Abi Johnson
Project Leader
Department of Genetics Genomics & Breeding
NIAB EMR
United Kingdom
Biography
Currently working at NIAB EMR, United Kingdom.
Research Interest
I am principally a plant breeder, involved in all aspects of the strawberry breeding programmes at EMR. I manage a commercial project, the aim of which is to develop strawberry varieties that are suitable for tabletop production. For the Strawberry Breeding Club programme in my role as Trials Officer, I manage the distribution of advanced trial material, collate and disseminate results generated from the offsite trials. I currently manage the glasshouse trials for a 2 year HDC project, with the objective to determine the genetics of resistance to Verticillium wilt in strawberry. I also assist with the commercially-funded sweet cherry breeding programme at EMR. I was previously involved in a 5 year Defra project to determine the response of strawberry to water-limited conditions in order to identify quantitative trait loci associated with water use efficiency (WU0107). Additionally, I have participated in other areas of Defra-funded research; investigating the heat tolerance of everbearing lines (FO0306), the development of germplasm with a reduced thermodormant response to high temperature periods (FO0313) and the understanding of inheritance of extended dormancy in EMR late season germplasm (HH3201SSF).
Publications
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Simpson, D.W., Whitehouse, A.B., Johnson, A.W., McLeary, K.J. & Passey, A.J. (2014). 'Elegance' and 'Vibrant', two new strawberry cultivars fro programmed cropping in Northern Europe. Acta Horticulturae 1049. 259-261.
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Whitehouse, A.B., Johnson, A.W., Passey, A.J., McLeary K.J. & Simpson, D.W. (2014). ‘Serenity’: A paler skin-coloured somaclonal variant of the short-day cultivar ‘Florence’. Acta Horticulturae 1049. 819-821.
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Whitehouse, A.B., Johnson, A.W., Passey, A.J., McLeary K.J. & Simpson, D.W. (2014). Recent Progress in Breeding for Improved Performance in Programmed Cropping Systems. Acta Horticulturae 1049. 867-872.
