Fundamental controls on plant root exudation under climate change

人们日益认识到，可持续的粮食生产需要利用有益的植物-土壤相互作用。植物与土壤微生物形成紧密联系，既通过与菌根真菌的直接共生关系，也通过凋落物和根系分泌物的间接输入。这些碳以根系分泌物的形式输入，在塑造土壤微生物群落的组成和活性方面起着重要作用，这些微生物群落通过释放养分反馈给植物生长。此外，越来越多的证据表明，根系分泌物在生态系统对气候变化的响应中发挥着重要作用。然而，对于植物如何控制根系分泌物的质量和数量，以及如何在不断变化的环境条件下进行修改，人们知之甚少。这些知识对于提高粮食生产系统的可持续性至关重要。本课题旨在研究气候变化下植物调节根系分泌物的机制，以及这与植物碳分配中的生理调节之间的关系。该学生将使用拟南芥生态型和常见的农业和草地物种进行对照实验，并将使用最先进的RNA和DNA测序以及现代基于ms的技术来动态地将基因表达与根系分泌物模式和土壤微生物群落变化联系起来。学生将在德弗里斯的世界级土壤和生态系统生态学实验室、约翰逊和加洛瓦的植物遗传学实验室以及古达克的生物分析实验室接受这些技术的培训，并通过计算分析结果。

There is a growing awareness that a sustainable food production needs to make use of beneficial plant-soil interactions. Plants form tight links with soil microorganisms, both directly via symbiotic associations with mycorrhizal fungi, but also indirectly, through the input of litter and root exudates. These carbon inputs, in the form of root exudates, play an important role in shaping the composition and activity of soil microbial communities, which feed back to plant growth by releasing nutrients. Moreover, evidence is increasing that root exudates play a fundamental role in ecosystem response to climate change. However, very little is known about how plants control the quality and quantity of root exudation, and how this is modified under changing environmental conditions. This knowledge is essential for making food production systems more sustainable.This studentship aims to disentangle the mechanisms through which plants regulate root exudation under climate change, and how this is linked to plant physiological adjustments in carbon allocation. The student will perform controlled experiments using Arabidopsis ecotypes and common agricultural and grassland species, and will use state-of-the-art RNA and DNA sequencing and modern MS-based techniques to dynamically link gene expression to patterns of root exudation and changes in soil microbial communities. The student will be trained in these techniques, and in analysing the results computationally, in the world-class soil and ecosystem ecology lab of De Vries, plant genetics lab of Johnson and Gallois, and bioanalytical lab of Goodacre.