Prof Lesley Torrance

Professor

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 463415

Email

lt27@st-andrews.ac.uk

Research areas

Plant viruses cause major disease epidemics in important food crops and are a major threat to food security in many countries particularly in the developing world.  The predicted warming of the climate caused by environmental change is expected to increase the abundance and geographic range of many insects that spread viruses which in turn may increase the occurrence of virus diseases. Potato is the third largest food crop in the world.  Scotland produces high quality seed tubers and approx. 70,000 tonnes are exported annually to the EU and over 30 other countries worldwide.  Pests and diseases cause major economic losses by decreased tuber yield and quality and rejection of exports; our work contributes to supporting the seed potato industry.

Viruses are parasites that must take over the host cell?s functions to replicate and produce more virus particles.  My research focuses on potato viruses and the role and function of virus coded proteins in disease processes, investigating mechanisms of host susceptibility and resistance. A particular focus is the durability of host resistance under heat stress and the effect of developmental stage on infection processes.  This work aims to identify essential host molecules needed for replication and spread and a better understanding of host defence mechanisms. The practical outputs of this work will be to inform more effective methods of disease control.    We are working with collaborators in Kenya and Malawi to evaluate mutliple stress tolerant potato genotypes to expand potato production to new lower altitude areas, contributing to the respective Governments strategy to increase the supply of nutritious food and boost farmers incomes. 

Other  collaborations on virus research include with Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hanghzhou, Zhejiang, and North West A&F University, Yangling, P.R. China

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Selected publications

• Natural resistance to Potato virus Y in Solanum tuberosum Group Phureja

  Torrance, L., Cowan, G., McLean, K., MacFarlane, S., Al-Abedy, A., Armstrong, M., Lim, T-Y., Hein, I. & Bryan, G., Mar 2020, In : Theoretical and Applied Genetics. 133, p. 967?980 14 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• RNA sequence analysis of diseased groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) reveals the full genome of groundnut rosette assistor virus (GRAV)

  Jones, S., Cowan, G., MacFarlane, S., Mukoye, B., Mangeni, B. C., Were, H. & Torrance, L., Feb 2020, In : Virus Research. 277, 197837.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• TERMINAL FLOWER-1/CENTRORADIALIS inhibits tuberization via protein interaction with the tuberigen activation complex

  Zhang, X., Campbell, R., Ducreux, L. J. M., Morris, J., Hedley, P. E., Mellado-Ortega, E., Roberts, A. G., Stephens, J., Bryan, G. J., Torrance, L., Chapman, S. N., Prat, S. & Taylor, M. A., 14 Jul 2020, In : The Plant Journal. Early View, 16 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Kodoja: a workflow for virus detection in plants using k-mer analysis of RNA-sequencing data

  Baizan-Edge, A., Cock, P., MacFarlane, S., McGavin, W., Torrance, L. & Jones, S., 1 Mar 2019, In : Journal of General Virology. 100, p. 533-542

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Engineering heat tolerance in potato by temperature-dependent expression of a specific allele of HEAT SHOCK COGNATE 70

  Trapero-Mozos, A., Morris, W. L., Ducreux, L. J. M., McLean, K., Stephens, J., Torrance, L., Bryan, G. J., Hancock, R. D. & Taylor, M. A., 25 Jan 2018, In : Plant Biotechnology Journal. 16, 1, p. 197-207

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Potato mop-top virus TGB1 co-opts HIPP26 to activate abiotic stress signalling for long distance movement

  Torrance, L., Cowan, G., Roberts, A. G., Jones, S., Kumar, P., Hemsley, P. & Savenkov, E., 2 Aug 2018.

  Research output: Contribution to conference ? Abstract

• Potato mop-top virus co-opts the stress sensor HIPP26 for long-distance movement

  Cowan, G. H., Roberts, A. G., Jones, S., Kumar, P., Kalyandurg, P. B., Gil, J. F., Savenkov, E. I., Hemsley, P. A. & Torrance, L., 6 Mar 2018, In : Plant Physiology. 176, 3, p. 2052-2070 19 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Foundational and translational research opportunities to improve plant health

  Michelmore, R., Coaker, G., Bart, R., Beattie, G., Bent, A., Bruce, T., Cameron, D., Dangl, J., Dinesh-Kumar, S., Edwards, R., Eves-van den Akker, S., Gassmann, W., Greenberg, J., Hanley-Bowdoin, L., Harrison, R., He, P., Harvey, J., Huffaker, A., Hulbert, S., Innes, R., Jones, J., Kaloshian, I., Kamoun, S., Katagiri, F., Leach, J., Ma, W., McDowell, J., Medford, J., Meyers, B., Nelson, R., Oliver, R., Qi, Y., Saunders, D., Shaw, M., Smart, C., Subudhi, P., Torrance, L., Tyler, B., Valent, B. & Walsh, J., Jul 2017, In : Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 30, 7, p. 515-516 30 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Viral diagnostics in plants using next generation sequencing: Computational analysis in practice

  Jones, S., Baizan-Edge, A., MacFarlane, S. & Torrance, L., 24 Oct 2017, In : Frontiers in Plant Science. 8, 10 p., 1770.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Review article

• Seed degeneration in potato: the need for an integrated seed health strategy to mitigate the problem in developing countries

  Thomas-Sharma, S., Abdurahman, A., Ali, S., Andrade-Piedra, J. L., Bao, S., Charkowski, A. O., Crook, D., Kadian, M., Kromann, P., Struik, P. C., Torrance, L., Garrett, K. A. & Forbes, G. A., Jan 2016, In : Plant Pathology. 65, 1, p. 3-16 14 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Review article

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