Group members
Post-Doctoral Researchers
Dr. Stuart Desjardins
In many eukaryotic species genetic crossovers (COs) are unevenly distributed along chromosomes and tend to occur in favoured regions - so-called "recombination hot-spots". This is true of bread wheat, and other cereals, where COs are largely restricted to regions near the ends of chromosomes. A direct result of this is that a significant proportion of genes (~30%), including potentially important agronomic traits, are located in "recombination cold" regions and essentially inaccessible to plant breeders. A lack of COs in these "cold" regions can also lead to problems associated with linkage drag, where undesirable variation cannot be separated from useful traits. My project is part of a multi-disciplinary research program that aims to release this "locked" variation by modulating the frequency and distribution of COs in wheat, using state-of-the-art approaches.
