Eugene Sutton

• BSc (Hons) Biology (Cellular and Molecular)
• Comparative Analysis of Wild and Domesticated Pigeon Pea using High Throughput Functional Genomics: Towards Sustainable Food Production

Pigeon peas are one of the world’s most important legume crops, particularly in the Indian subcontinent, eastern Africa and Central America where it forms an important source of dietary protein. Unfortunately domesticated lines are highly susceptible to insect attack, causing significant yield losses. In contrast, some wild lines are highly resistant to attack. The aim of the study is to understand how domesticated and wild lines respond to insect attack at the molecular level using proteomics to identify functional molecular markers, with the long-term view of exploiting this knowledge for a directed strategy in pigeon pea breeding programmes.

Funding Source: Newcastle University