The circadian clock in the ageing plant

Plants respond to environmental signals in a time-of-day dependent manner,
but we do not yet know how this process is affected by age. In the long term,
we would like to predict how changes in weather throughout a growth season
will influence a plant, so farmers can plan their harvests even under
unpredictable weather patterns caused by climate change.

This PhD project will investigate how the genetic targets of the circadian clock
change as plants age, with a focus on environmental signaling and
developmental genes. We are looking for a candidate that wants to develop
into a well-rounded computational and experimental scientist. For instance, a
great candidate could be a statistics or computer science graduate who wants
some exposure to experimental work or a biology student who wishes to focus
their PhDs on bioinformatics and statistics.

From a ‘data science’ perspective, the project is interesting because it will
include ‘time series’ of ‘time series’ across different time scales
(developmental time series of circadian time series). From a biological
perspective, it focusses on a fundamental question: how is circadian
regulation of gene expression affected by aging?