Letters / A plant breeder - my PhD cover letter [5]

my dedication and perseverance

Dear Committee Members,

With this letter, I am Jasim Uddin want to explain my motivation to continue my Ph.D. study on "Identification of Genes Important for the Evolution of Flowering Time in Tomato" under the Université X.

In 2012, I graduated from the Y University with a four years degree in Agriculture and in 2014, I achieved one and half years Master degree in Genetics and plant breeding from Z Agricultural University. I obtained more than 70% mark from both of these diplomas. I got an opportunity in France to study M.Sc. in Plant Breeding which was a sandwich program of Institute Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, France and Ghent University, Belgium and successfully received the diploma in 2016.

The core courses which I have already finished are Population and Quantitative Genetics, Plant Genetics, Bioinformatics, Plant Hormone, Molecular Technique and Molecular Plant Breeding. The course which I have finished I think the delegated missions and tasks can be performed well.

The goal of this project is to investigate fine map, identify and characterize the genes affecting flowering time in the genetic regions. According to the methodology, we have to cross two selected lines to obtain F1, and F2 generation and after that need to measure the candidate region from their subsequent segregated populations. During my internship in KWS Momont, France, I did castration, crossing, phenotyping and managed a large number of populations and at the same time screened 220 wheat varieties by using toxic effector and inoculum of Septoria Nodorum Blotch (Parastagonospora nodorum) to identify the disease resistance lines. In my course Bioinformatics, I performed the Python and Eclipse programs as well databases (NCBI, SwissProt, & UniPort etc.). I followed an In-Vitro training from Ghent University, as a part of this training I did Agrobacterium transformation of Auxin reporter gene to Basil (Ocimum basilicum). I have developed a new project on "Hybrid Tomato Breeding in East Africa against Bacterial leaf spot (Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria) and its Challenges". If we look the steps of the methodology of this experiment from the laboratory to field, I have done all activities and gained a good experience that can help me to do all works with more efficiently and correctly.

During my M.Sc. study, I became fascinated more about by the research of stress tolerance breeding. I got an opportunity to improve myself by leading a small project entitled "Screening of drought tolerance wheat varieties and understanding the stress tolerance mechanism" in Bangladesh Agricultural University. We focused our research work internationally and successfully published in "Journal of Experimental Botany" whose bearing impact factor is 5.63. From other research work, three more journals have been published nationally and internationally which have also good figure. As a beginner of scientific writing, I have learned how to write, present and manage the manuscript and I think I can improve myself more if consider me to your lab as a Ph.D. fellow.

As a plant breeder, my goal is always to increase the yield and cultivate worldwide but there is a boundary to grow up due to photoperiod problem. I can see it would be not far to reach the destination through this novel project by the contribution of novel researchers. I have chosen more because this project completely plant breeding related work if I will be selected for this Ph.D. position I think I can increase my knowledge of horizon in the field of molecular plant breeding. Generally, breeders are following conventional way, I would like to implement the classical knowledge to accelerate the breeding activities. I am very optimistic about this research that by the assistance of renowned professors and well-decorated laboratory I would able to cut a good figure and might help to get the opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary environment of a highly qualified academic level. I think this project could give me the opportunity to develop and improve myself in a research field that would be part of my professional goals. In future, I would like to engage myself to a new project where these genes will be introgressed in cultivated variety and set up the experiment in different altitudes.

I am aware of the dedication and perseverance that is needed to achieve the best results in this field and I believe that my experience will allow me to get it. I think that it is a great opportunity for me to demonstrate my abilities and acquire new skills, so I hope to be selected for this Ph.D. position.

For details information, I am enclosing my CV. I'll remain your disposal for further information.
I remain at your disposal for any further information, thanking you in advance for your attention.