Neil S Harris

University of Alberta | UAlberta · Department of Biological Sciences

The domestication of wild emmer wheat led to the selection of modern durum wheat, grown mainly for pasta production. We describe the 10.45 gigabase (Gb) assembly of the genome of durum wheat cultivar Svevo. The assembly enabled genome-wide genetic diversity analyses revealing the changes imposed by thousands of years of empirical selection and bree...

Concentrations of cadmium (Cd) in the grain of many durum wheats (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) grown in North American prairie soils often exceed international trade standards. Genotypic differences in root-to-shoot translocation of Cd are a major determinant of intraspecific variation in the accumulation of Cd in grain. We tested the extent to...

Some durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var durum) cultivars have the genetic propensity to accumulate cadmium (Cd) in the grain. A major gene controlling grain Cd concentration designated as Cdu1 has been reported on 5B, but the genetic factor(s) conferring the low Cd phenotype are currently unknown. The objectives of this study were to saturate th...

NaCl stress is a major abiotic stress limiting the productivity and the geographical distribution of many plant species. Roots are the primary site of salinity perception. To understand better NaCl stress responses in Arabidopsis roots, a comparative proteomic analysis of roots that had been exposed to 150 mM NaCl for either 6 h or 48 h was conduct...

Cadmium (Cd) concentrations in durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var durum) grain grown in North American prairie soils often exceed proposed international trade standards. To understand the physiological processes responsible for elevated Cd accumulation in shoots and grain, Cd uptake and translocation were studied in seedlings of a pair of near-i...

Cadmium accumulation in grain of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) represents a concern to consumers. In an effort to understand the regulation of Cd accumulation in maturing grain, the remobilization of 109Cd applied to stem and flag leaves was examined in two near-isogenic lines that differ in grain Cd accumulation. Absorbed 109Cd was...

Functional convergence of different communities in similar environments would be expected as an outcome of the operation of 'assembly rules'. At an ecological level, competitive exclusion would restrict the co-occurrence of species with similar niches. Repetition of competitive sorting on an evolutionary time scale might lead to character displacem...