photo of mark

Science

Dr Mark Wilkinson

WHEAT MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST

Plant Sciences for the Bioeconomy

PUBLICATIONS
Location
Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ
Tel
+44 (0) 1582 938 887
Email
mark.wilkinson@rothamsted.ac.uk
Professional Platforms
ORCID
ResearchGate

Biography

Mark has 30 years' experience in plant tissue culture working with Solanaceous species and wheat. In recent years he has established Brassica napus transformation at Rothamsted Research (RRES) and is developing a transformation system for broad bean (Vicia faba) and black-grass. Mark has been running the Crop Transformation and Genome Editing Unit at RRes since 2022. Mark's past research interest has focused on a wide range of grain quality/end use projects in wheat including grain quality and cell wall composition for dietary fibre. He has been involved in the successful identification of key enzymes, arabinoxylans (AX), involved in cell wall biosynthesis in wheat endosperm, an important source of dietary fibre. Other research projects have looked at the role of puroindoline genes (wheat grain hardness) and genes involved in arabinogalactan biosynthesis, which may have application in human health, for example, prebiotics.

PhD Projects

  • The use of auxotrophic and antibiotic resistant markers for selecting somatic hybrids in solanaceae

Awards

  • 1991 - Bachelor (Hons) Biology, University of Maynooth, Ireland
  • 1996 - PhD in Biology, University of Maynooth, Ireland

Measures of Esteem

  • Patent Application GB1106964.8 – ‘A Method to Decrease the Viscosity of Flour’: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2012143520
  • Invited speaker at The Centre for Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, 2015 (Professor Paul Knox)
  • External Examiner for the following PhD thesis 2012 - Ms. A Ramalingham, Professor Mrinal Bhave group