Plants Under Pressure: A Joint Experimental-Theoretical Investigation of the Plant Response to Local Stimuli

压力下的植物：植物对局部刺激反应的联合实验理论研究

• 批准号: 2071956
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2071956
• 关键词: Plants; Under; Pressure; Joint; Experimental

Understanding how plants respond when pathogens attack is of vital importance. This is especially true since 90% of all calorie intake worldwide comes directly from crop plants. When these crops fail, such as during the historic potato famine in Ireland and the more recent Cassava famine in Uganda, millions of deaths can result. During infection, plant cells move their immune defences to the site of infection with the aim of repelling the invader. However, it is not known how these immune defences are moved. Is the whole process due to passive diffusion or are more active mechanisms at work? Are the relevant molecules wrapped up in individual packages or can they jump from package to package? If questions like these are understood, then it may be possibleto improve the plant immune response in order to develop stronger resistance and safeguard crop production for the future. In this PhD project, you will examine the relative contribution of these (and other) behaviours during the plant immune response.You will achieve this using a multidisciplinary approach that combines mathematical modelling, image analysis, super-resolution microscopy and traditional biological wet-lab experiments. This combination of disciplines often leads to the best results and will allow you to learn a wide range of different skills and techniques. You are not expected to already know both mathematical modelling and wet lab techniques. Full training will be provided in both areas during the PhD. In particular, you will Design mathematical models of plant vesicle motion that include vesicle diffusion, protein exchange between nearby vesicles, active vesicle motion towards the infection site, and vesicle tethering. Other factors such as subdiffusion and confined diffusion will also be considered. These models will then be simulated on a computer using MATLAB or C++. Perform experiments with the plant Arabidopsis to obtain movies of motile vesicles labelled using fluorescent cargoes. Use super-resolution microscopy to better define the spatial distribution of trafficked material. Develop image analysis software to automatically extract and track vesicle position. This will allow quick, accurate analysis of movies from part 2, which will in turn inform the mathematical modelling. This interplay between experiment and modelling is a key part of this project and will make for an exciting PhD

了解植物在病原体攻击时的反应至关重要。这是特别真实的，因为全世界90%的卡路里摄入量直接来自农作物。当这些作物歉收时，例如在爱尔兰历史性的土豆饥荒和最近在乌干达的木薯饥荒期间，可能导致数百万人死亡。在感染过程中，植物细胞将其免疫防御转移到感染部位，目的是击退入侵者。然而，目前还不知道这些免疫防御是如何移动的。整个过程是被动扩散还是更主动的机制在起作用？相关的分子是包裹在单独的包裹中，还是可以从一个包裹跳到另一个包裹？如果理解了这些问题，那么就有可能改善植物的免疫反应，从而发展更强的抵抗力，并为未来的作物生产提供保障。在这个博士项目中，您将研究这些（和其他）行为在植物免疫反应中的相对贡献。您将使用多学科方法实现这一目标，该方法结合了数学建模，图像分析，超分辨率显微镜和传统的生物湿实验室实验。这种学科的组合往往会导致最好的结果，并将允许您学习各种不同的技能和技术。你不需要已经知道数学建模和湿实验室技术。博士期间将提供这两个领域的全面培训。特别是，您将设计植物囊泡运动的数学模型，包括囊泡扩散，附近囊泡之间的蛋白质交换，主动囊泡运动对感染部位和囊泡束缚。还将考虑其他因素，如亚扩散和受限扩散。然后，这些模型将在计算机上使用MATLAB或C++进行仿真。用植物拟南芥进行实验，以获得使用荧光物质标记的活动囊泡的电影。使用超分辨率显微镜更好地确定贩运材料的空间分布。开发图像分析软件，自动提取和跟踪囊泡位置。这将允许快速，准确地分析第2部分中的电影，这反过来又会为数学建模提供信息。实验和建模之间的相互作用是这个项目的关键部分，将使一个令人兴奋的博士学位