Recent Activity
BCAI Funded Projects for 2021
| Ulrike Bauer |
Developmental Biology of Insect-repellent Surfaces in Carnivorous Pitcher Plants |
Jun 2021 | £21,201 |
| Keith Edwards and Sacha Przewieslik-Allen |
Understanding the Interaction Between Introgressed DNA and the Wider Wheat Genome |
Jun 2021 | £19,577 |
| Kerry Franklin |
Control of plant development by UV-B |
Jun 2021 | £27,794 |
|
Nina Ockendon-Powell and |
CONNECTED Bridging Grant |
Jun 2021 | £92,639 |
|
Emily Larson |
Developing a FACS-based Method for |
Jun 2021 | £40,114 |
|
Lucia Primavesi (1) |
Maximising the potential of our plant growth area |
Jun 2021 | £28,833 |
|
Lucia Primavesi (2) |
Updating essential lab equipment in Life Sciences - multi-mode plate reader |
Jun 2021 | £18,365 |
|
Keith Edwards and |
A Bristol Next Generation Wheat |
Feb 2021 | £20,386 |
|
Claire Grierson |
100 important questions for plant |
Feb 2021 | £24,870 |
| Emily Larson |
Using a suppressor screen to define trafficking |
Feb 2021 | £4,184 |
|
Emily Larson and |
Characterisation of an uncharacterised |
Feb 2021 | £56,344 |
News
Outreach: Identifying apple samples sent in by the public
Mark Winfield
BCAI previously funded a project, led by Professor Keith Edwards, that developed a genotyping system – similar to human DNA fingerprinting – which can rapidly and easily identify apple varieties.
During September this year, researchers from Professor Keith Edwards' lab put out a call to the public to send in leaf samples from apple trees of unknown origin in order to identify them by genetic 'fingerprinting'. The public responded enthusiastically sending in more than 800 leaf samples. Many of the samples were accompanied by charming letters describing the history of old gardens and the trees they contain. Some people even sent in photographs of the apples and describe how wonderful they were as 'eaters' or 'cookers'.
The group have finished the genotyping ('fingerprinting') of these samples and compared the results with a database of 'fingerprints' of over 1,500 apple varieties (mainly collected from the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, Kent). The results have been made available on a specially created website.
Funding to Replace Current LED Lighting in the GroDome
Tom Pitman
Supplementary lighting is essential for year-round production of plant material in the GroDome and greenhouses. Thanks to funding from BCAI, we have been able to replace all the lamps in the GroDome with white light LED’s, like those used in the Greenhouses. These 120w units will provide excellent lighting output for improved plant growth, whist achieving excellent energy savings compared to the previous 184w units.
Pollination in Nepal in a changing climate
Helen Harper
A new project studying the effect of climate change on pollinators has been funded. Three quarters of crop species rely on pollinators but the service they provide is under increasing threat from climate change. Loss of diversity and declining numbers of pollinators is predicted to compromise agricultural systems, and in turn, affect human health as key dietary micronutrients (such as vitamin A and folate) from insect pollinated crops are lost from diets.
This interdisciplinary project is led by University of Bristol’s Professor Jane Memmott and includes three Co-Investigators - two medical researchers, Dr Samuel Myers and Dr Mathew Smith from Harvard University and a climate change specialist from the University of Helsinki, Professor Tomas Roslin. Collaborators include health scientists from an NGO in Nepal, HERD Internationale (Dr Sushil Baral & Dr Chandani Kharel), along with collaborators from UCL (Dr Naomi Saville), the London School of Tropical Medicine (Dr Helen Harris-Fry) and the Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu (Dr Daya Ram Bhusal). The Bristol based Post-Doctoral Researcher is Dr Tom Timberlake.
The project is funded by The Belmont Forum with additional support from BCAI.