Benedict Coombes

I am an NRP Doctoral Training Partnership PhD student working in Anthony Hall's group. I use bioinformatics tools and pipelines to study the transposon landscape in wheat, utilising both short and long read technologies. By comparing transposition dynamics across wheat cultivars and lines, including progenitor species and synthetic polyploids, we hope to further our understanding of how transposons have shaped and continue to shape the evolution of the wheat genome. We also aim to identify specific transposon insertions in proximity to genes of agronomic importance to provide breeders with a novel source of variation that can be used in wheat breeding programmes.

Prior to arriving at EI, I completed my bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Bath. My honours project involved producing a de novo genome assembly and annotation of an emerging drought tolerant Brassica model. This work allowed me to develop my bioinformatics skills and my further my interest in plant genomics.