Future-proofing our food: Priming plants to tolerate climate change

为了使我们的作物不受未来气候变化的影响，将需要新的可持续的解决方案来提高它们对干旱和更高温度等非生物压力的适应能力。通过暴露在诱导因子中，启动使植物能够更有效地对胁迫做出反应，据报道，这种耐受性可以持续几代。该项目将使用最新的高通量测序和分析技术来研究单子叶(小麦)和双子叶(Brassica)作物抵御干旱和高温等非生物胁迫的分子机制，为面对气候变化的可持续作物生产提供潜在的途径。该项目将适合对可持续农业、基础植物科学、表观遗传学、生物技术和生物信息学感兴趣的学生。

Future-proofing our crops to tolerate the effects of climate change will require new sustainable solutions to improve their resilience to abioticstresses such as drought and higher temperatures. Priming, by exposure to eliciting factors, enables plants to respond more effectively to stress, and the tolerance this induces can reportedlypersist for several generations. This project will use the latest high-throughput sequencing and analysis techniques to investigate the molecular mechanismsunderpinning priming against abiotic stresses such as drought and heat in both monocot (wheat) and dicot (brassica) crops, providing potential routes to sustainable crop production in the face of climatechange. The project would suit a student with interests in sustainable agriculture, fundamental plant science, epigenetics, biotechnology andbioinformatics.