New Article

Darrell and Chris have recently published a study of the small RNA complements in grapevine embryogenic cell cultures compared to young leaf tissue and their targets.

 Lizamore, D. & Winefield, C. A comparative survey of small RNA and their targets in grapevine embryogenic callus cultures and young leaves. Acta Hortic. 1188, 329–336 (2017).

This preliminary study highlights the differences in molecular regulation by small RNAs in embryogenic callus compared to leaf tissue and provides baseline data for work we are currently preparing for publication describing the transposon compliments and epigenetic status of these in the callus system we are currently using as a launch pad for new transposition events in grapevine.

Visit and seminar by Prof. Rob Martienssen

It is my great pleasure to announce a seminar to be given by Prof. Robert Martienssen from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, here at Lincoln University in the Field Research Centre on the 14th of March at 3.30pm

Rob is Howard Hughes Medical Institute–Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigator and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is also a professor and head of genomics and plant genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory ( his details can be found here: http://www.hhmi.org/scientists/robert-martienssen and here https://www.cshl.edu/research/faculty-staff/rob-martienssen/).

He is meeting with Chris Winefield and his team to discuss a joint project he and Chris have put together along that just been submitted to MBIE for consideration. If funded this will expand on an informal collaboration investigating the role of transposons in contributing to somatic mutations in grapevine.

He has graciously offered to give a seminar to be held:

Date:      Wednesday 14 March

Time:      3.30 pm

Venue:    FSC lecture theatre

The title of his seminar will be: “How to avoid Bad Karma: germline reprogramming and epigenetic inheritance with small RNA."

In his seminar he will describe work carried out in collaboration with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board which was published recently in Nature (Ong-Abdullah, M. et al. Loss of Karma transposon methylation underlies the mantled somaclonal variant of oil palm. Nature 525, 533–537 (2015).

Please come along to hear one from one the world’s leading plant geneticists presenting work from the cutting edge of epigenetics and feel free to share the details of the event.

 

MSc in Plant Breeding at Lincoln University

Lincoln University offers a MSc in plant breeding. This programme is focused on providing candidates with a practical/vocational qualification. The core of the course has been developed with assistance from Internationally renowned plant breeders/geneticists and plant breeding industry partners within New Zealand. 

The course can be accessed as a 2-year MSc, or as a 1 year papers only course. It has been modularised so that we can deliver the content online if necessary. We have incorporated a number of workshops/field trips that will put you in contact with both research organisations and breeding companies that we visit to give a hands on taste of how plant breeding works in the real-world.

If you are interested please contact me directly (chris.winefield@lincoln.ac.nz) or visit (http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/Study/Qualifications/Qualification/?QualCode=M.Science&major=plant%20breeding

Regards

Chris

New Website

Welcome!

This is the new website for the NZ horticultural transposon team which is a joint project between my group at Lincoln University and the team led by Dr. Ross Bicknell at Plant & Food Research.

The website contains information about our projects and will grow to contain methods, tips and things to avoid across the breadth of our activities. There will also be links to software we use/have developed and data sets (some that have been released publically and others that can be accessed upon application). 

If you have suggestions about how we can make this more user friendly please do not hesitate to contact me directly (chris.winefield@lincoln.ac.nz) or place a comment here.

Regards

Chris