Dr Harriet Hunt

Research Associate, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Genetic markers are a powerful tool for identifying geographic patterns of diversity, with potential to indicate where and how many times cultivated plants were domesticated, their routes of spread, and the evolution of particular phenotypic traits.

I am interested in the molecular evolution of both neutral markers and sequences coding for phenotypic characteristics in Panicum miliaceum and related wild species. We are using these markers as a complement the archaeological evidence to determine whether broomcorn millet was domesticated independently in China and in Eastern Europe.

This work is carried out in the Glyn Daniel Laboratory for Archaeogenetics in the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Current projects:

Nuclear microsatellite diversity in Panicum miliaceum (collaboration with Yong-Jin Park, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea, and NIAB, Cambridge)

Ribosomal DNA intergenic spacer diversity in Panicum miliaceum and related species

Molecular basis of the waxy phenotype in Panicum miliaceum (collaboration with Kay Denyer, John Innes Centre, Norwich)

Reticulate evolution in the genus Panicum – evidence from nuclear sequences and in situ hybridisation (collaboration with Pat Heslop-Harrison, University of Leicester)

For more information about these projects, or if you have other millet-related interests, please contact Harriet Hunt

Millet plants (Panicum miliaceum) in the glasshouses at the University of Cambridge Botanic Garden

Harriet Hunt in the Glyn Daniel Archaeogenetics Laboratory, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Panicum capillare – a species we're investigating as part of a study on wild relatives of broomcorn millet

This work is supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the Wellcome Trust.