The use of new genomic techniques and increased sequencing power promise to help breeding crops, but for wheat the pipeline from the laboratory to the field is held up by wheat’s complex genome and the lack of the kind of detailed genome sequence available for simpler plants. Dr Martin Trick and Dr Cristobal Uauy of the John Innes Centre have recently published a new study that applies next generation sequencing techniques to wheat and shows how it can aid in fine mapping genes to the level needed by the plant breeding community more quickly and efficiently than has been possible before.

Norwich’s scientists will be taking over The Forum on Saturday for Science in Norwich Day, the annual showcase of the exciting science exploding out of Norwich. Scientists from Norwich’s world leading institutes on the Norwich Research Park, as well as local and national organisations, will be covering everything under the sun, and even on it.

An insight into human evolution from the gorilla genome sequence

Researchers have completed the genome sequence for the gorilla – the last genus of the living great apes to have its genome decoded.  While confirming that our closest relative is the chimpanzee, the team show that much of the human genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the chimpanzee genome.

As part of National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW), the next generation of scientists will be pitching their ideas to a public audience as part of a Showcase of Young Science. Research into crop plants and medicinal plants will go up against studies on the good microbes in our guts and the bad microbes that cause colds in a public vote to see who most deserves funding.

17th April 2012

John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK

Free to Attend