Natasha Yelina

Profile

I received my BA, MSc and PhD working on RNA silencing in plant-virus interactions. During my post-docs funded by the Royal Society/NATO, EMBO and Broodbank Postdoctoral Fellowships, I pursued my interests in RNA silencing, genetics, epigenetics and meiosis at the Sainsbury Laboratory (Norwich) and Department of Plant Sciences (University of Cambridge). My current research is focused on the fundamental mechanisms of meiotic recombination control in plants and how this knowledge can accelerate conventional crop breeding.

Research interests

I study meiosis – a specialized cell division during sexual reproduction that results in gametes (egg and sperm/pollen) with half the genetic material of mother cells. During meiosis parental chromosomes physically exchange DNA segments, or recombine. This leads to novel trait combinations that can be selected by breeders to create new and improved crop varieties. Despite their importance for breeding, meiotic recombination events, or crossovers, are limiting because they are rare and uneven. This leaves a substantial proportion of traits inaccessible to breeders and slows down breeding programmes. Breakthroughs in the field, including my work, have identified mechanisms that contribute to crossover recombination control. My current focus is to gain deeper fundamental understanding of crossover control and translate this fundamental knowledge into step-changing breeding technologies by addressing the following questions: What determines crossover positioning along chromosomes? How can we boost trait reassortment in crops? Meiosis and crossovers are sensitive to temperature stress which leads to gamete aneuploidy and yield losses in grain crops. Another research aim in my lab is to understand how we can overcome sensitivity of meiosis and crossovers to temperature stress in order to engineer climate-resilient crops?

Qualifications

• PhD
• HEA Associate