Dr Donal O'Sullivan
Head of Crop Genetics Group
Tel: +44 1223 342463
Fax: +44 1223 342269
E-mail: Dr Donal O'Sulivan
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 positional 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 info). 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.
Publications
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.
