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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

PLANT SCIENCES FOR THE BIOECONOMY

The department’s research priorities are focused on understanding the ways that plants function with the aim of improving crop productivity and quality. 

The department benefits from a unique combination of knowledge, expertise, facilities and resources. The multidisciplinary teams have expertise in molecular biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, modelling and plant and crop physiology. 

Areas of particular interest include the efficient use of resources, especially nutrients, crop quality in wheat and oilseeds, and resilience to stress. Specific strengths are pathway discovery and metabolic engineering, high throughput field phenotyping, image data extraction, grain composition analysis and biochemistry, resource partitioning (metabolic and structural) and responses to heat. Underpinning this research is analytical expertise in seed composition including lipidomics, metabolomics, natural product chemistry and biological imaging, as well as genomics, genetics and conventional breeding.

CONTACTS

Prof. Frederica Theodoulou

Science Director

Plant Sciences for the Bioeconomy

Sue Steele

Executive Assistant to the Science Director

ALL DEPARTMENTAL STAFF

PROJECTS

Surveillance and monitoring

GREEN ENGINEERING

A BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme for knowledge-based delivery of sustainable products in plants.

Surveillance and monitoring

OMEGA-3 CAMELINA DEVELOPMENT

Producing genetically modified plants with the capacity to make health-beneficial omega-3 fish oils

Surveillance and monitoring

TAILORING PLANT METABOLISM (TPM)

Exploiting fundamental understanding of plant metabolism to expand the value chains of existing industrial crops, delivering a portfolio of high value plant products and plant germplasm

Surveillance and monitoring

A REFERENCE GENOME SEQUENCE FOR WILLOW

Decoding the genome sequence of Salix viminalis – a willow species of importance as a renewable bioenergy source.

Surveillance and monitoring

EXPLOITING WILLOW METABOLITES AND PATHWAYS FOR THE BIO-ECONOMY

Engaging plant carbon metabolism to supplement petro-chemical derived feedstocks and high value products

SCIENCE CLUSTERS

Surveillance and monitoring

CROP PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY

Our research explores crop, and particularly wheat, yield and quality (protein, functionality, fibre, micronutrients) by exploiting genetic diversity and its underpinning mechanisms

Surveillance and monitoring

LIPID METABOLIC ENGINEERING AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

We study predictive bioengineering of lipids for health and industry using oilseed and microalgal chasses and carry out fundamental studies on spatiotemporal control of metabolism

Surveillance and monitoring

OILSEED METABOLISM AND DEVELOPMENT

Our research exploits knowledge of metabolism, signalling and development to underpin improvement of oilseed crops

Surveillance and monitoring

PLANT TRANSFORMATION AND GENOME EDITING

Our service of crop genetic transformation supports gene discovery and novel crop development, and provides cutting-edge gene editing technologies

Surveillance and monitoring

RESILIENCE AND DEVELOPMENT

We investigate the mechanisms that underpin the resilience of wheat performance in relation to abiotic stress, impacts on growth, and development and the central role of genetic and metabolic signalling and control

RELATED READING

Bread acrylamide Credit: Rothamsted Research

SCIENTISTS PROVE HIGH FIBRE WHITE LOAF IS POSSIBLE

Group identifies parts of the genome that control fibre content of white flour, raising hope that products will be in shops within five years

05 Feb 2020

UNTAPPED GENETIC POTENTIAL MEANS WHEAT YIELDS ONLY 60% OF WHAT THEY COULD BE

Study shows after 11,000 years of wheat breeding, we've still got a long way to go

12 Dec 2019

GENE DATA SUGGESTS 'SUPERBUG' THREAT IS UNDERESTIMATED

Discoveries of single mutations that increase microbe infectiousness have quadrupled since 2015

27 Nov 2019

FUTURE RICE COULD REDUCE RELIANCE ON WATER INTENSIVE PADDY FIELDS

New research project aims to catalyse a rice revolution that will benefit low-income farmers and save water

17 Oct 2019

Feeding cattle at North Wyke Credit: Rothamsted Research

LESS CHEWING THE CUD, MORE GREENING THE FUEL

Making grasses more digestible promises improved feed for ruminants and better biomass for biofuel production, with economic and environmental benefits for both.

08 Jan 2018

FOOD SECURITY NEEDS MORE FROM GM CROPS

Only a better understanding of fundamental plant processes can exploit the potential of GM technology to create higher yielding, more resilient food crops

09 Oct 2017

“EXCITING BIOLOGY” REWRITES TEXT BOOKS IN UNCOVERING PLANTS’ HIGH-FAT DIET FOR FUNGAL BENEFACTORS

Nature’s most widespread and longest-lasting symbiotic relationship shows green promise for agriculture and biotechnology

08 Jun 2017

THE BBSRC INVEST IN ROTHAMSTED RESEARCH’S SCIENCE STRATEGY

THE BBSRC INVEST IN ROTHAMSTED RESEARCH’S SCIENCE STRATEGY

BBSRC invests £50.9M in support of excellent agricultural science at Rothamsted Research to address grand challenges faced by farmers and society for the sustainability of food production and the environment.

10 Apr 2017

Barley showing signs of Ramularia leaf spot disease - copyright Rothamsted Research

MAJOR PATHOGEN OF BARLEY DECODED: NEW AVENUES FOR CONTROL

The fungus that causes Ramularia leaf spot in barley is the latest organism to have its genome sequenced and investigated

10 Aug 2016