Phd Student Vacancy

6 months ago

Dundee, United Kingdom The James Hutton Institute Full time

**Background**

Plants are inherently plastic organisms, and this property is critical for their survival. Their general body plan is genetically encoded, but plant architecture can be modified to adjust to the environment that surrounds it. In this sense, external cues, such as light, have a profound effect on the way a plant grows and develops, ultimately affecting a plant’s fitness, it’s ability to photosynthesise, and it’s productivity. In nature and in intensive cropping systems, plants must deal with adverse light environments for photosynthesis and plant development. It is estimated that in crops in dense canopies, shaded leaves contribute to 50% of the total canopy carbon gain, and therefore are critical for determining crop yield.

This project will focus on phytochromes, a unique group of light receptors that enable plants to detect nearby vegetation and elicit adaptive responses that ensure survival in the face of competition. It builds on recent discoveries in the Toledo-Ortiz and Halliday labs, that provide new insights into the operational properties of phyA, one of the most important phytochromes. PhyA is currently thought to operate as a deep (vegetation) shade detector, in conditions which are typically dimly lit and have higher proportions of long wavelength Far-Red light. Recent data from the Halliday lab has shown phyA action is not restricted to deep shade, rather it is tuned to detect wide-ranging conditions. This indicates that phyA plays a pivotal role in a newly identified “shade survival response” (SSS). The Toledo-Ortiz lab has shown that adaptations to the photosynthetic apparatus are a critical component of phytochrome activity, including the SSS. These findings provide a new conceptual framework to understand phyA function, in the adaptation to plant growth and development under canopy environments.

**Aims.** This PhD will seek to uncover the molecular properties that enable phyA to respond to different environments and climatic conditions. Genetic and molecular resources will be used to derive new mechanistic understanding of how phyA function changes in different light and temperature regimes, including its role in conditions that limit plant productivity such as canopy shade and low light.

**Methodology/Approach.** The project will make use of novel optogenetic tools to track the activity of phyA and assess it’s links to the adaptation (short, medium, long term) of Arabidopsis plants to canopy light and temperature environments. Analyses will include growth responses, production of biomass and chloroplastic functions to uncover the basis of growth and photosynthetic acclimation. The student will build core expertise in photophysiology and molecular-genetic analysis, and a range of techniques including gene editing, bioluminescence imaging, qPCR, RNAseq, chromatin immunoprecipitation, western blotting, phenotyping, photosynthetic efficiency measurements and principles of the use of theoretical approaches.

**Outline for 1st 12-18 Months**

The James Hutton Institute is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

The James Hutton Institute is a: Stonewall Diversity Champion; Athena SWAN Bronze Status Holder; Disability Confident Committed Employer and a Living Wage Employer.

The James Hutton Institute is Happy to Talk Flexible Working.

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