Multi-national workshop on cereal recombination
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Biological Sciences
Abstract
Publications
Blackwell AR
(2020)
MSH2 shapes the meiotic crossover landscape in relation to interhomolog polymorphism in Arabidopsis.
in The EMBO journal
Coulton A
(2020)
Examining the Effects of Temperature on Recombination in Wheat.
in Frontiers in plant science
Coulton A
(2020)
Segregation distortion: Utilizing simulated genotyping data to evaluate statistical methods.
in PloS one
Gardiner LJ
(2019)
Analysis of the recombination landscape of hexaploid bread wheat reveals genes controlling recombination and gene conversion frequency.
in Genome biology
Przewieslik-Allen AM
(2021)
The role of gene flow and chromosomal instability in shaping the bread wheat genome.
in Nature plants
Zhang Z
(2019)
Development of an Agrobacterium-delivered CRISPR/Cas9 system for wheat genome editing.
in Plant biotechnology journal
| Description | What are we certain about, what do we need to know, and, in a reasonable time how can we manipulate the recombination landscape of the cereals? - Keith Edwards - Temporal and spatial regulation. Checks and balances differ across species - Mechanistic understanding in yeast/ Arabidopsis is promising but species with complex genomes have different outcomes - Has increase in genome size had an impact on meiosis? - Dynamics are different - SPO11 activity is seen in repeats, which is where a lot of DSB hotspots are found in maize. But this DSB even distribution is not seen in Arabidopsis. What is this selecting procedure for DSBs, then what is the selecting feature for COs? - Could we alter timing to prevent DSBs near the telomeres becoming COs to shift position? - Need to understand the basic functions and information which is organism specific before you can manipulate recombination - More effort needed in the area of gene conversions? - Overexpression could be the way forward, but perhaps this may have a feedback loop which causes problems? - Local and global aspect to why the COs are distal in wheat - Can show Spo11 bound but not necessarily cleaving in yeast, which is likely to be the same in wheat? - How do we get together again and take this forward for the long term? - Can the resources available be taken forward to a wider audience? - From breeders perspective, project and progress has been good and would like to continue to support this work in the future - Need to get various things established in certain labs and then people speak and network to make the most of the knowledge available and try to prevent repetitive work going on in different labs |
| Exploitation Route | Our proposed workshop brought international groups together to: 1. Exchanges of material, for instance mutant lines and antibodies 2. Exchange of expertise in the practical application of cereal cytogenetics and genomics (genotyping, quantitative genetics) in studying and manipulating recombination. 3. Development of joint research programmes with international funding. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| Description | The discussions at the workshop have led to the commercial breeders, who were present at the workshop, reconsidering their breeding strategy. In addition the view that recombination is important in breeding has been further boosted due to the developments that our BBSRC slola has generated (see the output for this award), briefly this has shown which genes should be targeted in cereals to change both recombination frequency and the locations where recombination occurs. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Problems caused by introgessions |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Wheat breeding companies were made aware about the effect that introgressions have on recombination and why this may lead to difficulties in the future, this has caused some companies to re-examine their breeding strategies |
| Description | A pipeline for efficient recombination in wheat |
| Amount | £200,364 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/W003317/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2021 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Award (FTMA) |
| Amount | £25,000 (GGP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2019 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Title | Introgression plotter added to Cerealsdb |
| Description | Software to allow users to screen wheat germplasm for potential introgressions from wheat relative |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | At the request of the wheat breeding companies we have made this tool available via Cerealsdb so that breeders can check on the presence of possible introgressed regions in the bread wheat genome |
| Title | QTL database |
| Description | Upload of QTL database to Cerealsdb |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Breeders and academics are now able to download/examine various QTL-based datasets |
| Description | Collaboartion with Syngenta to exchnage knowledge on trasformation and double haploid production |
| Organisation | Syngenta International AG |
| Department | Syngenta Ltd (Bracknell) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | exchange of personal to improve our technology in double haploid production |
| Collaborator Contribution | Spent time at Syngenta providing input into transformation technolgy |
| Impact | Better transformation and double haploid technology available to Bristol |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Crop Genetics workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A workshop on nitrogen use efficiency and wheat genetics was held in New Delhi from 25th Feb-1st March 2019 for 20 Indian undergraduate and postgraduate students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Keynote presentation at 2019 Monogram |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Keynote, plenary lecture at Monogram 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Participation in a Meet The Scientist event at Thinktank, Science Museum, Birmingham. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Part of MEICOM ITN network public engagement activity co-ordinated by the Sanchez-Moran/Franklin lab demonstrating fun science activities to families visiting Thinktank Science Museum during school half-term week. The emphasis was on the importance of plant meiosis research and issues of food security and climate change. Children and parents were able to participate in activities such as extraction of DNA from strawberries, loading a DNA gel, viewing plant chromosomes down a microscope and games involving learning about DNA sequencing and crop wild relatives & plant breeding. This generated plenty of questions and discussion and even quite young children were interested and able to engage in the activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/biobosie/status/1098529947864444929 |