Tim Beard

Location: Henfaes Research Centre

PhD title: Tomato early blight – identification of genetic sources of resistance to Alternaria solani

Supervisors: Katherine Steele & Alexander Papadopoulos

Research overview

This KESS2 research project is funded by the European Social Fund in collaboration with Burpee Europe Ltd. and The Savari Research Trust. It is focussed upon developing genomic markers for use in Marker Assisted Selection in tomato breeding programmes, with the intention of developing new commercial cultivars with resistance to Early Blight. Early Blight is an economically important disease affecting the foliage of a number of Solanaceous crops, caused by ascomycete pathogens of the genus Alternaria. This research project is also assessing the phylogeographic and epidemiological factors of these organisms.

Biography

I undertook both a BSc. in Biology and MRes in the Biosciences at Aberystwyth University, and have worked on projects investigating the domestication of crop plants, fungal pathogenesis and applications for genomic marker technologies in agricultural industry prior to commencing my PhD with Bangor.