Rothamsted Centre for Crop Genetic Improvement

 » To manipulate biosynthetic pathways in seeds and other storage organs to optimise their composition for food and non-food uses, focusing on polyunsaturated fatty acids in oilseeds and dietary fibre composition in cereals.

 » To elevate resistance to bolting in sugar beet.

 » To optimise use of resources, maintaining crop production, while minimising potentially damaging environmental impacts.

 » To identify and manipulate the mechanisms determining the efficiency of nitrogen and carbon partitioning to harvested products and maximising yields under low nitrogen availability.

 » To develop and promulgate novel genetic and genomic resources and analytical technologies of value in crop improvement.

 » To understand and manipulate the mechanisms regulating aspects of seed development and composition, including size (yield), shape and the partitioning between the major components.

 » To identify and exploit factors that determine plant architecture and to understand the mechanisms by which they influence resource use, yield and quality.