About the Project
This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (SWBio DTP). The SWBio DTP is a BBSRC-funded PhD training programme in the biosciences, delivered by a consortium comprising the Universities of Bristol (lead), Bath, Cardiff and Exeter and Rothamsted Research. The SWBio DTP projects are designed to provide outstanding interdisciplinary training in a range of topics in Agriculture & Food Security and World-Class Bioscience, underpinned by training in mathematics and complexity science. Each project will be supervised by an interdisciplinary team of academic staff and will follow a structured training 4 year PhD model.
Up to 6 fully-funded studentships at the University of Exeter are being offered to start in September 2016. The studentships will provide funding for a stipend (currently £14,057 per annum for 2015-2016), research costs and UK/EU tuition fees at Research Council UK rates for 48 months (4 years) for full-time students (part-time students pro-rata).
Academic Supervisors:
Main supervisor: Dr Dan Bebber, Biosciences (University of Exeter)
Second supervisor: Prof Sarah Gurr, Biosciences (University of Exeter)
Supervisory Team: Dr Helen Fones (Exeter)
Location:
University of Exeter, Streatham Campus, Exeter
Project Description:
Fungal plant pathogens threaten global food security. Crop infection risk is determined in part by temperature and moisture availability, and climate change will alter distributions of both crops and their pathogens. Mathematical models of changing pathogen distributions often implicitly assume that fungi will respond to temperature in the future much as they do now, with no evolution to changing conditions.
However, a small amount of existing research has shown that fungi can acclimatize and evolve rapidly to withstand warming. This studentship will combine laboratory experiments and modelling to investigate acclimation and adaptation of plant pathogenic fungi to temperature increases:
1. What is known about variation fungal temperature tolerance? You will conduct a detailed literature survey of fungal pathogen temperature responses, comparing these to the temperature tolerances of the host crops and statistically investigating the relationships between temperature tolerance, host specificity, biogeography, and evolutionary relationships among fungi.
2. How does Zymoseptoria tritici respond to increasing culture temperatures in the lab? You will investigate the changes undergone by fungal cultures, assessing molecular and morphological aspects of fungal biology.
3. How do fungal pathogens adapt to temperature variation in the wild? You will work with Z. tritici isolates originating from a range of climates around the world, and develop temperature response curves (TRCs) from in vitro growth rates. These will be compared with temperature acclimated fungi to determine how in vitro acclimated cultures relate to those which have evolved in the wild.
4. What are the genomic signatures of temperature adaptation? You will sequence the genomes of wild adapted isolates will be used to determine how Z. tritici has evolved in the wild to grow under different climates. You will compare these results to those obtained temperature acclimated strains in vitro, to determine whether physiological and evolutionary responses high temperatures involve the same pathways.
5. Is there a trade-off between temperature acclimation and virulence? Evolutionary theory predicts a trade-off between responses to different types of stress. For example, a pathogen responding to high temperature might be less able to infect the host plant. You will test whether fungal isolates that have been acclimated to grow at higher temperatures retain virulence on wheat.
Through this doctorate you will receive training in statistical analysis, ecological and evolutionary theory, plant pathology, microbiology, fundamental lab skills, genomics and bioinformatics, as well has making an important contribution to the science of climate change and global food security.
This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (SWBio DTP). For further information and details of how to apply:
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=1970
Funding Notes
The studentship will cover a stipend (currently £14,057pa), research costs and tuition fees at the UK/EU rate for students who meet the residency requirements outlined by the BBSRC. Students from EU countries who do not meet the residency requirements may still be eligible for a fees-only award. Applicants who are classed as International for tuition fee purposes are not eligible for funding. Duration of award: 4 years.
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