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Bio
I am senior researcher in plant biochemistry & biotechnology: initiating, co-ordinating & managing research projects dealing with the underpinning drivers of food quality, food safety & the impacts of crop management practices on end-product quality (& safety) in a range of crops important to Scotland (& the rest of the UK).
Sustainability production systems - impacts on crop composition
Cost-benefit analysis of sustainable production systems (as a component of food security) needs to be coupled with assessments of potential impacts on the quality, nutritional & anti-nutritional profiles of crops in a rotation. This will provide early indicators of changes which may impact not only on food quality, safety & food security per se. but also on consumer acceptance & value in the food chain. I lead the development of an SG-funded research project 'The Effect of Sustainable Farming Systems on Health Beneficial Components', which exploits the Centre for Sustainable Cropping research platform (http://csc.hutton.ac.uk/) at Balruddery Farm, Dundee, to developing baseline data on the impacts of conventional & reduced input - integrated management management practices on crop yield, crop composition, quality & nutrition. An important aim is to determine the underlying physiological & biochemical mechanisms driving any differences. The rotation includes potato, winter wheat, winter & spring barley, winter oil seed rape & field beans as component crops. In the first stages, the focus has been on the targeted analyses of crop components impacting on quality. In parallel, we are also assessing the effects on processing parameters e.g. barley malting quality & potato fry quality. We are also exploiting the groups in-house expertise in state-of-the-art metabolomics analytical approaches to provide a broader & less analytically biased analysis of the impacts of production practices. The overall objective is to contribute to the development of genotypes which are better adapted to the demands of sustainable agricultural production systems but which fulfil industrial & consumer needs.
Food Safety
1. Low Bruise Potato
In potato production ca. £50 million lost product per annum is attributed to discards because of internal bruising, & is therefore a significant commercial problem. Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is the main enzymatic driver of bruise formation (discolouration). Using the potato variety Estima (known to be bruise susceptible), we successfully down-regulated the major tuber PPO gene using a transgenic approach, & produced several GM lines whose tubers did not bruise (or show bruise-associated discolouration). Mature tubers from two GM lines (exhibiting the lowest PPO enzyme activity) & a parental wild-type (WT) control were analysed using metabolomics to assess the potential for unintended effects of PPO down-regulation. Temporal changes in the metabolome following wounding, by tuber slicing, were also assessed, & a paper was published in 2016.
2. Potato Greening:
3. Low Glycoalkaloid Potato
I have been the main contact point for collaboration with the USDA (Albany, CA) attempting to reduce the levels of anti-nutritional (potentially toxic) glycoalkaloids (α-solanine & α-chaconine) in potato using a transgenic approach. Specific sterol glycoside transferases (sgt) were down regulated & shown to significantly affect the glycoalkaloid biosynthetic pathway. The knockout of one gene (sgt1) resulted in almost complete inhibition of α-solanine production, but revealed a significant compensatory mechanism in that the levels of the more toxic glycoalkaloid, α-chaconine, increased. The net result was no change in total glycoalkaloid levels. This highlighted the need for a fuller understanding of the regulation of the glycoalkaloid pathway, & so two other set of transgenic lines were produced with either the sgt2 or sgt3 knock-out. The data from these three studies has been published.
4. Developing Low Acrylamide Potato
I was the main contact point in EBS for developing low acrylamide producing potato. Acrylamide in the diet has been linked to cancer development. Acrylamide formation in processed potatoes results from high temperature interactions between the reducing sugars glucose & fructose & the amino acid asparagine (Asn). I led a project developing low acrylamide-producing potato in collaboration with a) geneticists, transcriptomics experts & BioSS (Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland; https://www.bioss.ac.uk), all based at the Institute, & b) a research consortium funded through a UK Agri-Food LINK grant & comprised of academics & multinational industrial partners. This employed the use of a tetraploid mapping population developed at the Institute, which I “mined” to identify clones with low asparagine & low reducing sugar content. We have already published a paper in this area.
Research Interests
Papers共 34 篇Author StatisticsCo-AuthorSimilar Experts
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Alexey Dudnik,A. Filipa Almeida,Ricardo Andrade, Barbara Avila, Pilar Bañados,Diane Barbay,Jean-Etienne Bassard,Mounir Benkoulouche,Michael Bott,Adelaide Braga,Dario Breitel,Rex Brennan,
Food chemistry (2015): 437-43
METABOLOMICS IN FOOD AND NUTRITION (2013): 192-216
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Seed Development: OMICS Technologies toward Improvement of Seed Quality and Crop Yieldpp.555-567, (2012)
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