Prof Huw Jones, Dr D Phillips
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
To ensure a sustainable and secure food supply under future challenging growing conditions, crop varieties will need to become more resilient to biotic and abiotic stresses and overall agricultural productivity will need to increase. This project will exploit signalling in crop plants to investigate novel approaches to plant protection. By incorporating individual plants in the field that are highly susceptible to pests or other constraints and which thereby act as ‘sentinels’, for example via changes in visual markers, warning of impending damage or releasing signals that themselves activate defence in the main crop. New developments in bioinformatics and in vitro cellular biotechnologies that can rapidly translate genomics knowledge into new plant genotypes, means that it is an exciting time to be involved in crop molecular genetics. We are looking for a talented and motivated scientist to make a unique contribution to the future of plant breeding and biotic stress detection.
cis-Jasmone, is a volatile organic compound released by some plant species after feeding damage inflicted by herbivorous insects. It has been shown (by researchers at Rothamsted) that plants can perceive cis-jasmone and that it acts as a signalling molecule in Arabidopsis thaliana by inducing a discrete and distinctive suite of genes of which a large subset is putatively involved in metabolism and defence responses. In this proof-of-concept study, we will link cis-jasmone/herbivore-responsive promoter sequences to regulate reporter gene expression and hence induce colour change upon cis-jasmone or herbivore challenge.
This PhD studentship provides an opportunity to gain expertise in plant molecular biology and cellular signalling from researchers at three world-class institutions; Rothamsted Research, Syngenta and IBERS. You will join a community of scientists and plant breeders with significant experience in chemical ecology, crop genomics, phenomics and bioinformatics. You will gain specific experience of plant genomics, molecular biology and in-vitro cellular technologies including; bioinformatics, gene cloning, tissue culture and bioimaging of fluorescent reporter genes.
Supervisors:
At Aberystwyth: Prof. Huw Jones ([Email Address Removed]) and Dr Dylan Phillips ([Email Address Removed])
At Rothamsted: Prof. John Pickett ([Email Address Removed]) and Mike Birkett ([Email Address Removed])
At Syngenta: Dr Phil Wege ([Email Address Removed])Supervisors:
Funding Notes
The fully funded 3-year PhD scholarship pays UK/EU university tuition fees (currently £4,052pa) and a stipend of £14,057 per year. Applicants should hold, or expect to obtain, a minimum of a first or good upper-second class honours degree in a relevant subject (e.g. plant / biological science, genetics etc.). In the first instance, contact Prof. Huw Jones ([Email Address Removed]) for general queries IBERS Postgraduate Co-ordinator Michelle Allen ([Email Address Removed]). For information on IBERS, Rothamsted and Syngenta, see respectively: http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/ibers/, http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/ and https://www.syngenta.co.uk/ . For how to apply see https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/postgrad/apply/apply-on-paper/ please enter the lead supervisor name under “Project title applied for”.
Continue with Facebook
