Epigenetic temperature sensing in plants

气候变化已经对支撑我们整个文明的植物的生长和发育产生了巨大影响。在我们等待对气候变化采取一致行动的过程中，这种情况可能会进一步扩大。因此，我们有必要尝试了解使诸如温度升高等因素影响植物性能的机制。了解这些机制将使我们能够设计改变的反应，从而减轻负面影响。我们已经使用基因筛选来确定机制的新组成部分，使植物能够根据温度决定何时开花。我们发现的一个新基因直接将基因表达的表观遗传控制与温度感知联系起来。在这个项目中，你将发现潜在的机制，确定更多的组成部分，并利用我们的新认识来设计对温度有不同反应的植物。此外，您将探索该机制的生物技术应用。您将加入一个包括植物发育生物学家、病毒学家和RNA生物学家在内的合作团队，应用先进的分子遗传学和基因组学方法来研究这一高度热门的全球挑战。

The changing climate is already having a dramatic effect on the growth and development of the plants that support our entire civilisation. This is likely to be amplified as we await concerted action on climate change. It is therefore essential that we attempt to understand the mechanisms that enable factors such as increased temperature to affect plant performance. Understanding these mechanisms will allow us to engineer altered responses and thereby mitigate the negative effects. We have used a genetic screen to identify novel components of the mechanism that allows plants to decide when to flower in response to temperature. One of the novel genes that we identified directly links the epigenetic control of gene expression to temperature perception. In this project you will discover the underlying mechanism, identify more components and use our new understanding to engineer plants that respond differently to temperature. In addition, you will explore the biotechnological applications of the mechanism. You will join a collaborative team including plant developmental biologists, virologists and RNA biologists to apply advanced molecular genetic and genomic approaches to study this highly topical global challenge.