validated through quantitative PCR. By examining a fungal module with genes highly expressed during early symptomless infection, we identified a gene encoding FgKnr4, a protein containing a Knr4/Smi1 disordered domain. Through comprehensive analysis, we confirmed the pivotal role of FgKnr4 in various biological processes, including morphogenesis, growth, cell wall stress tolerance, and pathogenicity. Further studies confirmed the observed phenotypes are partially due to the involvement of FgKnr4 in regulating the fungal cell wall integrity pathway by modulating the phosphorylation of the MAP-kinase MGV1. Orthologues of FgKnr4 are widespread across the fungal kingdom but are absent in other Eukaryotes, suggesting the protein has potential as a promising intervention target. Encouragingly, the restricted growth and highly reduced virulence phenotypes observed for ?Fgknr4 were replicated upon deletion of the orthologous gene in the wheat fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. Overall, this study demonstrates the utility of an integrated network-level analytical approach to pinpoint genes of high interest to pathogenesis and disease control. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/99163/a-conserved-fungal-knr4-smi1-protein-is-vital-for-mai... |
| Title | Additional file 17: of Inter-genome comparison of the Quorn fungus Fusarium venenatum and the closely related plant infecting pathogen Fusarium graminearum |
| Description | Fusarium venenatum presence of TRI6 Fusarium greaminearum binding sites predicted by Nasmith et al. [39]. Fusarium venenatum BLASTP alignment percentages were added to identify presence or absence. (XLS 61Â kb) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Placing the chromosome scale, fully annotated F. venenatum genome in the public domain has increased the power of comparative genomics for cereal infecting Fusarium species. |
| URL | https://springernature.figshare.com/articles/Additional_file_17_of_Inter-genome_comparison_of_the_Qu... |
| Title | Combined pangenomics and transcriptomics reveals core and redundant virulence processes in a rapidly evolving fungal plant pathogen |
| Description | Studying genomic variation in rapidly evolving pathogens potentially enables identification of genes supporting their "core biology", being present, functional and expressed by all strains or "flexible biology", varying between strains. Genes supporting flexible biology may be considered to be "accessory", whilst the "core" gene set is likely to be important for common features of a pathogen species biology, including virulence on all host genotypes. The wheat-pathogenic fungus Zymoseptoria tritici represents one of the most rapidly evolving threats to global food security and was the focus of this study. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | A new method for prioritising genes of interest from a pangenome |
| URL | https://harvestirr.rothamsted.ac.uk/98q90/combined-pangenomics-and-transcr |
| Title | Pathogen-Host Interactions database |
| Description | Pathogen-Host Interactions database |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Two new releases Version 4.15 May 2nd 2023 Version 4.14 November 1st 2022 |
| URL | http://www.phi-base.org |
| Description | Activity based proteomics |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Department of Plant Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of Materials |
| Collaborator Contribution | Proteomics processing of materials and data sharing |
| Impact | BBSRC joint sLoLa application |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Apoplastic proteomics and activity testing |
| Organisation | National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Generating apoplastic fluids from infected wheat plants |
| Collaborator Contribution | Enzyme activity testing and effector protein inhibitor modelling |
| Impact | PhD student poster |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Apoplastic proteomics and activity testing |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Oxford Hub |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Generating apoplastic fluids from infected wheat plants |
| Collaborator Contribution | Enzyme activity testing and effector protein inhibitor modelling |
| Impact | PhD student poster |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Bayer Targets and Abraham Wald |
| Organisation | Bayer |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Generated materials for genome sequencing project |
| Collaborator Contribution | Paid for and performed sequencing project |
| Impact | Private datasets and new resources |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | EMBL-EBI ENSEMBL |
| Organisation | EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL - EBI) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Highly curated information on the genes in multiple pathogens shown to be required for the disease causing ability. Monthly curation of the peer reviewed literature , to link gene sequence information to phenotypic information for 250 pathogenic species |
| Collaborator Contribution | The quarterly mapping of the single gene - phenotype information onto the pathogen genomes with ENSEMBL. Also the creation of a bespoke genome portal called PhytoPath to display the genomes of hundreds of plant pathogen genomes within which this gene-to-phenotype information is displayed on the genome browser and can be searched for via the BioMart tool. |
| Impact | Several joint publications, quarterly joint data releases since 2013 via ENSEMBL, PhytoPath and PHI-base. New funding since 2017 via the Smart Crop Protection (SCP) strategic programme (BBS/OS/CP/000001) funded through Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to explore the possibility of curating new data types into PHI-base relating to fungicide insensitivity, resistance linked to pathogen target information. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | EMBRAPA Brazil - Passo fundo - Trigo (wheat) team |
| Organisation | Embrapa Trigo |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The Rothamsted Team has sequenced the genomes of 16 Brazilian strains of the Fusarium head blight disease causing strain F. graminearum (Fg) and has now created a pan -genome for this species by comparing with the available Fg genomes for 6 six additional global isolates including the reference isolate PH-I. This has indicated that the Fg pan genome is relatively closed. The Rothamsted Team has stably transformed the Brazilian commercial wheat cultivar Guaramin for the first time |
| Collaborator Contribution | The EMBRAPA Trigo team have generated various transgenic Arabidopsis harboring different Fg HIGS constructs. The EMBRAPA Team have also screened and identified lettuce cultivars that are fully susceptible to the nominated reference Brazilian strain. |
| Impact | A major display at the annual Cereals event held in Cambridgeshire in June 2016 on the new HIGS and SIGS technologies for the control of FHB disease in wheat . A open evening public event entitled @ Healthy Crops- Healthy Food done at Rothamsted Research in July 2016. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Fusarium NADases_University of Bergen_Norway |
| Organisation | University of Bergen |
| Country | Norway |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Unpublished data shared with the Norwegian research team lead by Professor Mathias Ziegler at the University of Bergen on two Fusarium graminearum NADase genes and their potential functions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Unpublished data shared with the Rothamsted research team on the crystal structure of three different types of NADases present in the fungal kingdom. |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Fusarium-bacteria interactions_Pilar Junier_University of Neuchatel, Switzerland |
| Organisation | University of Neuchatel |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Comprehensive literature search on Fusarium-bacteria interactions. Successfully winning a BBSRC research travel project entitled ' Beyond the host plant, how Fusarium graminearum establishes beneficial interactions with the microbiome' by Drs Martin Darino and Kim Hammond-Kosack |
| Collaborator Contribution | Established multiple laboratory based techniques to explore fungal - bacterial interactions, including the isolation of bacteria that live on and /or within fungi. |
| Impact | Collaboration just started |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | GFP strand 11 delivery into GFP1-10 expressing plant cells - Gitta Coaker |
| Organisation | University of California, Davis |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | None yet , we have just received the required Arabidopsis seed stock in Jan 2024 |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provision of the following GM Arabidopsis line 35S promoter : GFP1-10 expressing homozygous line described in the publication : Henry E, Toruno TY, Jauneau A, Deslandes L, Coaker G (2017) Direct and indirect visualization of bacterial effector delivery into diverse plant cell types during infection. Plant Cell. 29:1555-70. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28600390. |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Investigating Non host resistance in model plants to fungal pathogens |
| Organisation | National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Supervisors of PhD student Alina Igna |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supervisors of PhD student Alina Igna |
| Impact | PhD reports. poster presentations and draft thesis |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Investigating Non host resistance in model plants to fungal pathogens |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Supervisors of PhD student Alina Igna |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supervisors of PhD student Alina Igna |
| Impact | PhD reports. poster presentations and draft thesis |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Molecular and biological characterisation of Fusarium species and isolates collected from infected wheat fields in Southern Brazil |
| Organisation | Federal University of Viçosa |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Rothamsted team has used a next generation sequencing approach to explore the genomes of the five Fusarium Head Blight causing species in Southern Brazil, namely F. graminearum, F. meridionale, F.cortaderiae, F. austroamericanum and F. asiaticum.. The Rothamsted team are currently focussing on investigating and defining the core and variable parts of the pan genome of F. graminearum. The Rothamsted team also assembled and annotated the F. meridionale genome and has given this data to the University team for further analysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The University team had collected field isolates during 2009 - 2012 and provided the 24 Fusarium isolates covering the five required species. The University team had also characterised the disease causing ability of each isolate on the floral spikes of various Brazilian wheat genotypes. Currently, the University team is exploring the genomes of the various F. meridionale, |
| Impact | The two main output delivered so far has been (1) the biological characterisation of the 24 / 5 species collection for disease causing ability on both Brazilian and non-Brazilian wheat genotypes and (2) the 24 newly assembled and annotated genomes covering the five most important FHB causing species in Southern Brazil. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | PHI-Canto_curation of fungicide literature_Nichola Hawkins_NIAB |
| Organisation | National Institute Of Agricultural Botany |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The PHI-Canto community curation tool for literature curation for multiple pathogenic species. Detailed literature searches to identify the in scope publications Development of controlled vocabularies, ontology terms and evidence codes to curate the literature on fungicide targets and resistance mechanisms |
| Collaborator Contribution | In depth knowledge of the relevant fungicide resistance literature for key species , especially for those infecting wheat and barley. In depth knowledge of anew system to identify orthologous function mutations in protein structure across different species even when the amino acid sequence changes are not identical . |
| Impact | This joint project has been a success and a joint manuscript is in preparation |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | PHI-base collaboration with PomBase (PHI-CANTO and PHI-PO) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Since Sept 2017 the PomBase team at the University of Cambridge and the PHI-base team at Rothamsted Research have held weekly meetings ( by Skype) as well as occasional face-to-face meetings to develop an new multi-species author curation tool called PHI-Canto as well as a new pathogen - host interaction ontology called PHI-PO and a new .pathogen host disease ontology called PHI-DO. The Rothamsted team have provided the biological, wet biology experimental and literature knowledge into this collaboration |
| Collaborator Contribution | The PomBase team had already developed a highly successful single organism author curation tool called Canto. The PomBase team also bring a wealth of ontology development expertise into this collaborative project. |
| Impact | Two joint posters will be given at the International Ontology Development conference to be held in Cambridge UK in April 2019. The presenting authors will be Dr Alayne Cuzick and Dr Val Wood. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Providing pathogen-host interaction data to UniprotKB |
| Organisation | ExPASy, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Providing pathogen-host interaction data to UniprotKB |
| Collaborator Contribution | Providing pathogen-host interaction data to UniprotKB |
| Impact | Providing pathogen-host interaction data to UniprotKB |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Proximity Labelling methodology - The Sainsbury Lab, Norwich |
| Organisation | John Innes Centre |
| Department | The Sainsbury Laboratory |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Described and discussed this project goals with this collaborator. Explored the proximity labelling methods developed at TSL Norwich in the group of Professor Jonathan Jones for proximity labelling in Arabidopsis and Nicotiana benthamiana. Methods piloted at Rothamsted and additional positive and negative constructs included in the experimental design Collaboration still on going |
| Collaborator Contribution | Receive two types of detailed non-published proximity labelling protocols for Arabidopsis and Nicotiana benthamiana. . |
| Impact | Still in method development phase at Rothamsted |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Regulation of LysM effector expression |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Supervising PhD student Luca Steel |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supervising PhD student Luca Steel |
| Impact | Posters, Reports, PhD thesis |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | SWBiO collaboration on fungal cell walls |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Building from joint BBSRC PhD project we are assembling new data towards joint funding application. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Building from joint BBSRC PhD project we are assembling new data towards joint funding application. |
| Impact | A PhD thesis and two published papers |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | SWBio DTP - PhD student Erika Kroll |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Department | Department of Chemical Engineering |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The PHI-base databases Unpublished transcriptome data sets on the interaction between the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum and wheat plants PHI-Nets datasets which report on predicted protein-protein interactions for Fusarium graminearum A recent review article on Fusarium -cereal plant interactions covering Fusarium genomics, transcriptomics, secondary metabolite gene clusters, virulence genes, effector genomes, cell biologies in different plant species and tissue types and novel approaches to disease control by targeting Fusarium virulence requirements. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Unpublished transcriptome data sets on the interaction between the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum and wheat plants Unpublished single gene deletion mutants in Fusarium graminaerum |
| Impact | During the 1st rotation project, the deletion of three different predicted secreted proteases was successfully completed by the PhD student. One of these single gene deletion mutants had reduced virulence. The gene deleted was a secreted protease This data will fit into another recently funded project being done jointly with two US based groups where Rothamsted receives funding directly from the USA. In 2023 a bilateral NSF-BBSRC project was funded based on some of the data generated in the 1st rotation project of this joint PhD project. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | SWBio DTP - PhD student Victoria Armer |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Department | Biosciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Unpublished functional genomics datasets including the generation of single gene deletion mutants for the cereal infecting fungus Fusarium graminearum Unpublished transcriptomic datasets Unpublished cell biology studies. |
| Collaborator Contribution | New microscopy methods to explore cereal-fungal interactions |
| Impact | Too early |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | SWBio-DTP Fusarium graminearum effector characterisation and genome analyses_Jade Smith_Exeter |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Co-devising of a new SW-Bio DTP PhD project, which gives the appointed student a monthly researcher meeting where Dr Hans -Wilhelm Nützmann joins the rest of the supervisory team at Rothamsted. The techniques to be trained in are not those routinely available at Exeter. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The student will spend a 5 month training period within the laboratory of the student will spend a 5 month training period in genome analyses of multiple species in the laboratory of Dr Hans -Wilhelm Nützmann during the period March 2024-July 2024). The techniques to be trained in are not those routinely available at Rothamsted |
| Impact | Too early, this joint PhD project only formally commenced in Sept 2023 |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | SWBio-DTP PhD student Izayana Sandoval (2022 onwards) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Hiring of the PhD student Preliminary data for PhD project obtained by Dr Lawrence Bramham via a defra funded project entitles ' The Wheat Genetic Improvement Network' as well as through a British Society for Plant Pathology undergraduate summer bursary project in 2021. Identified a suitable industrial partner , the UK wheat breeding company RAGT Devising the project which is entitled - Investigating resistance to Barley yellow dwarf virus in wheat |
| Collaborator Contribution | To permit 30% of their SWBioDTP students to be international students. |
| Impact | None yet - too early the PhD project only commenced in Oct 2021 |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | SWBioDTP Noah Walker - Investigating the impact of antioxidants on crop disease |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Department | Biosciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Providing expertise in stable fungal transformation and fine phenotyping for the wheat spike infecting fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expert knowledge on antioxidant in crop plant species and the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici |
| Impact | Single gene deletion F. graminearum mutants for two candidate genes that may have a role in the antioxidant response of fungi |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | SWBioDTP student - J Anderson: Map based cloning and characterisation of plant loci conferring resistance to a root infecting fungus |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Department | Biosciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Wheat root interactions with the Take-all fungus - Gaeumannomyces tritici. Fine phenotyping and establishing time course experiments and new methods to explore the different phases of the infection in resistant and susceptible wheat germplasm |
| Collaborator Contribution | Epigenetic knowledge and methodologies to explore histone modifications using newly developed CUT&Tag protocols for wheat |
| Impact | New joint SWBioDTP project funded for 4 years focussing on wheat root tissues. This complements an earlier wheat spike-Fusarium secreted effector joint SWBioDTP project which commenced in Sept 2022. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | SWBioDTP student - J Anderson: Map based cloning and characterisation of plant loci conferring resistance to a root infecting fungus |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Wheat root interactions with the Take-all fungus - Gaeumannomyces tritici. Fine phenotyping and establishing time course experiments and new methods to explore the different phases of the infection in resistant and susceptible wheat germplasm |
| Collaborator Contribution | Epigenetic knowledge and methodologies to explore histone modifications using newly developed CUT&Tag protocols for wheat |
| Impact | New joint SWBioDTP project funded for 4 years focussing on wheat root tissues. This complements an earlier wheat spike-Fusarium secreted effector joint SWBioDTP project which commenced in Sept 2022. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Stb gene functions |
| Organisation | National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Generation of ideas for project work -packages |
| Collaborator Contribution | Generation of ideas for project work-packages |
| Impact | BBSRC responsive mode grant application |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Wheat Genetic Improvement Networks (WGIN) funded by defra |
| Organisation | John Innes Centre |
| Department | Department of Crop Genetics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Kim Hammond-Kosack and Peter Shewry at Rothamsted Research co-founded the defra funded Wheat Genetic Improvement Network in 2003. This network is about to enter its 4th phase. Kim Hammond-Kosack is the project leader and Peter Shewry chairs all the meetings. WGIN ensures the wheat genetic, genotyping and phenotyping pre-breeding research ongoing within the project is focussed on improving the sustainability and resilience of the UK wheat crop. A very wide range of wheat traits have been investigated in WGIN over the years, numerous new genetic resources for wheat have been generated and distributed. An integral part of WGIN is the regular connections with the nine wheat breeding companies based in the UK. An annual stakeholder meeting is held each November to connect this project with the needs of the wider UK wheat industry. |
| Collaborator Contribution | John Snape at The John Innes Centre co-founded WGIN in 2003. John Snape was trhe project leader up until 2008 and then this transferred to Simon Griffiths. The John Innes is involved in generating new genetic resources and in genotyping and phenotyping specific mapping populations as well as maintaining and distributing key germplasm. |
| Impact | Over 60 peer reviewed publications, including many involving multiple teams based at different academic organisations and industry. 45 joint meetings with the wheat breeding industry. 15 stakeholder meeting. Annual or biannual community newsletters, Well maintained database contain all the project information, key data sets and the resources available. Training the next generation of wheat scientists, through summer placements funded by learned society summer bursary schemes and involving PhD students in specific large and long term experiments. Considerable new funding obtained for wheat research. Still need to add in the final numbers. |
| Description | Wheat Pathogens_HTP Digital Phenomics_IPK Gaterslaben_Dimitar Douchkov |
| Organisation | IPK Gatersleben |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Well characterised isolates of the wheat fungal pathogens Fusarium graminearum and Zymoseptoria tritici with chromosome scale, fully annotated genomes Globally unique wheat introgression germplasm arising fro the Defra funded Wheat Genetic Improvemet Network. The NIFTYR lines in the elite UK spring cultivar Paragon harbour different segments of various Triticum monococcum (einkorn wheat ) lines. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IPK Gaterslaben has establishing a universal high-throughput digital phenomics platform to study wheat responses to various biotic fungal threats and potential biocontrol bacteria |
| Impact | Still in the planning stage. A funded research study period will take place in IPK Gaterslaben in Q2 2024 involving Dr Wanxin Chen from Rothamsted |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Zymoseptoria Epigenetics |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of Fungal isolates for new collaboration |
| Collaborator Contribution | Generation of Epigenetics dataset and data sharing |
| Impact | MTA agreement and intention to collaborate |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Zymoseptoria genome re-annotation |
| Organisation | French National Institute of Agricultural Research |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We provided a reference genome re-annotation to intercompare with others |
| Collaborator Contribution | They intercompared numerous gene set predictions |
| Impact | Community manuscript under review and a public data release |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | A press release for a PLoS Pathogen original research article with 1st author Erika Kroll a SWBioDTP student aligned to DFW and DSW |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Rothamsted Press release to increase awareness of a newly identified fungal specific target that could be used to develop novel plant disease control options. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/killer-fungal-gene-could-provide-key-wheat-disease-control |
| Description | A press release on a Molecular Plant Pathology article - 1st author Victoria Armer |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Press release on the publication ' The trichothecene mycotoxin deoxynivalenol facilitates cell-to-cell invasion during wheat-tissue colonization by Fusarium graminearum' . The press release also indicated that the 1st Author who was a PhD student aligned to DFW and DSW had been awarded best student paper of 2024 by the journal Molecular Plant Pathology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/fungal-toxin-underpins-wheat-disease-spread |
| Description | AICC_Jan 2024_Birmingham_Lawrence Bramham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 20 min talk followed by 5 mins Q & A on the aphid-barley Yellow dwarf virus risk in the UK and the three strain variation data obtained for the UK over the last three seasons. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | British Mycological Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Joined the BMS council as chair of the Fungal Biology Research Committee |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Cereals 2023_South Nottinghamshire_Take-all_Aphids_BYDV |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Diverse Wheat germplasm plot, poster and living material for take-all fungal root disease, cereal aphids and the barley yellow dwarf virus. Microscopes and hand lens to explore infected wheat material. Wheat plot tours to explain these biotic threats, the potential and real risks, and potential disease control strategies currently available and though being developed at Rothamsted. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Cereals 2024 event: The Take-all plot display |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The Take-all living plot display involved the resistance accession Watkins 777 and the susceptible accession Paragon and was accompanied by one poster explaining the effects of different weather variable at different times of the year on take-all disease severity and incidence and a second poster on use of genetics to improve resistance to Take-all root disease. The overall aim of this display was to promote ways to increase wheat root health in the future through the deployment on novel genetics. The weather variables poster helped to explain to the very diverse audience the conditions which are most favourable to the development of this serious take-all root disease |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.cerealsevent.co.uk/cereals-2024 |
| Description | DSW Annual Research Day held at Rothamsted Research Feb 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Described the latest research findings, the new methods developed and the new resources generated in DSW WP2 'Delivering Resilience to Biotic Threats' over the past year. I the audience were several members of plant breeding companies as well as the majority of the DSW group leaders, senior and ERC researchers as well as the aligned PhD students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://designingfuturewheat.org.uk/ |
| Description | DSW Industry Engagement Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | To disseminate results from DSW research to Industrial groups. To foster / encourage future collaborations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | DSW in practice - WP2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | DSW in practice was an online event done over two days. All the researcher members in WP2 were involved in devising and giving oral presentation and either leading or taking part in interactive discussions on what are plant diseases of wheat, how the various fungal pathogens are currently controlled and what new approaches could be devised in the future. The graduate students and other researchers based at UK based wheat breeding companies were also taught techniques such as fungal pathogen transformation and the use of in field air samples combined with metagenomics analyses to determine the prevalence of specific pathogenic species. This 3 hour training session was highly interactive. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Hosting the visit of three MPs currently serving on the cross party Parliament Science Technology and Innovation Select Committee |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The three visiting MPs to Rothamsted in October 2023 were MPs Greg Clark, Katherine Fletcher & Stephen Metcalfe accompanied by secretary of the committee Dr Claire Kanja . Together they explored topics on increasing insecticide resistance, lack of alternative modes of action, the need for novel IPM strategies, the emergence of new pest and virus threats in the UK due to climate change/ lack of effective insecticides/ withdrawal of active ingredients. There was also a facilities tour including the suction traps used for the ongoing UK wide Rothamsted Insect Survey. The DSW participating members were Dr Lawrence Bramham (a DSW post-doctoral specialist in cereal-aphid-virus interactions) and his 3rd year DSW aligned BBSRC-SWBio DTP student Izayana Sandoval-Carvajal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Interaction with BASF on interest in new tool developed associated with Invention disclosure |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | To gauge interest in company for new RRes tool developed to aid identification of future fungicide targets in plant pathogens |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Interactions with NiAB on Septoria disease resistance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Multiple discussion relating to future uplift projects and ongoing collaborations including BBSRC sLoLa phase 2 submission |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Invited Talk - Cornell University USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited Seminar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Kim hammond-Kosack interview with freelance journalist at Cereals 2024 about Take-all root disease then article appeared in Crop Production Magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The article that appeared in the Crop Production Magazine is entitled 'Seed Treatments: Avoiding the Take-all trap' . The overall purpose of the article was to explain the risks early drilling pose to the wheat crop with regard to this root disease and the on farm options available to mitigate again this disease problem. Article published at end of July 2024 , so that farmers could alter their husbandry practices to reduce the take-all disease risk in the 2024-2025 winter wheat crop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.cpm-magazine.co.uk/technical/seed-treatments-avoiding-the-take-all-trap/ |
| Description | Plant and Animals Genome Conference talk - Wheat take-all root fungus genomics and Starships |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Take-all is the most important root fungus of wheat (20% yield). It has largely been ignored because of the difficulties associated with working with soil fungi. We have Increased the genomic resources of this system by adding five near complete genomes to the species and another four from related species. We have also identified giant cargo carrying mobile elements and applied a new technique for analysing them which is shedding light on their ability to horizontally gene transfer. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://intlpag.org/PAG32/ |
| Description | Press Release on PHI-base Nucleic Acids Research publication Jan 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Rothamsted Press release for the published article 176. Martin Urban, Alayne Cuzick, James Seager, Nagashree Nonavinakere, Jashobanta Sahu, Pallavi Sahu, Vijay Laksmi Iyer, Lokanath Khamari, Manuel Carbajo Martinez and Kim E. Hammond-Kosack (2025) PHI-base - The multi-species Pathogen-Host Interaction Database in 2025. Nucleic Acids Research (database issue) 53, D826-D838. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae1084. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/pathogen-host-database-refocuses-genes |
| Description | Press release for new BBSRC grant within the scheme Connecting Culture Funding Scheme entitled : 'Empowering the UK Wheat Community to Achieve Gender Parity' PI - Diane Saunders John Innes Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To elevating gender awareness and inclusivity in the wheat research community in the UK and beyond. To take positive steps through training and engagement to change the status quo. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/new-culture-project-launched-to-support-women-in-wheat-research |
| Description | RREs comms video for International Day of Plant Health |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talked about new research efforts to combat Septoria disease on wheat |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Three talks given by Fusarium team members at the 6th International Symposium on Fusarium Head Blight, Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Three comprehensive presentations given on different topics Fusarium graminearum and F. culmorum genomics and secreted effectors - Kim hammond-Kosack - Opening Plenary The Fusarium graminearum secreted effector FgTTP1 and how this effector is required for Fg virulence and suppression of PAMP triggered immunity - Post Doc Reynaldi Darma GE wheat lines with reduced fructan content having enhanced resistance to several pathogenic fungal species - Post Doc Wanxin Chen |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.isfhb.com/ |
| Description | UK Civil Service Fast-stream programme _Nov 2023_Rothamsted |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 30 min talk + 10 min Q&A on global food security and the biotic threats encounter both historic and recent. Then focussed on the current biotic threats to the UK wheat crop and the types of research approaches ongoing in DFW and DSW to help to provide alternative pest and pathogen control strategies and novel targets for intervention. Also discussed various UK policies which are in place to effectively minimise the biotic threat risk, whilst pointing out that air borne threats pose are the most challenging for policy makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | University of Edinburgh Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited scientific seminar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Visit of Prof Nichola Spence_Chief Plant Health Officer at Defra_11th July 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 1-1 and small group discussions on plant health, new pest and pathogen threats UK quarantine policies and practices, new opportunities for Rothamsted Visit to Rothamsted pathogen and pest biological containment facilities and discussions on future opportunities these facilities may bring to UK research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Welcome EBI Fungal Genomics Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited Seminar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |