Crop Science Centre - Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

Miguel Ângelo Santos

Miguel Ângelo Santos


Miguel Santos started his career in plant science at the University of Minho where during his masters he performed the characterization of novel SUMO proteases in Arabidopsis thaliana against several abiotic stresses. He then completed his PhD at the John Innes Centre where he studied the susceptibility of several population lines of Brachypodium distachyon against Fusarium root rot and Take-all. He also performed several bioinformatic analyses to understand the genetic response of both Brachypodium and wheat to the Fusarium toxin deoxynivalenol.

Publications

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

New grant to develop COVID vaccine-like technology to revolutionise the study of plant-parasites

New grant to develop COVID vaccine-like technology to revolutionise the study of plant-parasites

News
A Nematode worm

The Leverhulme Trust have awarded Crop Science Centre scientists a grant for developing technology capable of overcoming the resistance of crop-damaging nematode worms to genetic alteration. This technology will be similar to the COVID-19 vaccine, where a special molecule is wrapped in a fatty layer to protect it and make it easier to deliver.

Nematodes are tiny parasitic worms that cause over $100 billion of damage to crops every year. By enabling fundamental research into their biology, this technology could not only help accelerate research into controlling these crop-damaging parasites, but also other genetically ‘hard-to-edit’ species.

Sebastian Eves-van den Akker, who will be leading this research, said “It's like some covid vaccines, where you wrap an mRNA in a lipid nanoparticle. We want to use this technology to deliver CRISPR into the germline of nematodes, thereby editing their sex cells so that their progeny are genome edited.

This will allow us to engage in fundamental research into the role of genes, in this case in nematodes. Understanding which nematode genes are important for parasitism could lead to new ways to control theses parasites in agriculture.”

This research will build on the work of the TransPPN consortium, led by the University of Cambridge, an open global knowledge exchange forum aimed at making the genetic modification of plant-parasitic nematodes a reality.

If successful, the new technology will allow genome editing in the parasitic nematode worms, which could help reveal understanding that has a long-lasting impact on global agriculture. This could be a game-changer, offering a low-cost, simple, and efficient way to edit the genes of pests.

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

The Precision Breeding Bill has passed into law

The Precision Breeding Bill has passed into law

News
Professor Giles Oldroyd

On March 23 2023 the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill passed into law. In response to the bill passing, the director of the Crop Science Centre, Professor Giles Oldroyd said “The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill is a crucial development that opens up new possibilities for science and innovation to transform the pace of agricultural research and development. The UK, along with countries around the world, is in a race to climate-proof food systems, and conventional breeding alone cannot keep up with the rapidly changing challenges of new growing conditions.

"Precision breeding through gene editing allows scientists to accelerate what might otherwise be possible through natural processes and conventional breeding over a longer time frame. UK science and research has made extraordinary advances in this field over the last 30 years, and this law expands the remit of scientific exploration, which can only bring benefits." 

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

Agnieszka (Aga) Alexander

Agnieszka (Aga) Alexander


Aga joined Crop Science Centre to work on driving impact and outcomes in product development from the research outputs from ENSA project.

Prior to joining the CSC, Aga worked as a scientific project manager at NIAB, where she coordinated a doctoral training programme in Sustainable Agricultural Innovation (CTP-SAI) and a partnership programme ‘Growing Kent and Medway’. 

Publications

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

A road map toward self-fertilising cereal crops

A road map toward self-fertilising cereal crops

News
Barley grown as part of our recent field trial

If crop science continues to advance at the pace it has over the last two decades, we hope secure, sustainable and affordable food could be only a further decade away.

This is according to a research review by scientists at the Crop Science Centre, which has summarised the last ten years of dramatic advances on the topic of how legumes use beneficial microbial associations to fulfil their need for nutrients.

Lead author Dr Min-Yao Jhu from the Crop Science Centre said, “Our current food production systems are unsustainable, driven in part through the application of chemically fixed nitrogen fertiliser, which is environmentally damaging and prohibitively expensive for some small-holder farmers. We need alternatives to maximise crop yields in an equitable and environmentally sustainable way. By highlighting our understanding of legume nodulation and the unsolved mysteries in the field, we hope this review can provide a road map for upcoming research to overcome the barrier of achieving self-fertilising crops.”

Ten years of scientific advances have provided researchers with detailed frameworks for understanding the processes involved in legumes fixing their own nitrogen. Some examples include: how legumes recognise nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, how rhizobia infect legume roots, the development of nodules on legume roots, and how legumes create an environment appropriate for nitrogen fixation.

One key discovery highlighted by the review is that symbiosis signalling is not limited to legumes. Our target cereal crops have inherited processes involved in forming symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which appears to be the evolutionarily earliest beneficial microbial association in plants. This symbiosis signalling shares many similarities with the signalling pathway for recognition of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia in legumes. What does appear to have changed is the strictness of signal recognition through the receptor complex; legumes have an exacting perception of signals produced by the rhizobia with which they form a symbiotic relationship. Discoveries such as these mean that scientists can develop self-fertilising cereal crops by re-networking pre-existing processes, rather than creating new ones from scratch. Importantly, this is a realistic challenge for the next decade, assuming the pace of scientific advancement remains the same as it has done over the last twenty years.

A further scientific breakthrough highlighted by the review is that the processes involved in forming symbiosis between legume plants and rhizobia bacteria are principally controlled by a few key master regulators. Therefore, the authors recommend studying how these master regulators activate the regulatory networks needed for nodule development in different cell types. Answering this question will require using emergent spatial-omics techniques, such as single-cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, to examine the developmental processes associated with nodulation with a high degree of cellular resolution.

Author of the paper and director of the Crop Science Centre, Professor Giles Oldroyd, said “Two decades of discovery science in model legumes have laid the foundations of our understanding to do something truly radical: transfer the ability of N-fixation to a much broader range of crops.  I am excited about the potential this brings for sustainable and equitable food production and I strive to get there within my research career.”

This review forms part of Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture (ENSA) research programme, which utilises natural symbioses between plants, soil fungi and bacteria to engineer crops to make better use of nutrients already present in the air and the soil. This would allow sustainable increases in crop yields, potentially revolutionising smallholder farming in low-and-middle-income-countries, while providing a viable solution to sustainable and secure food production in high-income countries.

Here is a link to the review paper Dancing to a different tune, can we switch from chemical to biological nitrogen fixation for sustainable food security? | PLOS Biology

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

New microscopy suite builds the Crop Science Centre’s capability

New microscopy suite builds the Crop Science Centre’s capability

News
The microscopy suite

A microscopy suite opened in December of 2022 has enhanced the Crop Science Centre’s research capabilities.

This new facility offers confocal microscopy, which enhances the study of the symbioses dynamics between plants and beneficial microorganisms, including fungi and bacteria. In addition, the suite provides systems for imaging of calcium oscillations in plant roots, which enables Microscopy Specialist and Crop Science Centre researcher Dr Jongho Sun, to conduct research onsite that is key to engineering self-fertilising cereal crops.

Dr Susana Sauret-Gueto, Crop Science Centre Research Services Manager and Microscopy Specialist, manages the Microscopy Suite and led the acquisition of a confocal microscope, and responded to the opening of the suite by saying “It is fascinating to see researchers new to confocal microscopy, straight away adding an extra dimension to confocal experiments by using both fluorescence intensity and fluorescence lifetime-based information in their experiments”.

Experienced microscopist and researcher at the Crop Science Centre, Dr Jen McGaley, said “The Stellaris [confocal microscope] has massively increased the resolution and depth to which we can explore the dynamics of mycorrhizal fungi within plant roots. The fluorescence lifetime imaging capacity provides confidence in what we are imaging, and having plant growth and microscopy facilities under the same roof has opened the doors to visualising processes in live plant-fungal symbioses.”

The suite is still growing, with systems to support sectioning and screening of samples soon to be added.

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

Edelmira Bell

Edelmira Bell


I am the HR Coordinator, with 10 years’ experience in managing the entire employee cycle at a fast-paced environment in education, international pharmaceutical laboratories and the manufacturing industries.

I am passionate about the changing nature of work and although sometimes situations are hard, I absolutely love what I do as my job is immensely rewarding. No day is ever the same in HR and I strive for fair selection and development of our diverse workforce within a stable work environment with equal opportunities for learning and personal growth.

Publications

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa

Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa

News
Nodules on roots

A Cambridge-led consortium has received US$35m (£28m) over five years to develop sustainable solutions to increasing the yields of small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, without the need for costly and polluting inorganic fertilisers.

The grant, from Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One), will enable researchers led by the University of Cambridge Crop Science Centre to engineer plants to take advantage of naturally occurring interactions with micro-organisms – fungi and bacteria – that help in the uptake of nutrients from the soil and air.

“African agriculture is at an inflection point, with vastly increasing demand at a time when supply is at risk, especially due to a changing climate,” said Giles Oldroyd, Director of the Crop Science Centre and Russell R Geiger Professor of Crop Science.

“The outcomes of this work have the potential to see gains as great as those from the Green Revolution, but without relying on costly and polluting inorganic fertilisers.

“Increasing sustainable production of crops in small-holder farming systems, like those in sub-Saharan Africa, directly addresses some of the worst poverty on the planet.”

Nutrients are vital to the success of crops. However, the land of small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is depleted of nutrients. Artificial fertilisers are too expensive for small-scale farmers to buy, and their livestock numbers too low to produce sufficient levels of manure to nourish their crops. This leads to deceasing yields overtime, which affects livelihoods. Average maize productivity in sub-Saharan Africa is less than a quarter of that in the USA.

Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture (ENSA) research programme utilises natural symbioses between plants, soil fungi and bacteria, that deliver nutrients to the plant. By leveraging these relationships ENSA aims to engineer crops to make better use of nutrients already present in the air and the soil. This would allow sustainable increases in crop yields, potentially revolutionising smallholder farming in low-and-middle-income-countries, while providing a viable solution to sustainable and secure food production in high-income countries.

The grant funds the Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture (ENSA) research programme. ENSA is a Cambridge-led international collaboration with partners: University of Oxford, UK; NIAB, UK; Royal Holloway University of London, UK; Aarhus University, Denmark; Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands; University of Freiburg, Germany; University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, France; University of Illinois, USA; Pennsylvania State University, USA.

A not-for-profit subsidiary of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates Ag One was created to leverage global crop science to meet the needs of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It focuses on accelerating research that enhances the biological processes of six priority food crops: cassava, cowpea, maize, rice, sorghum, and soybean.

“The pioneering work of ENSA is fundamental to levelling the playing field for smallholder farmers in Africa, leveraging the latest crop technology to ensure all communities have the chance to thrive,” said Joe Cornelius, CEO of Gates Ag One. “Breakthrough advances in crop science and innovation mean intractable challenges like nutrient uptake and soil health need not hold back agricultural development. We’re delighted that Gates Ag One can support ENSA to continue its work to meet the needs of smallholder farmers.”

 

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

Jen de Tisi

Jen de Tisi


I provide Executive Assistant support to Professor Giles Oldroyd. I have a BA (Hons) Degree in Media Writing and previously worked in the corporate industry, providing Administrative and Project support for over a decade, to various Senior Executives and Professionals.

Publications

Crop Science Centre

Driven by impact, fuelled by excellence

Mysterious parasite: How plants develop parasitic organs

Mysterious parasite: How plants develop parasitic organs

News
A Dodder flower on a tomato plant

A research review by a Crop Science Centre scientist and a UC Davis scientist has summarised our current understanding of how the stem parasitic plants Cuscuta species, known as dodders, develop the specialised organs, called haustoria, which confer the ability to acquire water and nutrients from their host plants.

Lead author, Dr Min-Yao Jhu at the Crop Science Centre, said, “This review not only reveals the fascinating mystery of how plants evolved parasitism, but also provides the foundation for developing more effective methods to control the agricultural damage caused by parasitic plants.” 

Parasitic plants are notorious for causing billions of USD worth of agricultural losses globally each year. Progress has been made recently in understanding the evolution and development of haustoria in root parasitic plants. Yet, increasing studies indicate that behaviours of haustorium formation between root and stem parasites are distinct, and the formation mechanisms of these organs in stem parasitic plants remain largely unknown.

Interestingly, although most root parasitic plants can avoid attacking themselves or closely related species, this does not appear to be the case with dodders.

This review also outlines the advantages of using dodders as model organisms for studying haustorium development in stem holoparasitic plants, the mysteries and limitations in the dodder system, and potential future research directions to overcome these challenges.

Frontiers | Cuscuta species: Model organisms for haustorium development in stem holoparasitic plants (frontiersin.org)

Sustainable food production for everyone

The Crop Science Centre is a coalition between the University of Cambridge, Department of Plant Sciences, and NIAB. This coalition focuses on translational research in crops with real-world impact. We combine the diverse skills and expertise of the University and NIAB, providing an environment for research excellence with the capability to apply discoveries to crop improvement in the field.

Our research is interdisciplinary and of global relevance. We strive to improve both staple crops such as maize, wheat and rice, but also the specific crops of relevance to small-holder farmers, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Centre provides leadership in crop sciences, with a creative and dynamic research culture, motivated by improvement of agriculture for the betterment of society.

Our mission

At the Crop Science Centre, we are generating crop plants that deliver sufficient food for everyone in a sustainable way

  • We deliver agricultural impact, using excellence in research
  • We strive for sustainability, reducing agricultural reliance on chemical inputs
  • We foster equality, valuing all members of our research community
  • We believe in equity, ensuring even the world’s poorest farmers can grow enough food

Years of research has provided a deep understanding of how plants function, creating opportunities to transform the way we produce our food.  I am motivated to improve the sustainability and the equity of food production worldwide

Professor Giles Oldroyd,
CSC Director

Professor Giles Oldroyd

“At the Crop Science Centre we have the scientific breadth and track record to rapidly respond to one of the grand challenges of our time: growing enough nutritious food for an increasing population while reducing inputs and green house emissions.”

Professor Mario Caccamo,
CEO and Director of NIAB

Professor Mario Caccamo

“We envisage that new CSC crop technologies will enable higher crop yields and lower environmental impact for crop-based food production – as well as contributing to improved dietary health.”

Sir David Baulcombe,
Royal Society Professor

Sir David Baulcombe