Doing repairs to the beat of Elton John When Benny Leriba joined the team in September last year he didn’t expect to do work other than molecular genetics. But, given COVID and the resulting flight restrictions it became necessary for us to “mechanic” our robotic instruments from LGC Biosearch Technologies – a UK based company… Continue Reading
Genomic selection (GS) is a genetics tool that involves selecting individuals in a breeding population (plants or animals) according to their entire genetic potential for a trait, rather than because of the presence of a specific gene associated with that trait. Since the early 2010s, this tool has been applied in plant breeding to improve… Continue Reading
CenGen was once again privileged to be the recipient of a training course from ThermoFisher Scientific, sponsored by DIPLOMICS. We have been part of the DIPLOMICS group of laboratories since 2018– a partnership which has proven to be truly beneficial. Apart from instrumentation, service contracts and training – all invaluable elements of a well-functioning laboratory… Continue Reading
Knowledge and skills transfer is something we value greatly at CenGen. We have an internal drive to ensure that no skill, responsibility or process is mastered by only one staff member at the time in order to ensure sustainability and progress. Debbie Snyman, being the first staff member to be employed at CenGen in 2005,… Continue Reading
We would like to applaud Professor Willem Boshoff on recently earning the title of Associate Professor in Department Plant Sciences at the University of the Free State. Willem is a much valued, longstanding collaborator of CenGen. In his capacity as wheat breeder at Pannar Seed (Pty) Ltd he initially was part of our molecular service… Continue Reading
For research scientists, a “quick fix” is basically a foreign concept. Research and development takes time, and often a project runs over multiple years before an answer (and a scientific publication) is reached. Therefore, when we get to put our applied science coats on it is very satisfying when we are able to provide a… Continue Reading
The Southern African Plant Breeders’ Association (SAPBA) has recently announced the twenty most influential plant breeders in Africa for 2020. We are proud to be able to say that some of our long standing colleagues and collaborators have been included in this list (available for download below). Congratulations to all and thank you for the… Continue Reading
In January 2021, Ms Shannon Derman will join CenGen as part of the wheat gene cloning team. Shannon recently completed her master’s degree at Stellenbosch University under the supervision of Prof Melané Vivier at the Institute for Wine Biotechnology (IWBT). During the course of her project, “Protoplast-based biotechnology methods for Vitis vinifera”, she gained valuable experience… Continue Reading
For crop producers the presence of any disease is a dreaded and much unwelcome situation. But for researchers like us, disease is the one thing that you want most in a disease resistance trial. In fact, most trials are inoculated with the pathogen in question to ensure that resistant and susceptible plants in the trial… Continue Reading
We are always excited when we get requests for something “new” that we haven’t worked on before. One such request was from Provar, an independent cultivar evaluation company, who wanted to see whether there was a genetic reason for low fruit set observed in some local Japanese plum orchards. Together with Carl Hörstmann, we could determine… Continue Reading