About Eu-Sol
Find out more about this project.
An introduction to the aims of EU-SOL and how we plan to achieve them. Plus read about the organisations and people working on this project.
Prof. Graham Seymour
Organisation: University of Nottingham
Job title: Professor of Plant Biotechnology
What do you do?
My role in the EUSOL project is as Leader of the Work Package on understanding the genetic and molecular basis of fruit texture (WP1.4) and also as the Technology Platform Module (Module 5) Coordinator. On a day to day basis most of my activity on the project relates to experimental work in my lab on WP1.4. We are trying to identify genes underlying a major effect on fruit texture that is located on tomato chromosome 3.
How did you get involved in the project?
My contribution to EUSOL complements other work in my lab on fruit ripening. I am using tomato as a model system to understand how fleshy fruits ripen and then the aim is to use this information to improve the quality of crop products in collaboration with industry. With developments in genomics and systems biology there is a real possibility of being able to unravel the molecular circuits controlling fruit ripening in the next few years. I am keen to make a significant contribution to this international effort.
Pieces of me
What do you currently have on your bedside table?
A book on Model Railways in the Garden. The children and I have a plan for our own garden model railway in 2009, but we have not told my wife this yet.
What brings you back to the real world at the end of the day?
I like doing some water colour painting, mainly fossil plant reconstructions and, well , trains of course.
If you weren’t yourself which person (historical or otherwise) would you most like to be?
Not sure about this one.
What’s one exciting thing that has happened to you in the course of your work?
Cloning Cnr, a gene that controls ripening in tomato and discovering that the mutant version we were working with resulted from an epigenetic change
What do you think the next big thing will be?
An appreciation exactly how important epigenetic processes are in generating natural variation.
