Malcolm John Hawkesford

This paper presents a chromosome-scale genome of Thinopyrum bessarabicum, showing the J genome is not part of polyploid Thinopyrum ancestry and identifies genomic features linked to salt tolerance.

A 1,096-image pixel-labelled wheat organ dataset plus 52,078 unlabelled field images from 11 institutions enables Segformer leaf and spike segmentation near 90% mIoU, while stems lag.

The paper identifies hidden genetic and epigenetic variation in polyploid wheat that contributes to local adaptation and suggests using methylation and transposon diversity for breeding.