About PCGIN

The Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network started in 2011 and was renewed for another 5 years in July 2024. Read more about our partner organisations, industry stakeholder base and major achievements and impacts.

PCGIN 2024 - 2029

The new PCGIN programme runs for 5 years from July 2024 to June 2029 and was shaped with input from the PCGIN stakeholder base.

 The programme maps onto Defra’s four overarching priorities, which are

  1. to enhance productivity and food security;
  2. to enhance environmental sustainability including pest and disease resistance;
  3. to build resilience to climate change;
  4. to improve nutritional and other quality traits.

While continuing work on diseases and nutritional traits, the new PCGIN will invest in legumes other than faba bean and pea for the UK, such as lentil and common bean (Phaseolus); we will collaborate with the Met Office to address future challenges from climate change; and establish a service pipeline for gene editing of faba bean and pea.

A Brief History of PCGIN and Its Achievements

The Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network started in 2011 and was led by Prof Claire Domoney until 2024. The previous programme ran from 2018 – 2024 (5 years plus 1 year extension due to the pandemic) with a budget of £1.5m. This budget was doubled to £3m for the new 5-year programme.

The outcomes of the GINs were recently reviewed by Prof Andrew J Thompson of Cranfield University on behalf of Defra (link). It estimated that every £1 investment gave a 26-fold return between 2013 and 2022, with value arising from prevention of yield losses, premium farmgate prices or through seed sales for breeding companies.

One example of PCGIN’s impact is our contribution to the identification of the genes for vicine and convicine in field beans (Vicia faba). The proteins are allergens that cause favism in people with a genetic disposition. The research enabled the development of low vicine/convicine varieties that were released by NPZ (Formerly LS Plant Breeding).

Another example is disease resistance to chocolate spot and downy mildew, with germplasm of both field bean and pea being used in current breeding programmes by Limagrain.

Partner organisations and Programme Management Team

The Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network (PCGIN) is managed by the John Innes Centre in collaboration with NIAB, University of Reading, IBERS / University of Aberystwyth and PGRO, with input provided by the commercial sector.

The Programme Management Team (PMT) meets every four months to discuss research and the delivery of milestones.

PCGIN Management Team (Oct 2024):

Prof. Janneke Balk, JIC

Started her independent research career at the University of Cambridge in 2005 and has been a group leader at JIC since 2011. Her expertise is in biochemistry and genetics, focussing on mineral transport in plants, including nutrient accumulation in seeds and iron delivery to nitrogen fixing nodules of legumes

Dr Sanu Arora, JIC

Group leader at JIC since 2020 funded by a Ben Gill Translational fellowship to foster interactions with industry. Her work focuses on understanding the molecular basis of diseases affecting the pea crop, including downy mildew, root rot and viruses. For this she has developed novel gene discovery pipelines using the latest bioinformatics tools

Prof. Donal O’Sullivan, UoR

Donal has been involved in legume improvement since his 1997 PhD on common bean anthracnose and has been a co-investigator of PCGIN since 2010. His research team has been at the forefront of developing and characterising high quality inbred diversity collections and mapping populations for faba bean.

Dr Tom Wood, NIAB

Tom is a senior program leader in the Plant Pathology Department and has worked on PCGIN since 2012. Tom’s research utilizes genetics and genomics techniques to improve understanding of host-pathogen interactions in faba and common bean.

Becky Howard, PGRO

Becky is the R&D Manager for PGRO and has worked in the legume industry for 30 years. She has experience of managing large, collaborative projects (UKRI/ AHDB), and oversees PGRO’s efficacy trials team and laboratory services. Her research has focussed on insect pests of UK pulses including the development of prediction and monitoring tools.

Dr Catherine Howarth, IBERS, Aberystwyth University

Leads the Grains for Health and Pulse Breeding teams at IBERS. Her research focuses on the genetic control of agriculturally important traits, in particular improving the seed quality and abiotic stress tolerance of peas, beans and oats using novel breeding and phenotyping technologies. She is also involved in a number of EU-funded projects exploiting genetic diversity in peas and beans.

Dr Noam Chayut

 Noam is an applied crop geneticist who has led the Germplasm Resource Unit team since 2018. He represents the John Innes Centre in the UK Plant Genetic Resources Group and also in the platform of Access and Benefit Sharing for the Nagoya Protocol. He is a member in the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources, in the working groups for wheat and grain legumes

Defra representatives

Fay Stemp-Walsh

  • Defra Project Officer

Industry representatives:

Rebecca White

David Lloyd

Elise Cocciantelli

Mark Nightingale

Dan Smith

Michael Shuldham

Jenna Watts