Bacterial cell envelope remodelling in Rhizobium leguminosarum: contribution to symbiosis and resistance to abiotic stress

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The aim of this project is to investigate how bacterial cellenvelope remodelling by Ldts contributes to symbiosis (inpea and bean) and to resistance to abiotic stress (heat,osmotic pressure, or acidic conditions). We will alsoinvestigate peptidoglycan structure and dynamics acrossrhizobium isolates to understand how cell envelopecomposition impacts persistence and fitness in the soil.This project will lay the foundation to engineer Rhizobiumstrains for sustainable agriculture.This multidisciplinary project involves 3 academicsupervisors with complementary expertise, based inSheffield (where most of the experimental work will becarried out), York and Oxford. The student will benefit froma training in biochemistry (HPLC and mass spectrometryfor peptidoglycan structural analysis, recombinant proteinexpression, enzymatic assays), bacterial genetics(construction of mutants), comparative genomics andrhizobium-plant interactions. The student will also spend 4months abroad working with the industrial partner (ProteinMetrics, California) to contribute to the development ofsoftware tools dedicated to "peptidoglycomics" analyses.Overall, the student will acquire a comprehensive set ofskills to explore mechanistic insights at molecular andcellular level in bacteria, and in the context of theinteraction with the plant.