Don't miss our weekly PhD newsletter | Sign up now Don't miss our weekly PhD newsletter | Sign up now

  Agricultural genomics, chromosomes, genome and repetitive sequence evolution in crops, farm animals, models and wild relatives


   Department of Genetics, Genomics and Cancer Sciences

   Applications accepted all year round  Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

About the Project

In this project, you will investigate the large-scale organization of an agricultural species and its wild relatives. We will use genomic data from DNA sequencing, including methylation where appropriate. We will characterize the nature and chromosomal organization of the most abundant and rapidly evolving classes of DNA, including tandemly repeated sequences and transposable elements. We will characterize how these sequences are evolving and generating diversity, and use molecular cytogenetics to examine chromosomes in the microscope, and potentially look a new hybrids and breeding material. The results will give important information about genome evolution, wild species biodiversity and hybrids, and be valuable for breeding and generating molecular markers.

Agriculture (1) Biological Sciences (4)

Funding Notes

Most of the PhD students in our group are working on co-designed projects, where we work with you to define specifics in the project area below, usually in conjunction with the funders. Funding may come from national research institutes, home Universities, international, national or charitable organizations.

References

Liu Q, Ye L, Li M, Wang Z, Xiong G, Ye Y, Tu T, Schwarzacher T, Heslop-Harrison JS. 2023. Genome-wide expansion and reorganization during grass evolution: from 30 Mb chromosomes in rice and Brachypodium to 550 Mb in Avena. BMC Plant Biology 23:627. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-023-04644-7.
400. Heslop-Harrison JS, 2023. Algae and the ruminant diet: calories and functional feed additives reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Submitted 2023. https://doi.org/10.10 to come." .
399. Masters LE, Tomaszewska P, Zuntini AR, Schwarzacher T, Heslop-Harrison JS, Vorontsova MS. 2023. Phylogenomic analysis reveals the evolutionary origins of five independent clades of forage grasses within the African genus Urochloa. bioRxiv. 2023:2023-07 Submitted and BioRxiv July 2023. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.03.547487.
397. Alisawi O, Richert-Pöggeler KR, Heslop-Harrison JS, Schwarzacher T. 2023. The nature and organisation of tandemly repeated satellite DNAs in Petunia hybrida, related, and ancestral genomes. Frontiers in Plant Science 14-1232588.. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1232588. ".
396. White O, Biswas M, Abebe WM, Dussert Y, Kebede F, Nichols R, Buggs RJ, Demissew S, Woldeyes F, Papadopulos AS, Schwarzacher T, Heslop-Harrison JS, Wilkin P, Borrell JS. 2023  Maintenance and expansion of genetic and trait variation following domestication in a clonal crop. Molecular Ecology 32: 4165-4180. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17033.
395. Wang Z-F, Rouard M, Droc G, Heslop-Harrison JS, Ge X-J. 2023. Genome assembly of Musa beccarii shows extensive chromosomal rearrangements and genome expansion during evolution of Musaceae genomes. Gigascience 12: 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad005.
394. Liu Q, Yuan H, Xu J, Cui D, Xiong G, Schwarzacher T, Heslop-Harrison JS. 2023. The mitochondrial genome of the diploid oat Avena longiglumis. BMC Plant Biology 23: 218. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-023-04217-8
392. Dwivedi SW, Heslop-Harrison JS, Spillane C, McKeown PC, Edwards D, Goldman I, Ortiz R. 2023. Evolutionary dynamics and adaptive benefits of deleterious mutations in crop genepools. Trends in Plant Science 28: 685-697. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2023.01.006.
389. Heslop-Harrison JS, Schwarzacher T, Liu Q. 2023. Polyploidy: its consequences and enabling role in plant diversification and evolution. Annals of Botany 131: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcac132.
388. Tomaszewska P, Schwarzacher T, Heslop-Harrison JS. 2022. Oat chromosome and genome evolution defined by widespread terminal intergenomic translocations in polyploids. Frontiers in Plant Science 13: 1026364. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1026364.
387. Droc G, Martin G, Guignon V, Summo M, Sempéré G, Durant E, Soriano A, Baurens F-C, Cenci A, Breton C, Shah T, Aury J-M, Ge X-J, Heslop Harrison P, Yahiaoui N, D’Hont A, Rouard M. 2022. The Banana Genome Hub: a community database for genomics in the Musaceae. Horticulture Research 9: uhac221. https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhac221.
386. Rathore P, Schwarzacher T, Heslop-Harrison JP, Bhat V, Tomaszewska P. 2022. The repetitive DNA sequence landscape and DNA methylation in chromosomes of an apomictic tropical forage grass, Cenchrus ciliaris. Frontiers in Plant Science 13: 952968. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.952968.

Register your interest for this project



How good is research at University of Leicester in Biological Sciences?


Research output data provided by the Research Excellence Framework (REF)

Click here to see the results for all UK universities