The ability of plants to coordinate development with optimal environmental conditions has been key to their success. It has also been key for expanding and maintaining the cultivation of crops. This is clearly demonstrated in the temperate cereals which have a vast cultivation range across the globe. We are interested in understanding the molecular genetics which underpins this environmental adaptation with the aim of enabling more robust and predictable responses in cereal development against a background of increasing climate change.

The integration of environmental signals

As climate change leads to increasingly variable daily and seasonal patterns we are interested in understanding the molecular genetic responses which are interpreting these signals within cereals and how we can use allelic variation of these genes to regulate the responses. Our work has started with the vernalization and photoperiod pathways and how aberrant combinations of these signals influences the plants development. As part of this, understanding how plants use the changing seasons as developmental signals is of particular interest. Our work has focussed on dissecting cereal development under conditions which are realistic to those which plants are, or will be, experiencing in the field.

Developing molecular networks

The challenges presented by changing environments has led us to focus on understanding how developmental and stress responses integrate. Increasingly we are observing that critical cereal developmental stages are coinciding with severe environmental stresses including frost and high temperatures. We are interested in understanding which genes are involved in coordinating the developmental and stress response pathways and what this means for the further adapting cereal cultivars.

Developing new research and breeding tools to improve cereal adaptation

We are also very interested in improving how we are able to integrate the new knowledge developed from our research into crop breeding. We have been involved in the development of a Speed Vernalization protocol and are now understanding the genetic basis of this response and how it can be even more widely implemented into crop breeding. We are also interested in understanding regulatory motifs which may have direct application in cereal adaptation.

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