Research interests
Richard has worked in NIAB’s wheat pre-breeding department since its inception in 2007. He played a significant role in producing two Multi-Parent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) populations which have provided a valuable resource for dissecting trait genetic architecture.
More recently Richard has developed a collection of novel synthetic wheat to assess and exploit genetic diversity from the D genome of hexaploid wheat. NIAB’s synthetic wheat collection captures D genome donors from all three lineages of A.tauschii and is a valuable resource for researchers and wheat breeders. Richard has used these synthetic wheats to generate nearly 10,000 Bc1 F5 pre breeding lines across two elite wheat backgrounds.
Richard has also began working for the IWYP Winter Wheat Hub which is based at NIAB. The purpose of this hub is to provide a translational pipeline supporting European winter wheat improvement. Richard’s role within this project is to produce Near Isogenic Lines containing beneficial traits through crossing and Marker Assisted Selection.
Projects (Current and recent)
Designing Future Wheat
Duration: 2017 – 2023
Partners: John Innes Centre (lead), Rothamsted Research, University of Bristol, University of Nottingham, Earlham Institute, EBI
Funders/Funding: BBSRC
IWYP European Winter Wheat Hub
Duration: 2021-TBC
Partners: BASF, KWS, RAGT, Syngenta, CIMMYT
Funders/Funding: IWYP
Recent publications
Wright, T.I., Horsnell, R., Love, B., Burridge, A.J., Gardner, K.A., Jackson, R., Leigh, F.J., Ligeza, A., Heuer, S., Bentley, A.R. and Howell, P., 2024. A new winter wheat genetic resource harbors untapped diversity from synthetic hexaploid wheat. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 137(3), pp.1-19.
Horsnell, R., Leigh, F. J., Wright, T. I. C., Burridge, A. J., Ligeza, A., Przewieslik-Allen, A. M., Howell, P., Uauy, C., Edwards, K. J., & Bentley, A. R. (2023). A wheat chromosome segment substitution line series supports characterization and use of progenitor genetic variation. The Plant Genome, 00, e20288.
Leigh, F.J., Wright, T.I.C., Horsnell, R.A. et al. Progenitor species hold untapped diversity for potential climate-responsive traits for use in wheat breeding and crop improvement. Heredity 128, 291–303 (2022).
Gaurav, K., Arora, S., Silva, P. et al. Population genomic analysis of Aegilops tauschii identifies targets for bread wheat improvement. Nat Biotechnol (2021).
Przewieslik-Allen, A.M., Wilkinson, P.A., Burridge, A.J. et al. The role of gene flow and chromosomal instability in shaping the bread wheat genome. Nat. Plants 7, 172–183 (2021).
Full publication list available at ORCID