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  Developing synthetic microbial communities for the control of pea downy mildew


   Research School

   Applications accepted all year round  Self-Funded PhD Students Only

About the Project

Demand for food production is increasing due to growing global population, reduced land availability for agriculture, concern over the effects of the environment on agriculture, and decreasing yield reliability because of climate change. We need to rise to this challenge and provide solutions to grow enough food in a sustainable way. Legumes including peas and broad beans and other protein crops have gone through a revival and demand has been increasing steadily.

However, these pulse crops suffer heavily from the downy mildew pathogen Peronospora viciae f.sp. pisi (PVP). Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) approaches on soil and phyllosphere microbes have led to an explosion of information regarding plant associated microbiomes. Although this type of work has been predominantly sequence-based and often descriptive in nature, increasingly it is moving towards microbiome functionality. The synthetic microbial communities (SynCom) approach is an emerging technique that involves co-culturing multiple taxa under well-defined conditions to mimic the structure and function of a microbiome.

Our aim and objectives are:

We aim to reduce downy mildew disease with artificially constructed beneficial microbial communities. Specifically, we will identify microbial communities on the phyllosphere part of pea plants, determine if the microbial community enhances yield and quality of the crop, examine if synthetic fungicides can be replaced by beneficial microorganisms and develop a beneficial microbial mixture specific to pea plants. In the short term (2-3 years), commercial pea growers, breeders and pea seed producers will be able to benefit from the outcome of the research proposed here.

  1. Identify microbiomes in phyllosphere of pea and investigate how PVP interacts with the microbial community using shotgun 16 s and ITS metagenomics/whole genome sequencing approaches.
  2. Determine whether phyllosphere microbiomes enhance crop performance in terms of differences in disease symptomsin the absence and presence of infective pathogen.
  3. Examine the interaction between synthetic fungicide and addition of ‘beneficial microorganism’ to phyllosphere and PVP.
  4. Develop a pea specific novel beneficial microbial mixture.

We anticipate through this work, microbial communities on pea plants will be identified before and after pesticide application; interaction between PVP and other microbial community identified; effect of fungicides on pathogenic, commensal and beneficiary microbes determined; role and performance of microbiomes in phyllosphere of pea determined; and a method that will help to identify crop specific mixture of beneficial microbes established.

Student will have research training in: Molecular biology, plant pathology, bioinformatics. Student will have opportunity to work with different groups and laboratories. Supervisors have extensive experience in supervising students and collaborated and published joint papers before. Results obtained from this work will be published in internationally peer-reviewed journals and will be presented at national and international scientific meetings.

Application Process

To begin the application process please go to https://www.worcester.ac.uk/courses/plant-biology-mphilphd and click on ‘How to Apply’ in the top menu. This PhD could be carried out on a part time or full time basis so please select the relevant application link. On the application form, please make it clear that you are applying for one of our advertised projects so we can direct it straight to the relevant people.

The Interview

All successful applicants will be offered an interview with the proposed Supervisory Team. You will be contacted by a member of the Research School Team to find a suitable date. Interviews can be conducted in person or over Microsoft Teams.

Funding your PhD

For more information about Doctoral Loans please visit: https://www.worc.ac.uk/study/fees-and-finance/doctoral-loans.aspx

During your PhD you can access the Research Student Support Scheme to support dissemination costs associated with your research, up to £500 a year.

Molecular Plant and Microbial Biosciences Research Unit

We carry out both fundamental and translational research in the field of plant and microbial biosciences. We are interested in answering the following fundamental questions; how do obligate pathogens such as downy mildews coordinate their attack to overcome the plants’ defence? What is the basis of their host specificity? Do they synchronize their physiological and metabolic activity with their hosts? Can we carry out reverse genetics to reveal the role of pathogenicity and developmental genes?

We aim to take the information gained to develop a potential disease control strategy against downy mildews on crop plants. Our further translational research includes genomic assisted plant breeding and genome editing for crop improvements.

Widening Participation

As part of its mission statement the University is committed to widening participation for its higher degrees. Although most candidates will have an undergraduate and/or a Masters degree, the University is happy to accept applications from candidates with relevant professional qualifications and work related experience.

Supervisory team

Professor Mahmut Tör, Professor Yiguo Hong, Dr Tom Wood

Director of Studies:

Professor Mahmut Tör, Molecular Plant and Microbial Biosciences Research Unit (MPMB-RU) School of Science and the Environment, University of Worcester

Supervisors:

Professor Yiguo Hong, Molecular Plant and Microbial Biosciences Research Unit (MPMB-RU) School of Science and the Environment, University of Worcester

Research Group: Molecular Plant and Microbial Biosciences Research Unit (MPMB-RU)

For further information or an informal discussion on this project, please contact Prof Mahmut Tor (Director of Studies) via email at

Biological Sciences (4)

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