New research into how strawberry plants respond to biostimulant treatment at a genetic level has earned an agronomist a prestigious award, presented at a ceremony at the Houses of Parliament. Reed de Rouen, currently a trainee horticultural agronomist at crop production specialists Hutchinsons, carried out the research as part of his university thesis, investigating a new elicitor product from Alltech to understand how strawberry plants (Fragaria × ananassa) responded to treatment, and which genes were expressed as part of their defence response. Reed’s thesis, titled “Gene Regulation of Pathogenesis-Related Genes in Cultivated Strawberry Plants (Fragaria × ananassa) in Response to…