The regulation of the legume symbiosis with nitrogen fixing bacteria

人造肥料具有很高的经济和生态成本。然而，现代农业依赖于它们的使用，以便为作物提供足够的氮。一些植物通过容纳细菌来满足其氮需求，这些细菌可以从大气中获得氮，并为它们提供碳以换取这些氮。将这种关系工程化到作物中可以帮助减少对肥料的依赖。要做到这一点，我们需要更好地了解这种关系以及它是如何调节的。我们现在知道，当多个细菌菌株感染同一株植物时，植物可以通过不给它们碳来报复欺骗细菌菌株（那些不提供氮的菌株）。我们还不完全了解这个过程，称为制裁，或者植物如何检测菌株是否作弊，然后制裁它。这个博士项目的目的是提高我们对制裁的理解，因为它与细菌及其发生的机制有关。这个项目将解决以下优先领域：食品，营养和健康，以及全球食品安全

Artificial fertilisers carry a high economic and ecological cost. However, modern agriculture is reliant on their use in order to provide crops with enough nitrogen. Some plants meet their nitrogen requirements by housing bacteria who can access nitrogen from the atmosphere and providing them with carbon in return for this nitrogen. Engineering this relationship into crop plants could help to reduce reliance on fertiliser. To do this we need a better understanding of this relationship and how it's regulated. We now know that the plant can retaliate against cheating bacterial strains (those who don't provide nitrogen) by not giving them carbon when multiple bacterial strains infect the same plant. We don't yet fully understand this process, called sanctioning, or how the plant detects whether a strain is cheating and then sanctions it. The aim of this DPhil project will be to enhance our understanding of sanctioning both as it relates to the bacteria and the mechanism by which it occurs.This project will address the priority areas of: food, nutrition and health, and global food security