Dr Rucha Karnik, Prof Mike Blatt
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Plant growth and morphogenesis are responsive to environmental stimuli, eg. light, nutrient supply, gravity or pathogen infection. These plant responses are mediated by a complex cascade of signalling events, often driven by plant hormones. Plasma membrane H+-ATPases are primary transporters in plants. These proton pumps are functionally regulated by the plant phytohormone auxin. Activation of the proton pumping energises membrane transport, drives ’acid growth’. The functional regulation of the proton pump activity is a key factor in responses of the plants to their environment including tropic growth and stomatal aperture modulation. Auxin regulates proton pumping at transcriptional and post-translational levels.
Even today, not much is understood about the mechanisms underlying pump traffic and the spatial regulation of proton transport modulators. Plant pathogen are known to manipulate proton pump activity to affect stomatal opening to facilitate infection. Role of membrane traffic in such regulation is not well understood. The findings will open new avenues for future research into mechanisms of plant defence and morphogenesis and will be applied to crop plants for achieving enhanced productivity.
Project aims:
• To investigate the mechanistic aspects of differential regulation of the plant plasma membrane proton pumps during infection.
• To study how plant immune responses, affect plant growth and nutrition.
Techniques to be used:
Techniques in cell biology, proteomics, biochemistry and plant physiology will be employed using Arabidopsis thaliana as model plants.
Start date: TBC
Funding Notes
This studentship is funded by a grant from the Royal Society for 3 years. Support includes PhD registration fees at UK/EU student rate (£4121 per annum), research expenses, general training funds, travel, and meeting costs.
References
Relevant papers:
1. Karnik et al., Trends in Plant Science, 2017 doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2016.10.006
2. Elmore et al., Molecular Plant, 2011 doi:10.1093/mp/ssq083
3. Kundal et al., Plant Cell 2017 doi:10.1105/tpc.17.00070
4. Grefen et al., Nature Plants 2015 doi: 10.1038/nplants.2015.108
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