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

这个项目的目的是研究LDTS对细菌细胞膜的重塑如何有助于共生(豌豆和豆类)和抵抗非生物胁迫(热、渗透压或酸性条件)。我们还将研究根瘤菌分离株的肽聚糖结构和动态，以了解细胞膜的组成如何影响土壤中的持久性和适应性。这个项目将为设计可持续农业的根瘤菌菌株奠定基础。这个多学科项目涉及3个具有互补专业知识的学术导师，分别位于谢菲尔德(大部分实验工作将在那里进行)、约克和牛津。学生将从生物化学(肽聚糖结构分析、重组蛋白表达、酶分析)、细菌遗传学(构建突变体)、比较基因组学和根瘤菌-植物相互作用方面的MA培训中受益。学生还将在国外与工业合作伙伴(加州蛋白质计量公司)一起工作4个月，以帮助开发专门用于“肽漫画”分析的软件工具。总的来说，学生将获得一套全面的技能，以探索细菌在分子和细胞水平上的机械洞察，以及在与植物相互作用的背景下。

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.