Summary
Ensuring continuous global food security will be a major
challenge of the 21st century, and wheat contributes approximately 20% of the
total calories consumed by humans (FAO, 2017). In cereals like wheat, inflorescence
(ear) size determines the number of flowers (florets) and grains produced, and
this aspect of plant architecture is regulated by the activity of stem cells in
the growing shoot tips. The CLAVATA peptide/ receptor-like kinase signalling
pathway maintains the size of the stem cell pool during plant development, and
mutants in maize and tomato have increased yields, arising due to an increase
in size of the stem cell pool.
This project aims to intercept wheat CLAVATA signalling to
engineer ears with more fertile grain sites and increase yield.
The project will involve:
(1) Identification of wheat CLAVATA pathway components
(2) Expression analyses of wheat CLAVATA pathway components
(3) Generation phenotypic analysis of wheat CLAVATA pathway
mutants.
Dr Harrison’s group has recently published gene trees for
CLAVATA pathway components from a range of land plants (Whitewoods et al.
(2018)), and she has experience of analysing gene expression patterns and
function in a wide range of plant species. Professor Edwards and colleagues
from the Bristol Centre for Agricultural Innovation have extensive experience
with wheat having sequenced the genome (Brenchley et al. (2012)), identified
many mutants from the exome sequenced Cadenza TILLING mutant population (Krasileva
et al. (2017)) and established engineering procedures using CRISPR/Cas9. The
CASE partnership with RAGT seeds will bring an opportunity for the student to
directly experience wheat breeding and exchange knowledges and finding with
wheat growers.
Training
By combining computational and wet lab approaches, the project
will provide training at the cutting edge of the plant development field. It
will benefit from further formal teaching and internships included in the
SWBioDTP programme. The skills and techniques the student will learn will be
broadly applicable in the academic biology and biotech sectors and widely
transferable amongst areas such as science policy, publishing and computing.
Reading
Brenchley et al. (2012). Analysis of the bread wheat genome
using whole-genome shotgun sequencing. Nature 491: 705-710.
Krasileva et al. (2017). Uncovering hidden variation in
polyploid wheat. PNAS 114: E913-E921.
Whitewoods et al. (2018). CLAVATA was a genetic novelty for the
morphological innovation of 3D growth in land plants. Current Biology 28:
2365-2376.
Application procedure
Informal enquiries to Jill.Harrison@bristol.ac.uk
Eligibility: UK residents plus EU applicants with restrictions
Application: SWBio DTP website plus University website
Closing date: Monday 2nd December
2019
Shortlisting: 8th January 2020
Interviews: 28th
January 2020
