Enhancing plant resilience via stress-priming - a solution for sustainable agricultural development

植物具有很强的适应性，能够根据环境对自身的发育和生理进行调整。有趣的是，暴露在一种压力之下似乎能够增强整体的韧性。例如，通过按压或抚摸进行温和的物理刺激可以增强结构强度(更短、更硬的枝条)，以及对各种生物和非生物应激源的耐受性[1]。事实上，日本农民已经使用了这种自然植物反应作为作物的预调节方法，这足以有效地使小麦和大麦的产量增加20%-50%[2]。这种TIGMO(希腊语中的Touch)引发策略是可获得的、立即适用的，并与小农耕作兼容，因此具有极大的潜力催化发展中国家的可持续粮食安全。我们与来自社会科学和多个自然科学领域的跨学科合作团队一起，正在根据环境、社会和文化需求和情况，在两个特定的发展中国家制定实用的谷物作物TIGMO引发协议。同时，关于免疫引发的定量和机理研究很少，因此我们无法根据科学数据修改方案。这个博士项目是为了揭示各种不同的TIGMO启动方案的输入-输出关系，以建立它们的生物学基础，并根据当地农民社区的特殊要求定制它们。通过这个项目，学生将接受植物发育的分子和系统研究方面的培训，以及通过与社会、计算机和工程科学家的合作，为国际农业发展采取综合和多角度的方法。它可能会涉及英国和发展中国家的实地考察工作。

Plants are highly adaptive and adjust their development and physiology according to the environment. Intriguingly, exposure to one type of stress seems to be able to enhance general resilience. For example, gentle physical stimulation via pressing or stroking result in boosting of structural strength (shorter and stiffer shoots), as well as tolerance against various types of biotic and abiotic stressors [1]. In fact, farmers in Japan have used such natural plant responses as a crop pre-conditioning method, which is effective enough to increase the yields of wheat and barley by 20-50% [2]. Such thigmo (touch in Greek)-priming strategy is accessible, immediately applicable, and compatible with smallholder farming, and thus has a great potential to catalyse sustainable food security in developing countries.Together with an interdisciplinary team of collaborators from social science and multiple fields of natural sciences, we are developing practical thigmo-priming protocols for cereal crops in two specific developing countries based on the environmental, social, and cultural needs and circumstances. Meanwhile, there are very little quantitative and mechanistic studies on thigmo-priming, and thus we are not able to modify protocols based on scientific data. This PhD project is to reveal input-output relationships of a variation of thigmo-priming protocols, in order to establish their biological underpinnings and to customise them for specific requirements of local farmer communities.With this project the student will be trained in molecular and systems study of plant development, as well as integrative and multi-perspective approaches for international agricultural development via collaborations with social, computer, and engineering scientists. It is likely to involve fieldworks in the UK and developing countries.