Graham Teakle

Feeding the future world population will require substantially increasing food production from the same area of land while still maintaining a healthy environment. Vegetable crops have a particularly important nutritional role in our diet compared with cereals, however, their marketability and yield are particularly impacted by pests and diseases (P&D). In addition, crops such as oilseed rape require a lot of nitrogen fertiliser to maximise yield which results in a large carbon footprint. Breeding new crop varieties that are more resistant to P&D, or that have lower fertiliser requirements, represents an environmentally sustainable approach to reduce crop losses and improve yield that reduces the need for harmful agrochemicals. However, we cannot rely on crop genetics alone; we need to use all the tools available to us to improve crop production. An approach that integrates different methods is known as integrated pest management, or IPM for short. I specialise in the genetics of oilseed rape and horticultural crops, with a particular focus on brassicas, lettuce and onion, but I have also worked on a number of other crops as well. The approaches used often involve screening crop germplasm collections to identify plants that have the desired properties and then working to understand the genes that confer these properties so that they can be utilised in breeding. I work closely with other colleagues who specialise in a range of areas, including viruses, insect pests, pathogens and crop nutrition. In addition, I am also interested in understanding the biology of the different P&D organisms to inform the development of IPM control strategies. Current work includes virus resistance in brassica and carrots, aphid pests of brassicas and lettuce, pathogens such as clubroot on brassicas and fusarium on lettuce, and nitrogen use efficiency in oilseed rape.

Greer, Shannon F., Harrison, Jamie, Bown, Daisy, Serrano, Maria, Hussain, Rana Muhammed Fraz, Ghosh, Srayan, Teakle, Graham R., Ntoukakis, Vardis, Studholme, David J., Vicente, Joana G. and Grant, Murray (2026) Identification of race‐specific, clade‐specific and broad‐spectrum resistance to xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris in brassica diversity fixed foundation sets. Plant Pathology, 75 (1). e70074. doi:10.1111/ppa.70074 ISSN 0032-0862. Gladman, Andrew K., Prince, Gillian, Teakle, Graham R. and Chandler, David (2025) Evaluating antibiosis resistance to cabbage aphid ( Brevicoryne brassicae L ., 1758) in vegetable brassicas ( Brassica oleracea L .) and related C ‐genome brassica species. Pest Management Science, 81 (12). pp. 8431-8447. doi:10.1002/ps.70161 ISSN 1526-4998. Garrett, Dion