NIAB - National Institute of Agricultural Botany
Plant Science Into Practice
Dr Donal O'Sullivan
Genetics of Disease Resistance Program Leader
Tel: +44 01223 342463
Fax: +44 01223 342394
E-mail: Dr Donal O'Sullivan
Research Interests
The quest to explain and therefore to predict and control phenotypic variation in terms of genomic variation is at the heart of contemporary crop genetics and breeding. The challenges are two-fold:
1. Successful navigation of complex crop genomes, pinpointing DNA polymorphisms causative of exploitable phenotypic differences.
2. To mine allelic variation, map its distribution in available germplasm and define strategies for its exploitation.
My research training has been in the area of structural and comparative genomics underpinning positional cloning strategies in maize, fescue and bean and in positonal cloning of Arabidopsis root hair genes. My research group is currently engaged in the dissection of a number of agronomic traits using a combination of classical and linkage disequilibrium mapping and we are interested in better understanding and exploiting model-crop synteny and microsynteny to positionally clone traits from species currently lacking physical contig maps or complete genome sequence. More recently, I have become interested in germplasm dynamics, that is, in the shifting patterns of allelic diversity in response to selection. By combining these complementary approaches, we aim to provide an understanding of the phenotypic contribution made by key variants in both previously identified and increasingly, novel, genes in order to provide the means for rational approaches to strategic breeding.
I lead the Genetics of Disease Resistance research programme, which is one of four major themes pursued in the John Bingham Laboratory at NIAB. Current projects in this theme include:
- Transcriptomic and genetic analysis of the wheat-ergot interaction
- Genetic dissection of durable resistance to rust diseases of wheat
- Developing closely linked diagnostic markers for resistance to soil borne cereal mosaic virus in wheat
- Searching for and dissecting genetic resistance of faba bean to bruchid beetle and stem eelworm
Outside the auspices of this programme, I have interests in the genetics of barley adaptation and in generic analysis and exploitation of faba bean genetic resources.
Publications
J. Cockram, D.M. O’Sullivan et al (2010) Genome‐wide association mapping of morphological traits to candidate gene resolution in the un‐sequenced barley genome, in preparation.
J. Cockram, R. Howells, D.M. O’Sullivan (2010) Segmental chromosomal duplications harbouring group IV CONSTANS-like genes in cereals. Genome, 53:231-240
J. Cockram, H. Appleyard, C. Norris and D.M. O’Sullivan. (2009) Validation of PCR-based markers diagnostic for spring and winter seasonal growth habit in barley. Crop Science, 49:403-410.
J. Cockram, F.J. Leigh, V. Lea, I. Mackay, J. White. D.A. Laurie, W. Powell, D.M. O’Sullivan. (2008) Association mapping around partitioning loci in barley. BMC Genetics, 9:16.
J. Cockram, I. Mackay, D.M. O’Sullivan. (2007) The role of double-stranded break repair in the creation of phenotypic diversity at cereal VRN1 loci. Genetics, 177: 1-5.
J. Cockram, H. Jones, F. Leigh, D.M. O’Sullivan, W. Powell, D. Laurie, A. Greenland. (2007) Control of Flowering Time in Temperate Cereals: Genes, Domestication and Sustainable Productivity. Journal of Experimental Botany, 58:1231-1244.
J. Cockram, E. Chiapparino, K. Stamati, S.A. Taylor, P. Donini, D. Laurie, D.M. O’Sullivan. (2007) Haplotype analysis of vernalization loci in European barley germplasm reveals novel VRN-H1 alleles and a predominant winter VRN-H1/VRN-H2 multilocus haplotype. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 115: 993-1001.
S. J. Rae, M. Macaulay, L. Ramsay, F. Leigh, D. Matthews, D. M. O’Sullivan, P. Donini, P. C. Morris, W. Powell, D. F. Marshall, R. Waugh and W. T. B. Thomas (2007) Molecular barley breeding. Euphytica, 158: 295-303.
S. Doveri, D.M. O’Sullivan, D. Lee. (2006) Non-concordance of genetic profiles between olive oil and fruit: a cautionary note to the use of DNA markers in provenance testing. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, 54: 9221-9226
Rodriguez, M., O’Sullivan, D.M., Leigh, F., Chiapparino, E., Donini, P., Papa, R., Attene, G. (2006) Integration of retrotransposon-based markers in a linkage map of barley. Molecular Breeding, in press.
Donnison, I., O’Sullivan D.M., Thomas A., Canter P., Moore B., Armstead I., Thomas H., Edwards K. J., King I. (2005) Construction of a Festuca pratensis BAC library for map-based cloning in Festulolium substitution lines. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 110:846-51.
D'Ovidio, R., Raiola, A., Capodicasa, C., Devoto, A., Pontiggia, D., di Matteo, A., Capone, I., Roberti, S., Galleti, R., Conti, E., O’Sullivan, D.M., Benedetelli, S., De Lorenzo, G. (2003) Structural and Functional characterisation of the complex locus of Phaseolus vulgaris L. encoding polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) indicates adaptive evolution of their regulation and specificity. Plant Physiology135:2424-2435.
O’Sullivan, D.M., K.J. Edwards (2002) Impact of plant genomics on maize improvement. In: Plant Molecular Breeding (ed. J. Newbury), in press, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
O’Sullivan, D.M., P-J. Ripoll, M. Rodgers, K.J. Edwards (2001) A maize BAC library from the European flint line F2. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 103:425-432.
Edwards, K.J., O’Sullivan, D.M.. (2001) Exploiting the maize genome. Pesticide Outlook 12(6):219-221.
Ripoll, P-J., D.M. O’Sullivan, D.M., Rodgers, K.J. Edwards (2000) A technique for cloning and sequencing the ends of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) inserts. Biotechniques, 29:271-276.
O'Sullivan, D.M., Edwards, K.J. (2000) Biotechnology for cereal improvement - positional cloning revisited. In: Highlights in European Plant Biotechnology - Phytosfere '99 (ed. deVries), Elsevier.
D.M. O'Sullivan, D. Edwards, K.J. Edwards (1999) Maize Genomics. AgBiotechNet 2:1-6.
O’Sullivan, D.M., Tosi, P., Creusot, F., Cooke, B.M., Phan, T.H., Dron, M., Langin, T. (1998) Variation in genome organisation of the plant pathogenic fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum. Current Genetics 33: 291-298.