Career Profile
Present
- 30 May 2003 – current: Founder and Director of CenGen (Pty) Ltd
- 1 July 2018 – 31 December 2024: Associate Professor Extraordinary, Department of Genetics, Stellenbosch University
Professional Experience
Renée’s initial focus on mapping adult plant (durable) rust resistance genes (APR) and the use of marker-assisted selection to transfer these useful genes/ QTL to wheat breeding lines, has progressed to include other more complex traits and other important crops. Her current focus is to establish gene cloning and bioinformatics expertise in SA through her collaboration with world-leading plant genomicists and bioinformaticians. Her outputs demonstrate a drive to ensure that SA scientists are familiar with, and on par with the international standard. In many instances, Renée’s efforts to implement specific research and application approaches were a first for South Africa.
This has all been done in a company CenGen (Pty) Ltd (2003/012305/07) she founded in an effort to stay in science after her family relocated to a rural town. CenGen offers various research and applied services to plant breeders, producers and agricultural-related industries on a variety of agriculturally-important plant and pathogen species. This small company has grown to such an extent that it is also viewed by international funding bodies as a reliable research partner. An exciting new venture at CenGen is its involvement in the characterisation of indigenous plants on a genomics level.
Summary of Impact
RP developed an STS marker for wheat leaf rust resistance gene Lr19 (Prins et al 2001) that still is the preferred marker for this gene on the MASwheat website.
She was the first SA scientist to propose and perform a QTL analysis approach to dissect a complex trait in wheat. This included the development of the first wheat DH mapping population in SA, a partial linkage map and the successful dissection of the APR resistance components to stripe rust in a commercial SA wheat cultivar.
She developed Cappelle Desprez (CD)-derived spring wheat material adapted in SA which contained most of the CD’s stripe rust APR, resulting in the first comprehensive report on the genetics of the resistance in this French cultivar.
RP established a Molecular marker Service Lab (MSL; 2011) with support from the SA wheat industry that assisted competing SA wheat breeding programmes with marker-assisted selection (MAS) implementation and now routinely screen wheat breeding lines with molecular markers associated with target traits. Both these programmes have released commercial cultivars that came through MSL.
In collaboration with Prof Anke Martin (University of Southern Queensland, Aus), RP dissected the genetic components of the Net form of Net Blotch Resistance in a SA malting barley line (UVC8) (also a first) and implemented MAS for various disease resistance traits in malting barley.
RP initiated a Next-Generation Sequencing project (2013) on SA stripe rust isolates resulting in a very productive collaborative effort in the field of pathogenomics with Dr DGO Saunders (John Innes Centre (JIC), UK), Dr C Uauy (JIC), Prof ZA Pretorius (UFS) and Dr LA Boyd (NIAB, UK).
She led the molecular team that developed the first genetic linkage map in table grapes in South Africa, validated resistance QTL and assisted the table grape breeder (Phyllis Burger) with the implementation of MAS in the local table grape breeding programme.
The DNA marker (CenGen6) for a powdery mildew resistance gene in the grapevine cultivar ‘Regent’ (Ren9) is published on the Vitis database resource.
Following a nomination by AgBiz Grain, the CenGen Team was selected as a finalist for a 2016/2017 NSTF-South32 Award in the category Research for innovation – Small, Medium or Micro Organisation (SMME). They eventually won the category.
RP initiated the first wheat gene cloning attempt in SA through the establishment of a collaboration with Prof Simon Krattinger (previously from University of Zürich, Switzerland; now King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi-Arabia). This work was recognised as of interest by The Open Innovation call of Du Pont-Pioneer (TRAC#27600) and also resulted in CenGen being invited to participate in an internal grant call at KAUST (CRG7-3768) which was successful. Through these projects, CenGen has also been recognised by international funding bodies as a trusted research partner.
She was an invited member of Mariana Purnell’s (Agbiz Grain) team of wheat and barley scientists who visited a host of leading UK research institutes, universities and governmental departments upon invitation of the British High Commission (BHC) in February 2018 and organised by the Science and Innovation Attaché at the BHC in Pretoria. The aim was to create a platform to foster future collaborative projects between UK and SA cereal researchers.
RP also actively pursues the development of bioinformatics skills among African scientists and initially secured a British Council Newton Fund Researchers Links Workshop Grant in collaboration with a UK bioinformatician (Dr Diane Saunders; John Innes Centre) to host a fully-funded workshop on “Bioinformatics and Wheat Genomics I” for early-career researchers from the UK and SA in 2017 (June 26-28) in Worcester, South Africa. This was the first bioinformatics workshop targeted at wheat researchers in SA and training was received from Dr Burkhard Steuernagel (JIC) and Dr Robert Davey. (previously from Earlham Institute). Three follow-up workshops with the same trainers and later also Dr Hugh Wallwork were hosted over time with funding provided by mostly the UK Science and Innovation Network through the Science & Innovation Attaché, BHC, SA and also by Stellenbosch University.
CenGen is a partner lab in the DIPLOMICS network: It is an initiative of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and part of the department’s long-term SARIR (South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap) (see Page on DIPLOMICS initiatives).
A social impact initiative (geneTeachers and geneLearners Workshops) was started in 2021 through the support of DIPLOMICS and the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to demonstrate the value of plant genetics in the food value chain. See Page on DIPLOMICS initiatives for more detail.
In 2021 RP was invited by Dr Diane Saunders and Prof Graham Moore from the JIC (UK) to share the inspirational CenGen story as keynote speaker at their virtual “UK Women in Wheat Mentoring Workshop”, 22-23 June 2021. This initiative aims to motivate young female scientists to pursue leadership positions in wheat research in the UK.
CenGen’s small grain research efforts reached an all-time high in 2022 with the incredible milestone of being key in establishing the first full genome sequence of a SA wheat cultivar Kariega and using it in the first successful gene cloning attempt of a wheat disease resistance gene (Yr27) in a South African wheat.
In 2022, CenGen embarked on their first in-house sequencing efforts through support by ABInBev, SABBI, and DIPLOMICS through the acquisition of Oxford Nanopore Technology sequencers.
Through a method development and high impact high visibility initiative of DIPLOMICS, CenGen is also instrumental together with collaborators to generate the first reference sequence of the indigenous spekboom.
National Research Foundation Rating
RP applied for NRF rating for the first time in 2012. From 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2018 se was rated as a C3 scientist, which she achieved without being in a full-time paid academic position. She received Grant #85943: Incentive Funding For Rated Researchers (IPRR). She has not submitted a re-evaluation application yet.
Scientific Publications (peer-reviewed)
Although in a more applied scientific environment, RP’s aim is always to do work that is accepted by a peer-review process.
- R. Prins, G.F. Marais, B.J.H. Janse, Z.A. Pretorius and A.S. Marais. 1996. A physical map of the Thinopyrum-derived Lr19 translocation. Genome 39:1013-1019.
- R. Prins, G.F. Marais, Z.A. Pretorius, B.J.H. Janse and A.S. Marais. 1997. A study of modified forms of the Lr19 translocation of common wheat. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 95:424-430.
- R. Prins and G.F. Marais. 1998. An extended deletion map of the Lr19 translocation and modified forms. Euphytica 103:95-102.
- R. Prins and G.F. Marais. 1999. A genetic study of the gametocidal effect of the Lr19 translocation of common wheat. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 16:10-14.
- R. Prins, J.Z. Groenewald, G.F. Marais, J.W. Snape and R.M.D. Koebner. 2001. AFLP and STS tagging of Lr19, a gene conferring resistance to leaf rust in wheat. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 103:618-624.
- V.P. Ramburan, Z.A. Pretorius, J.H. Louw, L.A. Boyd, P.A. Smith, W.H.P. Boshoff and R. Prins. 2004. A genetic analysis of adult plant resistance to stripe rust in the wheat cultivar Kariega. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 108:1426-1433.
- R. Prins, V.P. Ramburan, Z.A. Pretorius, L.A. Boyd, W.H.P. Boshoff, P.H. Smith and J.H. Louw. 2005. Development of a doubled haploid mapping population and linkage map for the bread wheat cross Kariega X Avocet S. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 22:1-8.
- Z.A. Pretorius, K.W. Pakendorf, G.F. Marais, R. Prins and J.S. Komen. 2007. Challenges for sustainable cereal rust control in South Africa. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 58:593-601.
- Z.A. Pretorius, L. Pienaar and R. Prins. 2007. Greenhouse and field assessment of adult plant resistance in wheat to Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici. Australasian Plant Pathology 36:552-559.
- J. Moldenhauer, Z.A. Pretorius, B.M. Moerschbacher, R. Prins and A.J. Van der Westhuizen. 2008. Histopathology and PR-protein markers provide insight into adult plant resistance to stripe rust of wheat. Molecular Plant Pathology 9:137-145.
- R. Prins, C.J. Van Heerden, A.L. Burger, P. Burger and W.A. Smit. 31 May 2009. DNA fingerprinting of table grape cultivars. 9th International Conference on Grape Genetics and Breeding (Udine, Italy, 2-6 July 2006). In: ISHS Acta Horticulturae 827:269-273. Ed. E. Peterlunger, G. Di Gaspero, G. Cipriani.
- A. Lehmensiek, A.E. Bester-Van der Merwe, M.W. Sutherland, G. Platz, W.M. Kriel, G.F. Potgieter and R. Prins. 2010. Population structure of South African and Australian Pyrenophora teres isolates. Plant Pathology 59:504-515. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3059.2009.02231.x
- R. Prins, Z.A. Pretorius, C.M. Bender and A. Lehmensiek. 2011. QTL mapping of stripe, stem and leaf rust resistance genes in a Kariega x Avocet S doubled haploid wheat population. Molecular Breeding 27:259-270. DOI: 10.1007/S11032-010-9428-y
- Z.A. Pretorius, Y. Jin, C.M. Bender, L. Herselman and R. Prins. 2012. Seedling resistance to stem rust race Ug99 and marker analysis for Sr2, Sr24 and Sr31 in South African wheat cultivars and lines. Euphytica 186:15-23. DOI: 10.1007/s10681-011-0476-0
- G.M. Agenbag, Z.A. Pretorius, L.A. Boyd, C.M. Bender and R. Prins. 2012. Identification of adult plant resistance to stripe rust in the wheat cultivar Cappelle-Desprez. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 125:109-120. DOI: 10.1007/s00122-012-1819-5
- T.G. Terefe, B. Visser, L. Herselman, R. Prins, T. Negussie, J.A. Kolmer and Z.A. Pretorius. 2014. Diversity in Puccinia triticina detected on wheat from 2008 to 2010 and the impact of new races on SA Wheat Germplasm. European Journal of Plant Pathology 139:95-105. DOI: 10.1007/s10658-013-0368-3
- C.J. Van Heerden, P. Burger, A. Vermeulen and R. Prins. 2014 Detection of downy and powdery mildew resistance QTL in a ‘Regent’ X ‘RedGlobe’ population. Euphytica 200:281-295. DOI: 10.1007/s10681-014-1167-4 (Open Access)
- G.M. Agenbag, Z.A. Pretorius, L.A. Boyd, C.M. Bender, R. MacCormack and R. Prins. 2014. High-resolution mapping and new marker development for adult plant stripe rust resistance QTL in the wheat cultivar Kariega. Molecular Breeding 34:2004-2020. DOI: 10.1007/s11032-014-0158-4
- Z.A. Pretorius, B. Visser, T. Terefe, L. Herselman, R. Prins, T. Soko, J. Siwale, B. Mutari, T.I. Selinga and D.P. Hodson. 2015. Races of Puccinia triticina detected on wheat in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi and regional germplasm responses. Australasian Plant Pathology 44:217-224. DOI: 10.1007/s13313-014-0339-y
- P. Burger, A. Vermeulen, F. Halleen, T. Koopman, C.J. Van Heerden and R. Prins. 2014. Table grape breeding at the ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, South Africa; Its impact on the SA industry and latest developments. Proceedings of the Xth Conference on Grapevine Breeding and Genetics. In: ISHS 2014 Acta Horticulturae 1046:245-249. DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1046.31
- Z.A. Pretorius, R. Prins, P.K. Malaker, N.C.D. Barma, M.A. Hakim, D. Thapa, U. Bansal, G.L. Cisar and R.F. Park. 2015. Assessing the vulnerability of wheat germplasm from Bangladesh and Nepal to Ug99 stem rust. Phytoparasitica 43:637-645. DOI: 10.1007/s12600-015-0487-9
- C.M. Bender, R. Prins and Z.A. Pretorius. 2016. Development of a Greenhouse Screening Method for Adult Plant Response in Wheat to Stem Rust. Plant Disease 100:1627-1633.
- E. Wessels and R. Prins. 2016. Development of a low-resolution genome scan marker set for the acceleration of major gene or QTL mapping in wheat. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 34:155-158.
- R. Prins, S. Dreisigacker, Z.A. Pretorius, H.J. Van Schalkwyk, E. Wessels, C. Smit, C.M. Bender, D. Singh and L.A. Boyd. 2016. Stem rust resistance in a geographically diverse collection of spring wheat lines collected from across Africa. Frontiers in Plant Science 7:973. DOI: 10.3389/fpls/2016.00973 (Open Access)
- Z.A. Pretorius, C.X. Lan, R. Prins, V. Knight, N.W. McLaren, R.P. Singh, C.M. Bender and F.J. Kloppers. 2017. Application of remote sensing of wheat stripe rust infection detects known resistance loci in two mapping populations. Precision Agriculture 18:411-428. DOI: 10.1007/s11119-016-9461
- E. Millet, B. J. Steffenson, R. Prins, H. Sela, A. M. Przewieslik-Allen and Z. A. Pretorius. 2017. Genome targeted introgression of resistance to African stem rust from Aegilops sharonensis into bread wheat. Plant Genome 10:1-11. DOI: 10.3835/plantgenome2017.07.0061
- C.J. Van Heerden, P. Burger and R. Prins. 2018. Microsatellite-based DNA fingerprinting of selected grapevine cultivars. South African Journal of Enology and Viticulture 39:58-66. DOI: 10.21548/39-1-2053
- A. Martin, G.J. Platz, D. De Klerk, R.A. Fowler, F. Smit, G.F. Potgieter and R. Prins. 2018. Identification and mapping of net form of net blotch resistance in South African barley. Molecular breeding 38:53. DOI: 10.1007/s11032-018-0814-1
- T. Soko, C.M. Bender, R. Prins and Z.A. Pretorius. 2018. Yield loss associated with different levels of stem rust resistance in bread wheat. Plant Disease 102:2531-2538. DOI: 10.1094/pdis-02-18-0307-RE
- R. Veikondis, P. Burger, A. Vermeulen, C.J. Van Heerden, R. Prins. 2018. Confirmation of the effectiveness and genetic positions of disease resistance loci in ‘Kishmish Vatkana’ (Ren1) and ‘Villard Blanc’ (Ren3 and Rpv3). South African Journal of Enology and Viticulture 39:185-195. DOI: 10.21548/39-2-2685
- W.H.P. Boshoff, R. Prins, C. De Klerk, S.G. Krattinger, C.M. Bender, G.J. Maree, L. Rothmann and Z.A. Pretorius. 2018. Point inoculation method for measuring adult plant response of wheat to stripe rust infection. Plant Disease 103:1228-1233. DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-08-18-1312-RE
- G.J. Maree, R. Prins, C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff, T.G. Negussie and Z. A. Pretorius. 2019. Phenotyping Kariega x Avocet S doubled haploid lines containing individual and combined adult plant stripe rust resistance loci. Plant Pathology 68:659-668. DOI: 10.1111/ppa.12985
- G.J. Maree, R. Prins, L.A. Boyd, H.D. Castelyn, C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff and Z.A. Pretorius. 2019. Assessing the individual and combined effects of QTL for adult plant stripe rust resistance derived from Cappelle-Desprez. Agronomy 9:154. DOI: 10.3390/agronomy9030154
- E. Wessels, R. Prins, W.H.P. Boshoff, J.D. Zurn, M. Acevedo and Z.A. Pretorius. 2019. Mapping a resistance gene to Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici in the bread wheat cultivar Matlabas. Plant Disease 103:2337-2344. DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-10-18-1731-RE
- R. Prins, B.J. Steffenson, A.J. Case, W.H.P. Boshoff, G. Agenbag and Z.A. Pretorius. 2020. Assessments and perspectives on stem rust resistance in South African malting barley. Australasian Plant Pathology 49:679-690. DOI: 10.1007/s13313-020-00744-2
- Pretorius ZA, Prins R, Wessels E, Bender CM and Boshoff WHP. 2020. Accomplishments in wheat rust research in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 116 (11-12):1-8.
- Van Heerden CJ, Burger P, Burger JT and Prins R. 2021. NGS comparison of Downy and Powdery mildew resistance genomic regions between ‘Regent’ and ‘RedGlobe. bioRxiv preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.08.451625 (posted 9 July 2021).
- Dahanayaka BA, Vaghefi N, Knight N, Prins R, Bakonyi J, Seress D, Snyman L and Martin A. 2021. Genetic characterization of Pyrenophora teres f. teres from different geographical regions. Phytopathology 111:2118-2129. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-09-20-0390-R
- Hester J. van Schalkwyk, Antoine Persoons, Thomas Adams, Ruth Wanyera, Mogens S. Hovmøller, Cristobal Uauy, Lesley Boyd, Zacharias A. Pretorius, Renée Prins, Diane G.O. Saunders. 2021. Pathogenomic analyses reveal a potential recent shift in the South African Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici population. Plant Pathology: 71:279–288. DOI:10.1111/ppa.13468
- Naveenkumar Athiyannan, Michael Abrouk, Willem H. P. Boshoff, Stéphane Cauet, Nathalie Rodde, David Kudrna, Nahed Mohammed, Jan Bettgenhaeuser, Kirsty Botha, Shannon Derman, Rod A. Wing, Renée Prins & Simon G. Krattinger. 2022. Long-read bread wheat genome enables disease resistance gene cloning. Nature Genetics https//doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01022-1.
- Renée Prins, Corneli de Klerk, Willem H.P. Boshoff, Cornel M. Bender, Zacharias A. Pretorius, Kirsty S. Botha, Elsabet Wessels. Mapping of resistance loci in wheat line Milan/S87230//Babax to South African races of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici. Submitted to Euphytica. Preprint in Research Square (Submitted 21st July 2022; https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1877247/v1)
- Boden SA, McIntosh RA, Uauy C, Krattinger S, Dubcovsky J, Rogers WJ, Xia XC, Badaeva ED, Bentley AR, Brown-Guedira G, Caccamo M, Cattivelli L, Chhuneja P, Cockram J, Contreras-Moreira B, Dreisigacker S, Edwards D, González FG, Guzmán C, Ikeda TM, Karsai I, Nasuda S, Pozniak, C, Prins R, Sen TZ, Silva P, Simkova H, Zhang Y, The Wheat Initiative. 2023. Updated guidelines for gene nomenclature in wheat. Theor Appl Genet 136 (4) 72; 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-023-04253-w
International or National Conference Contributions (main/co-author)
- 51 Oral presentations
- 42 Poster presentations
Post graduate student supervision
Promoter
- Mr VP Ramburan (PhD Agric, SU, 2000-2003). Genetic mapping of adult plant stripe rust resistance in the wheat cultivar ‘Kariega’. Organised a 3-month visit for him to the John Innes Centre (UK).
- Ms GM Agenbag (PhD Agric, UFS, 2008-2012). Genetic characterisation and fine mapping of sources of durable resistance to stripe rust in selected wheat genotypes. Organised a 6-month visit for her to the John Innes Centre (UK).
- Ms R Veikondis (Part-time MSc, SU, 2009-2014). Genetic characterisation of fungal disease resistance genes in grapevine using molecular marker technology.
- Ms HJ Van Schalkwyk (PhD, UFS, 2013-2017). Genomic approaches towards understanding rust fungi and their interactions with wheat.Organised a 12-month visit for her to the John Innes Centre and Earlham Institute (previously TCAG, UK), which she then extended with 7 months with an additional fellowship. She was awarded one of the prestigious Monsanto’s Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program fellowships/scholarships for her PhD programme in 2015. Ms Van Schalkwyk is the first South African since the inception of this programme to receive this award.
- Mr CJ Van Heerden (Part-time PhD, SU, 2006-current). Mapping of the quantitative trait loci for downy mildew resistance in table grapes.
Co-promoter
- Ms M Craven (MSc Agric, UFS, 2002). The improvement of leaf rust resistance in selected bread wheat lines.
- Mr OA Philippou (MSc Agric, UFS, 2008). Targeting quantitative trait loci for adult plant stripe rust resistance in wheat.
- Mr T Soko (PhD, UFS, 2014-2018). Stem rust resistance and yield performance of irrigated Zimbabwean spring wheat.
- Ms G Maree (MSc, UFS, 2015-2018). Histopathology of rust infection in wheat and barley.