Dynamics of homologous chromosome pairing in Arabidopsis meiosis: A central role for the telomere

This project will investigate the role of telomeres in Arabidopsis meiosis using the significant advantages offered by this species as a plant model for elucidating fundamental aspects of telomere biology. The primary role of the telomere is to stabilise the ends of the eukaryotic chromosome, but it is apparent that the telomere also has a role in meiosis. Amongst the outstanding questions in meiosis generally, is how homologous chromosomes find each other and pair. In Arabidopsis, we have established that homologous telomeres are paired ahead of the rest of the chromosome but we have no idea of how this is achieved. Thus, the objectives of this project are to
1. Investigate the dynamics of telomere behaviour in the early prophase I cell.

2. Investigate how the homologous chromosomes achieve pairing via the telomeres, including the use of knock-out or knock-down plants where the stability of the telomeres is compromised and their length is reduced.
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Please find additional funding text below. For further funding details, please see the ‘Funding’ section.

The School of Biosciences offers a number of UK Research Council (e.g. BBSRC, NERC) PhD studentships each year. Fully funded research council studentships are normally only available to UK nationals (or EU nationals resident in the UK) but part-funded studentships may be available to EU applicants resident outside of the UK. The deadline for applications for research council studentships is 31 January each year.

Each year we also have a number of fully funded Darwin Trust Scholarships. These are provided by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh and are for non-UK students wishing to undertake a PhD in the general area of Molecular Microbiology. The deadline for this scheme is also 31 January each year.