PHASE Lab

Polyploidy and Hybridisation in Agriculture, Speciation and Evolution

We are a research group led by Prof. Annaliese Mason, Chair of Plant Breeding at The University of Bonn, Germany since September 2020. The research group is currently split between The University of Giessen and The University of Bonn.

“Current” lab group photo (2019, although in defense of not updating there is a pandemic going on!)

Our major research focus is on polyploidy and interspecific hybridisation, or in other words how two different species can come together to form a new, hybrid species or to swap genetic material. We aim to use these common evolutionary processes for crop improvement in the Brassica genus, which contains important oilseed (canola, rapeseed) and vegetable (cabbage, turnip, cauliflower, broccoli) crops.