I am intrigued by the enormous variation displayed in the diploid Brassica species Brassica oleracea  and B. rapa. This ranges from leafy heads of cabbages, tubers of turnips and kohlrabi, curds of cauliflower and broccoli and seedpods of oilseeds. To unravel the genetic regulation of domestication traits in diploid Brassica species, segregating populations and core collections are developed, genetic maps are constructed, and recently, both de novo genomes are generated for the different croptypes and  a large number of B. oleracea genotypes representing the different morphotypes have been resequenced. These data, combined with resequencing data generated of B. rapa core collections,  made it possible to detect signals of domestication for both leafy head formation and tuber formation. This clearly illustrated that the triplication shared by these Brassica species facilitated selection of this extreme variation, as evidence was found for sub genomic parallel selection. The focus of my research is to study the domestication events and understand the role of candidate genes in the generation of tubers, leafy heads and curds of cauliflower.

I am teaching the course Design of Plant Breeding Programs in which MSc students are challenged to design a plant breeding program for a crop and trait of their choice. In this course students need to apply knowledge of their MSc courses and combine this with practical aspects in order to develop a plant breeding strategy.  An important aspects of this education element is  to justify the choices and approaches made to reach the goal, being the new improved cultivar. 

Together with my colleagues I developed practical experiments and skill training activities for the Plant Breeding on line students that visit Wageningen University twice during their part-time MSc study.

For BSc thesis or MSc thesis topics in my group, please check the Plant Breeding website or the tip sites https://tip.wur.nl/.