Congratulations to Jo Hepworth, 2023 New Lecturer Rank Prize winner

The Rank Prize is to help new lecturers, researchers and fellows establish their careers as independent investigators in human nutrition, animal nutrition or crop science. The grant covers research costs up to £25,000.

Jo explains more about her project Molecular prediction of flowering time and branching in Brassica rapa vegetables and oilseeds here;

Brassica crops include much of the world’s green vegetables, from turnips and Chinese cabbage to pak choi and oilseeds. Like many plants, Brassicas sense cold temperatures to tell them when winter has passed so that they flower in spring. We know the genes that control this, but we don’t know what temperatures they respond to, or how plants know when and how much to flower. This matters for Brassicas, because cabbages that flower taste horrible and have fewer nutrients, but we want broccolettos to flower and oilseeds to make seeds as those are the bits we eat! This project will compare the genes in a flowering Brassica and a Chinese cabbage, measure them in the field and in laboratories, and use this to generate computer models of how we can breed and grow these plants to cope with climate change yet still provide desirable produce across different environments. We aim to use these models to improve crop yields, quality and reliability without using extra fertiliser or land.

Many congratulations and good luck with the project, Jo!