Julia Slingo and Ken Cockshull

Professor Dame Julia Slingo, the Chief Scientist of the Meteorological Office, and Dr Ken Cockshull of the Warwick Crop Centre examine how climate change is affecting our weather. The authors summarise the global data on the mean surface temperature of the earth from 1850 to 2013 and bring together data from the UK on the incidence of spring frosts, changes in the length of the growing season, and changes in the pattern of rainfall between summer and winter. The implications for plants and for their pests and diseases are discussed.

The Plantsman, 13 (1), 50-56.

 John Clarkson, Laura Fawcett, Steven G Anthony, Caroline Young

The plant pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum can cause serious losses on lettuce crops worldwide and as for most other susceptible crops, control relies on the application of fungicides, which target airborne ascospores. However, the efficacy of this approach depends on accurate timing of these sprays, which could be improved by an understanding of the environmental conditions that are conducive to infection. A mathematical model for S. sclerotiorum infection and disease development on lettuce is presented here for the first time, based on quantifying the effects of temperature, relative humidity (RH) and ascospore density in multiple controlled environment experiments.

PLoS One 15 April 2014

Steven Footitt, Heather A. Clay, Katherine Dent and William E. Finch-Savage

Seed dormancy cycling plays a crucial role in the lifecycle timing of many plants. Little is known of how the seeds respond at the molecular level to the soil seed bank environment following dispersal in spring into the short-term seed bank before seedling emergence in autumn. A molecular eco-physiological approach was used to study the behaviour over several months of seeds of the winter annual Arabidopsis ecotype Cvi buried in field soils.

New Phytologist. January 2014 online

Articles featuring in the Daffodil, Snowdrop and Tulip Yearbook 2013 by the Royal Horticultural Society, from Warwick Crop Centre:

'Climate change and Daffodils' by Rosemary Collier 
'Rust on Daffodils' and 'Current thinking on hot-water treatment' by Gordon Hanks

Massimo Iorizzo, Douglas A. Senalik , Shelby L. Ellison, Dariusz Grzebelus, Pablo F. Cavagnaro, Charlotte Allender, Johanne Brunet, David M. Spooner, Allen Van Deynze and Philipp W. Simon

Analyses of genetic structure and phylogenetic relationships illuminate the origin and domestication of modern crops. Despite being an important worldwide vegetable, the genetic structure and domestication of carrot (Daucus carota) is poorly understood. We provide the first such study using a large data set of molecular markers and accessions that are widely dispersed around the world.

American Journal of Botany 2013

Maria H Traka, Shikha Saha, Stine Huseby, Stanislav Kopriva, Peter G Walley, Guy C Barker, Jonathan Moore, Gene Mero, Frans van den Bosch, Howard Constant, Leo Kelly, Hans Schepers, Sekhar Boddupalli and Richard F Mithen

Diets rich in broccoli (Brassica oleracea var italica) have been associated with maintenance of cardiovascular health and reduction in risk of cancer. These health benefits have been attributed to glucoraphanin that specifically accumulates in broccoli. The development of broccoli with enhanced concentrations of glucoraphanin may deliver greater health benefits.

Three high-glucoraphanin F₁ broccoli hybrids were developed in independent programmes through genome introgression from the wild species Brassica villosa. Glucoraphanin and other metabolites were quantified in experimental field trials. Global SNP analyses quantified the differential extent of B. villosa introgression.

This study illustrates the translation of research on glucosinolate genetics from Arabidopsis to broccoli, the use of wild Brassica species to develop cultivars with potential consumer benefits, and the development of cultivars with contrasting concentrations of glucoraphanin for use in blinded human intervention studies.

New Phytologist Apr 2013 (online)