Professor Graham Moore is a British scientist, an internationally recognised researcher and Director of the

John Innes Centre The John Innes Centre (JIC), located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, is an independent centre for research and training in plant and microbial science founded in 1910. It is a registered charity (No 223852) grant-aided by the Biotechnology and B ...

, Norwich. Most of his research has focused on understanding cereal genetics. Professor Moore developed the pioneering concept of cereal ‘

Synteny In genetics, the term synteny refers to two related concepts: * In classical genetics, ''synteny'' describes the physical co-localization of genetic loci on the same chromosome within an individual or species. * In current biology, ''synteny'' mo ...

’, for which he was awarded the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Darwin Medal The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". In 1885, International Darwin Memorial Fund was transferred to the ...

in 1998. His research provides an understanding of the control of pairing and crossover between related

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

s in

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and enables genes from wild relatives to be incorporated into the wheat genome. His research aims to understand the genes involved in the temperature sensitivity of

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately resu ...

. In 2021 Professor Moore's research group characterised the gene, ZIP4, which has profound effects on the production of seeds in wheat. Professor Moore’s group took advantage of new wheat research technology to explain genetic elements. He is internationally recognised for his work, and in 2018 he was jointly awarded the Rank Prize for Nutrition for his contribution to pioneering research which enabled plant breeders to exploit genomics to develop improved wheat cultivars. Since 2007 he has coordinated the BBSRC-funded cross-institutional wheat programme
Designing Future Wheat
involving eight UK institutions.

Awards

* 1998 − The

, jointly with Professor Michael Denis Gale. * 2018 − Rank Prize for Nutrition, jointly with Professor Keith Edwards.

Works

Cereal genome evolution: grasses, line up and form a circle. Graham Moore, KM Devos, Z Wang, MD Gale, 1995/7/1.

References

British geneticists Living people 1958 births {{UK-scientist-stub