Last Seminar

June Cluster Workshop:

14:00 - 16:20 Wednesday 7th June, Wellesbourne in the downstairs meeting room (PPB0.27)

Dr Peter Emmrich, John Innes Centre - Unlocking the potential of grass pea for climate resilient agriculture through bioscience and social sciences

Grass pea is a remarkable plant, able to withstand droughts and floods better than any other legume crop. For 8000 years of cultivation, grass pea has helped people survive environmental stress. In the face of the climate crisis, this resilience could soon become even more valuable. However, the use of grass pea has long been limited by its association with the paralytic disease neurolathyrism caused by the toxin β-L-ODAP. We have untangled the unusual biochemical mechanism underlying the biosynthesis of β-L-ODAP, and assembled the 6.3 Gbp grass pea genome to allow us to develop new safe varieties. Together with our international partners we are now making the global diversity of grass pea accessible to breeders and are developing modern breeding tools including gene editing to develop new traits. But this research will only benefit smallholder farmers in the Global South if improved grass pea varieties meet their needs. To achieve this, we are using social sciences tools to better understand the needs and preferences of farmers and the grass pea seed system and using these insights to inform grass pea pre-breeding.

Time	Speaker	Talk Title
14:00	Dr Peter Emmrich, John Innes Centre	Unlocking the potential of grass pea for climate resilient agriculture through bioscience and social sciences
14:40	Emily Turner
14:55	Laura Civolani	Chloroplast immunity: a neglected mechanism to enhance sustainable agriculture?
15:10	Cake Break
15:25	Shannon Greer	Xanthomonas threats: mitigating existing, emerging and future threats to UK agriculture
15:50	Sam Baillie	Evidence-Based Companion Planting for the Protection of Garden Plants
16:05	Jamie Burgess	Investigating Synthetic Microbial Communities and their impact on Nodulating Plants
16:20	End

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April Seminar:

Wednesday 19th April, 13:00-14:00 in the downstairs meeting room (PPB0.27) and via Teams

Our speakers will be:

Arthy Surendran - "Toward circular agriculture-Exploring frass as a fertiliser"

Madhury Paul - "Nitrogen Mobilization and Usage within Brassica Crops"

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March Seminar:

Wednesday 22nd March, 13:00-14:00 in the downstairs meeting room (PPB0.27) and via Teams

Our speakers will be:

Andy Jukes - "Investigating the timing of transmission of carrot viruses to improve management strategies"

Matt Combes - "Environmental regulation of the Hymenoscyphus fraxineus lifecycle"

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February Seminar:

Wednesday 15th February, 13:00-14:00 in the downstairs meeting room (PPB0.27) and via Teams

Our speakers will be:

Sascha Jenkins - "Unravelling Fusarium pathogenicity in UK parsley and coriander"

Yao Lu - "Association genetics exploration in Lactuca sativa pinking discoloration, which is independent of browning"

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January Seminar:

Wednesday 11th January, 13:00-14:00 in the downstairs meeting room (PPB0.27) and via Teams

Our speakers will be:

Sarah van Amsterdam - "First identification of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lactucae Race 1 in the UK and its implications"

Ricardo Pimenta - "Investigating sugarcane resistance to viruses using multi-omic approaches"

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December Seminar:

Wednesday 14th December, 14:00-17:30 - Plant and Agriculture Cluster Christmas Seminar

Gibbet Hill, BSR 5

Speakers will include Charlie Hancock from Capital Agri and Postdocs and PhD students from the cluster

November Seminar:

Wednesday 16^th November, 13:00-14:00 in the downstairs meeting room (PPB0.27) and via Teams

Our speakers will be:

Dave Chandler & Ken Cockshull – “Investigating the causes of poor fruit set in UK tomato crops: why work-shy bumblebees, and growing plants in hot summers, could spell trouble for growers”

Andrew Legg – “Exploiting pathogenomics and resistance for the control of Fusarium wilt of lettuce”

Please join us in person or Click here to join the meeting