Wheat disease poster wins SET bronze

John Innes Centre researcher Dr Christopher Burt won at Bronze category medal at the SET for Britain Awards, receiving a £1,000 prize.

Christopher presented a poster on research into eyespot, a fungal disease of wheat, which costs the UK £15 million in crop losses annually, driving a need for new resistant varieties. However, the best source of genetic resistance may cause a yield penalty when the disease is absent. Christopher’s work has potentially broken the link between the yield penalty and the disease resistance, and also pinned down other good sources of resistance. His BBSRC-CASE award that funded this work is with the Home Grown Cereal Authority, making his findings readily available to the plant breeding community.

Christopher said, “I’m just surprised, really. Crops can be a bit unfashionable but it’s great to see the work we do recognised in this way. This was a great opportunity to discuss my work with policy makers and to demonstrate how research at the John Innes Centre can directly benefit the development of new wheat varieties.”