Another milestone was reached this month in our mission to explore Fusarium Crown Rot (FCR) resistance in wheat. The South African doubled haploid population used in this study was sent to our Australian collaborators late in 2018. After some time spent in quarantine, the population was released and has made it to the field. The… Continue Reading
Last year, we at CenGen were excited to announce the planting of the first field trial for our research project exploring the genetics behind Fusarium Crown Rot (FCR) resistance in wheat. By combining disease scoring information (resulting from the 2019 trial) with high throughput genotyping data we were able to gain some preliminary information about… Continue Reading
In early March, Kelly Breeds (CenGen Barley Research Lead) attended a Data Carpentry course at the Earlham Institute (EI), where she benefitted from the tutelage of Dr Robert Davey and other members of EI’s Data Infrastructure and Algorithms Group. Topics covered during the course included data organisation in spreadsheets, data cleaning in OpenRefine, data analysis… Continue Reading
From 24-28 February 2020, CenGen and Stellenbosch University had the privilege of welcoming three expert trainers from the UK and colleagues from across a range of South African research institutions for the third Bioinformatics and Wheat Genomics Workshop held at the Stellenbosch University Ukwanda campus in Worcester. This course, building on the success of the… Continue Reading
Kelly Breeds and Mignon de Jager recently visited SABBI to prepare for the barley field trials taking place in Greytown later in the year. As part of a Winter Cereal Trust funded project (WCT/B/2018/02), two mapping populations have been developed using accessions that provide resistance against stem rust, but do not carry the well-known Rpg1… Continue Reading
CenGen is extremely privileged to announce that Dr Xolelwa Zulu has been appointed as Independent Director of the company as from the 9th of December 2019. Dr Prins was first introduced to Xolelwa on a scientific tour to the UK, hosted by the British High Commission and Agbiz Grain. At the time, Xolelwa was the… Continue Reading
On 20 January, Marizanne Horn and Elsabet Wessels undertook the trek to Bethlehem, Free State, for project meetings with colleagues at the local Sensako breeding station. Marizanne, an employee of Sensako and industry placement at CenGen, met with Roean Wessels, Sensako’s sunflower breeder. Elsabet, who is responsible for the wheat MAS programme at CenGen, met… Continue Reading
In an exciting new venture at CenGen, we are exploring the possibility of getting involved with science education in collaboration with the Cape Winelands Education District (CWED). Brian Wilson (Dr) and Edgar Johannes from the CWED visited us on Wednesday, 18 December, to discuss how CenGen can contribute to creating awareness among primary and high… Continue Reading
Ending off the year with a BLAST, CenGen just took the next step to integrate bioinformatics into their workflow through the installation of their first dedicated Bioinformatics server. This was achieved with the assistance of the consulting firm of Dr Tjelvar Olsson and Mr Jan Marais (iMotion). Upon recognising the dire need for South African… Continue Reading
At CenGen we love to share our science and what we do with others – be it in a formal, academic journal or in an informal setting with the general public as audience. On 28 November, the staff from Sensako’s Research Station at Napier visited our laboratory. Their expertise is in field trial and glasshouse… Continue Reading