Fighting pests, disease and global change: How will plant immune systems respond to the challenge of drought in a CO2-rich world?

Supervisors
Dr Jurriaan Ton, Professor David Beerling

Key Words: plant immunity, priming of defence, carbon dioxide, environmental change, food security

Description of Project (UG audience)

Plants fight attack by herbivores and microbes with an immune system. Their core inducible defence mechanisms are controlled by two plant hormones: jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA). JA is produced when plants are wounded and activates defences acting against herbivorous insects, whereas SA is activated when plants are infected by biotrophic pathogens. The efficiency of the plant immune system can be influenced by abiotic environmental conditions, such as temperature, water, and light. The rapidly rising atmospheric CO2 concentration is forecast to cause severe drought episodes over large agricultural regions in the coming decades. Recent plant immunity studies suggest that CO2-enrichment can suppress plant resistance to pests, suggesting this aspect of future global change alone could exert potentially far-reaching but poorly understood effects on crop yields and food security.
Critically, however, we know little about the combined impacts of drought and increased CO2 on JA- and SA-dependent immunity in crops or indeed other lineages of land plants. The current PhD-project, therefore, is designed to address this important knowledge gap in our understanding of plant immunity responses to global change. The central focus is on elucidating a detailed mechanistic understanding of the effects of drought and CO2-enrichment on Arabidopsis–pathogen interactions through the signalling network controlling plant immunity. However, there is scope to expand the study to crops and interactions with beneficial microbes. The student will gain outstanding experience of cutting-edge molecular genetic plant immunity techniques and a broad appreciation of global change and food security issues.

To apply, please complete an online application form which can be found at www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply/applying
The closing date is 15th January 2013