Warwick scientists save the parsnip

**Warwick scientists, headed by PhD student Lauren Chappell, have had recent success in their investigations of “parsnip canker”.**

The aims of the investigation are to to cut back on waste products and reduce the use of pesticides.

Parsnip canker can cause significant losses to the potential harvest of the crop, both during the farming and storage phase – the disease gives the vegetable unattractive orange or dark brown and black lesions, and this makes them unmarketable to the general public.

These unsightly marks cause high waste percentages, and this has spurred Elsoms Seeds Ltd. to sponsor the Warwick-led research.

Elsoms Seed Ltd. have already been breeding to improve the disease resistance of their own produce, and they have begun working at the University’s own Warwick Crop Centre.

They hope to build on their success and continue to reduce waste by developing the tools that will be needed to breed more canker-resistant parsnips.

The University has been awarded a BBSRC CASE studentship, co-funded by Elsoms Seeds Ltd. This funding will allow Ms Chappell to complete her studies on the genetics of resistance to parsnip canker.

She has said that she hopes “to ensure the sustainability of the parsnip for many Christmases to come.”

Ms Chappell will be using next generation sequence technology, a tool for genetic analysis, to look at parsnip resistance on a molecular level – building on the work of other Warwick university scientists.

Through her PhD studies, Ms Chappell aims to develop a screening test to find parsnip breeding lines which are more resistant to the fungi which cause the canker, and then to develop a ‘map’ to guide a selective breeding programme.