Using a combination of DNA markers and trait analysis to elucidate the genetic and physiological basis of agronomically important traits and their introgression to cultivated cereals. Aims include genetic improvement of oats and pearl millet by marker assisted selection leading to improved sustainable production, disease resistance, stress tolerance and end use quality.

Chaffin, A.S., Huang, Y., Smith, S., Bekele, W.A., Babiker, E., Gnanesh, B.N., Foresman, B.J., Blanchard, S.G., Jay, J.J., Reid, R.W., Wight, C.P., Chao, S., Oliver, R.E., Islamovic, E., Kolb, F.L., Mccartney, C., Mitchell Fetch, J.W., Beattie, A.D., Bjørnstad, Å., Bonman, J.M., Langdon, T., Howarth, C., Brouwer, C.R., Jellen, E.N., Esvelt Klos, K., Poland, J.A., Hsieh, T., Brown, R., Jackson, E.W., Schlueter, J.A., Tinker, N.A. 2016. A Consensus Map in Cultivated Hexaploid Oat Reveals Conserved Grass Synteny with Substantial Subgenome Rearrangement. The Plant Genome 9 (2) 0102 Cadair Galyuon, I.K.A., Howarth, C. 2016. Genetic diversity of stay-green sorghums and their derivatives revealed by microsatellites. African Journal of Biotechnology 15 (25) pp. 1363-1374. Cadair Esvelt Klos, K., Huang, Y., Bekele, W.A., Obert, D.E., Babiker, E., Beattie, A.D., Bjørnstad, Å., Bonman, J.M., Carson, M.L., Chao, S., Gnanesh, B.N., Griffiths, I., Harrison, S.A., Howarth, C.J., Hu, G., Ibrahim, A., Islamovic, E., Jackson, E.W., Jannink, J., Kolb, F.L., Mcmullen, M.S., Mitchell Fetch, J., Murphy, J.P., Ohm, H.W., Rines, H.W., Rossnagel, B.G., Schlueter, J.A., Sorrells, M.E., Wight, C.P., Yan, W., Tinker, N.A. 2016. Population Genomics Related to Adaptation in Elite Oat Germplasm. The Plant Genome 9 (2) 0103 Cadair Montilla-Bascón, G., Rispail, N., Sánchez-Martín, J., Rubiales, D., Mur, L.A.J., Langdon, T., Howarth, C.J., Prats, E. 2015. Genome-wide association study for crown rust (Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae) and powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. avenae) resistance in an oat (Avena sativa) collection of commercial varieties and landraces. Frontiers in Plant Science 6 103 Cadair Boyle, R.D., Corke, F., Howarth, C.J. 2014. Image based estimation of oat panicle development using local patterns. Functional Plant Biology 42 (5) pp. 433-443. Cadair