Collection PM - Peter Matthews Collection

Extent: 5 shelves (33 boxes, 23 volumes, 11 binders)

Notebooks, files, reprints, slides and negatives mainly re cherry breeding, Pseudomonas morsprunorum and Pisum. Also Carnation breeding, notes on Drosophila and records of early work on pollen tube growth and incompatibility systems.

Admin History: Peter Matthews, 1928- Perhaps more than anyone else, Peter Matthews has had a life-long association with the John Innes Centre, having grown up near the JIHI at its original home at Merton in south London. After leaving school, he obtained a summer job in the Pomology department (1947), before being called up for National Service. He studied Genetics under Kenneth Mather (formerly head of the Genetics department at JIHI) at Birmingham University, being one of the first to take a degree in the subject. On graduation in 1952, he obtained a post in the Genetics department at the John Innes, by then at Bayfordbury, transferring to the Department of Plant Breeding (later Applied Genetics) in 1958. He moved with the Institute to Colney in 1966, and remained at JI until his retirement in 1988, since when he has maintained ties with the Centre. Peter Matthews' early work in the Genetics department was mainly on incompatibility systems (specifically pollen tube growth) in Solanum and Nolana. He also worked with Brian Harrison on Drosophila, and took over several long-term experiments started by Dr A.J. Bateman (AR 1953). On transfer to the Plant Breeding Department he took over the then-unused cherry seedling and variety collections resulting from the incompatibility and breeding work of M.B. Crane and D Lewis, and started a programme of breeding for resistance to bacterial canker in cherries. This resulted in the 'second generation' of John Innes cherry varieties, notably 'Merchant', 'Hertford' and 'Colney'. Alongside breeding, he studied the causative agents Pseudomonas morsprunorum and Ps. syringae. The cherry breeding programme also included work on dwarfing rootstocks, and incorporated the self-fertile mutation produced by D Lewis in the 1950s. His other main area of interest was in the genetics and pathogens of Pisum. He studied proteins, isoenzyme variation, pathology, and rogue. This last was the subject of his PhD thesis in 1973, and continued a line of study at JI started by Bateson and Pellew, and continued by KS Dodds. From the late 1960s he brought together the Pisum Germplasm Collection from stocks held at JI and elsewhere, and was curator of the collection until his retirement. Work on resistance to Fusarium wilt in peas also led to collaboration with Dr AE Arthur on breeding for resistance to Fusarium wilt in carnations. Peter Matthews was awarded the Jones-Bateman cup in 1973 for his work on cherry breeding.; Mgt Group: Private Accessions