Luke Ramsay
Current research interests
- My main interest is in the patterns of genetic variation shown by elite barley cultivars and the use of this information to gain insights into the control of characters of economic, agronomic and environmental importance.
- The patterns of genetic variation shown by current elite barley varieties are influenced by both the population history of recent breeding programme objectives (introduction of disease resistance genes etc.) and also by more fundamental constraints of the genetics and genome architecture of barley that also form a focus of my research.
- In addition, studies into the variation of current barley varieties has led to an interest in the history of barley breeding and in the older cultivated forms of the UK and in particular Scotland. This includes the six-row bere barleys that are unique to Scotland and still grown in the Northern and Western isles.
Past research
My initial research was based around studies on the quantitative genetics of Brassica spp. (University of Birmingham and John Innes Centre). However since coming to the Institute I have concentrated almost exclusively on barley and have been involved mainly in the development of molecular markers and their application to questions relating to the patterns of genetic and functional diversity in barley.