Investigating the drought response of Arabidopsis with down-regulated programmed cell death

Drought is the most severe adverse environmental factor limiting plant productivity in both natural and agricultural systems and climate change is expected to exacerbate this problem. Studies have shown that severe water deficit or prolonged drought induce premature root death. Drought-induced root death has been found in various crops and forest trees (Goss and Watson, 2003). Drought-induced root death is thought to be an active response of the plants to drought, allowing them to redirect root growth to reduce the effect of drought. It is therefore important to understand this adaptative response to drought to take it into account in crop breeding and biotechnology programmes. Recent evidence suggests that root cell death under water stress corresponds to an activation of programmed cell death (PCD). The Gallois lab has identified novel genes regulating PCD in plants, e.g Blanvillain et al 2011, He et al. 2008. The Johnson lab has expertise in the physiology and quantification of drought stress at the whole plant level (Hald et al. 2008). The student objectives will be: refine a drought model using Arabidopsis, use cell biology techniques to follow and quantify drought-induced root PCD, use mutant genetics to identify genes that modulate drought-induced root death, measure various whole plant parameters in including photosynthesis efficiency.