NIAB - National Institute of Agricultural Botany
Plant Science Into Practice
Fiona Leigh, PhD
Post Doctoral Researcher
Tel: +44 1223 342485
Fax: +44 1223 277602
E-mail: Dr Fiona Leigh
Research Interests:
Molecular plant breeding and the study of genetic diversity and domestication of crop plants using molecular markers to identify and quantify genotype changes.
Currently, my research involves the development of barley lines with novel starch phenotypes as part of the Smart Carbohydrate Centre.
Previous research has included studying the expansion of agriculture through Europe as part of a NERC funded consortium entitled ‘the domestication of Europe’. This was an assessment of the extent to which phylogeographical analysis of modern landraces of barley and emmer wheat, combined with genotypic analysis of preserved specimens could reveal genetic information pertaining to the spread and establishment of cereal agriculture through Europe. Other research has included assessing changes in genetic diversity of barley and potatoes in Europe over the past 50 years, developing markers for hybrid purity assessment and quantifying microsatellite mutation rates in a controlled sunflower population.
Publications:
Leigh F., Kalendar R., Lea V., Lee D., Donini P. and Schulman A. H. (2003a) Comparison of the utility of barley retrotransposon families for genetic analysis by molecular marker techniques. Molecular Genetics and Genomics 269: 464-474
Leigh F., Lea V., Law J., Wolters P., Powell W. and Donini P. (2003b) Assessment of EST- and genomic microsatellite markers for variety discrimination and genetic diversity studies in wheat. Euphytica 133: 359-366
Taylor E. J. A., Konstantinova P., Leigh F., Bates J. A. and Lee D. (2004) Gypsy-like retrotransposons in Pyrenophera species: an abundant and informative class of molecular markers. Genome 47: 519-525
Leigh F.J., Law J.R., Lea V.J. Donini P and Reeves J.C. (2005). A comparison of molecular markers and statistical tools for diversity and EDV studies. In 'In the wake of the double helix: from the green revolution to the gene revolution' Eds. Tuberosa R, Phillips R.L. and Gale, M.
Rodruguez, M., O'Sullivan D., Donini P., Papa, R. Chiapparino E., Leigh F and Attene G. (2006). Integration of Retrotransposon-based markers in a linkage map of barley. Molecular Breeding Molecular Breeding 17: 173-184
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.
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, 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.
Jones H, Lister DL, Bower MA, Leigh FJ, Smith LMJ, Jones MK, (2008) Approaches and constraints of using existing landrace and extant plant material to understand agricultural spread in prehistory. Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization 6, 98-112
Jones H, Leigh FJ, Mackay I, Bower MA, Smith LMJ, Charles MP, Jones G, Jones MK, Brown TA, Powell W (2008) Population Based Re-sequencing Reveals that the Flowering Time Adaptation of Cultivated Barley Originated East of the Fertile Crescent Molecular Biology and Evolution; doi: 10.1093/molbev/msn167
Bentley A. R. et al (2010) frequency ofo photoperiod-insensitive PpdA1a alleles in tetraploid, hexaploid and synthetic hexaploid wheat germplasm. Plant Breeding doi:10.1111/j.1439-0523.2010.01802.x
Howard T. et al (2011) Identificationo f a major QTL controlling the content of B-type starch granules in Aegliops. Journal of Experimental Botany doi:10.1093/jxb/erq423