Newcastle University

Roles and Responsibilities

Leading the proteomic profilling in the plant genetics and breeding team for Nafferton Ecological Farming Group (NEFG)

Member of Newcastle University's Athena SWAN Self-Assessment team

Qualifications

PhD, ecological genetics, University of Manchester, 2007.

BSc (Hons), biological sciences (with industrial experience), Salford University, 2003.

Previous Positions

Teaching assistant, Northumbria University (2008). Led a third year module in foresic botany, and taught on a MSc module in writing grant applications

Postdoctoral research associate, University of Manchester (2007). Ecological genetics of epiphytic bromeliad - tree associations in the tropical rainforests of Belize and Ecuador.

Esteem Indicators

Member of the editorial board for Agronomy - a multidisciplinary and open access journal.

Member of the editorial board for The Open Access Journal of Science and Technology. 

Reviewer for many subject related journals (e.g. The American Naturalist, Evolutionary Ecology, Ecology and Evolution, Journal of Proteomics). 

Reviewer for Research Council research proposals (BBSRC).  

Memberships

Society of Biology (MSB)

Current Research Interests

• Sustainable crop production to reduce our impact on the environment and maintain food security. This involves several areas of interest:

• The effect of agronomic practices (fertilisation regime) and varieties on crop yield and Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE). Identification of plant genes involved in NUE, particularly plant root genes involved in plant interactions with rhizosphere micro-organisms that enhance nutrient availability and uptake.

• Plant-pest interactions: incorporating evolutionary ecology theory into the development of durable crop resistance to pests and pathogens. Plants have evolved in environments where they interact with a multitude of above-ground and below-ground organisms. These interactions can have deleterious (e.g. pest/pathogen) or beneficial (e.g. plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, parasitoid wasps) effects on plant health/fitness. Plants have evolved mechanisms to enhance interactions with beneficial species to increase their resistance to deleterious species. My interest is to identify plant genes that influence environmentally (biotic) modulated plant resistance to pests and pathogens. My research includes the "complicating" factor of plasticity in crop resistance to genetically variable pest populations.

• This research utilises quantitative genetics and molecular biology (proteomic profiling, QTL mapping) and modelling to identify genes involved in plant performance 

Funding

Co-I (50%): "Modelling proteomics data for investigating plant response to environmental stress". Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Discipline Hopping Scheme, 2013. Collaborator: Prof. Stephen Rushton

Co-I: Small Ecological Project Grant (SEPG), British Ecological Society, 2006.

Postgraduate Supervision

Mr Leonidas Rempelos (PhD thesis: Effects of agronomic practices on yield, quality and protein expression patterns in multiple potato varieties).

Mr Mohammed Almuarifi (PhD thesis: Nutrient Use Efficiency in contrasting wheat varieties). Part supervision with Prof. C. Leifert and Dr J. Coopper

Undergraduate Teaching

ACE1013 Introduction to Genetics

Postgraduate Teaching

ACE8067 Ecological & Sustainable Fields Crop Production Systems

MSc/MRes Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security (DPD)

• Tétard-Jones C, Shotton PN, Rempelos L, Cooper J, Eyre M, Orr CH, Leifert C, Gatehouse AMR. Quantitative proteomics to study the response of wheat to contrasting fertilisation regimes. Molecular Breeding 2013, 31(2), 379-393.
• Tétard-Jones C, Edwards MG, Rempelos L, Gatehouse AMR, Eyre M, Wilcockson SJ, Leifert C. Effects of previous crop management, fertilization regime and watersupply on potato tuber proteome and yield. Agronomy 2013, 3(1), 59-85.
• Rempelos L, Cooper J, Wilcockson S, Eyre M, Shotton P, Volakakis N, Orr CH, Leifert C, Gatehouse AMR, Tétard-Jones C. Quantitative proteomics to study the response of potato to contrasting fertilisation regimes. Molecular Breeding 2013, 31(2), 363-378.
• Tetard-Jones C, Kertesz MA, Preziosi RF. Identification of Plant Quantitative Trait Loci modulating a rhizobacteria-aphid indirect effect. PLoS One 2012, 7(7), e41524.
• Tetard-Jones C, Kertesz MA, Preziosi RF. Quantitative Trait Loci mapping of phenotypic plasticity and genotype – environment interactions in plant and insect performance. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2011, 366(1569), 1368-1379.
• Tetard-Jones C, Leifert C. Plasticity of yield components of winter wheat in response to cereal aphids. NJAS: Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences 2011, 58(3-4), 139-143.
• Cooper J, Sanderson R, Cakmak I, Ozturk L, Shotton P, Carmichael A, Haghighi RS, Tetard-Jones C, Volakakis N, Eyre M, Leifert C. Effect of Organic and Conventional Crop Rotation, Fertilization, and Crop Protection Practices on Metal Contents in Wheat (Triticum aestivum). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2011, 59(9), 4715-4724.
• Zytynska SE, Fleming S, Tetard-Jones C, Kertesz MA, Preziosi RF. Community genetic interactions mediate indirect ecological effects between a parasitoid wasp and rhizobacteria. Ecology 2010, 91, 1563-1568.
• Tetard-Jones C, Kertesz MA, Gallois P, Preziosi RF. Genotype-by-Genotype Interactions Modified by a Third Species in a Plant-Insect System. American Naturalist 2007, 170(3), 492-499.
• Palmer MW, Cooper J, Tetard-Jones C, Rednicka-Tober D, Baranski M, Eyre M, Shotton PN, Volkakis N, Cakmak I, Ozturk L, Leifert C, Wilcockson SJ, Bilsborrow PE. The influence of organic and conventional fertilisation and crop protection practices, preceding crop, harvest year and weather conditions on yield and quality of potato (Solanum tuberosum) in a long-term management trial. European Journal of Agronomy 2013, 49, 83-92.