Research interests
Matt works as part of the transformation team at NIAB and is interested in all things related to plant nutrition. This includes how elements are taken up from the soil, how they are sensed and finally transported through the plant to help create the wide variety of phenotypes important to agriculture today.
Research projects
Improving nitrogen use efficiency in cereal crops for sustainable food production
Date: 2022- 2025
Funders: The Morley Agricultural Foundation
An evolutionary approach to optimising synthetic apomixis in cereal crops
Date: 2021-2025
Funders: BBSRC: BB/V016466/1
PGEN-BW: Phosphorus use efficiency and genetics of bread wheat
Date: 2020-2023
Funders: FSOV
Response of Eragrostis tef to Zn fertilisation and its ability to increase grain Zn content
Date: 2021-2022:
Funders: Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund
Recent publications
- Ereful NC, Jones H, Fradgley N, Boyd L, Assaye Cherie, H, Milner MJ. Whole-genome sequencing and analysis of nutritional traits in a core set of Ethiopian Teff (Eragrostis tef) varieties. Preprint DOI:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1251010/v
- Milner MJ, Craze M, Bowden S, Wallington EJ. (2021) Ectopic expression of TaBG1 increases seed size and alters nutritional characteristics of the grain in wheat but does not lead to increased yields. BMC Plant Biology. DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-523405/v1
- Ober ES, Alahmad S, Cockram J, Forestan C, Hickey LT, Kant J, et al. Wheat root systems as a breeding target for climate resilience. Theor Appl Genet. Springer; 2021;1:3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-021-03819-w
- Milner MJ, Swarbreck SM, Craze M, Bowden S, Bates R, Griffiths H, Wallington EJ. (2020) Increasing wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yields under low nitrogen levels through genetic modification of the brassinosteroid synthesis pathway. Comm. Biology. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03139-9
- Wright T, Gardner KA, Glahn RP, Milner MJ. (2021) Genetic control of iron bioavailability does not co-localize with QTL for biofortification of iron in wheat. BMC Plant Biol. DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-142805/v1