Your Best Face Forward - how cereals regulate their epidermal surfaces.

生活在陆地上的植物面临着来自害虫、脱水和极端温度的威胁。为了在陆地上生存和茁壮成长，植物进化出了一个特殊的表面，由蜡质的“角质层”和独特的表皮细胞如气孔和防御倒钩密封。对这些表面创新的进一步改进是干旱草原上谷物性能的基础，并在气候弹性方面发挥重要作用。然而，我们对植物（包括谷物）如何将角质层和表皮细胞特化协调成一个连贯的表面知之甚少。令人兴奋的是，我们最近发现了一个核心模式化途径，可以控制保守的和谷物特异性的表皮发育，并影响作物生存。在这个项目中，您将使用最先进的生物化学和分子方法来推进这些发现，以了解途径组分如何相互作用并响应环境变化。特别是，您将使用基于CRISPR-Cas的基因编辑来识别该途径的关键组分，探索关键组分中翻译后修饰的作用，并测试该途径中的变异是否会改善谷物在干热环境中的性能。该项目将吸引热衷于从分子到领域探索植物科学的学生，并为作物改良和粮食安全做出贡献。

Plants living on land face brutal conditions with threats from pests, dehydration and temperature extremes. To survive and thrive on land, plants evolved a specialised surface, sealed by a waxy 'cuticle' and distinctive epidermal cells such as gas pores and defensive barbs. Further improvements to these surface innovations underlie cereal performance on arid grasslands and play important roles in climate resiliency. However, we understand little about how plants, including cereals, coordinate cuticle and epidermal cell specialisations into a coherent surface. Excitingly, we recently discovered a core patterning pathway that may control conserved and cereal-specific epidermal development, and influence crop survival. In this project, you will advance these findings using state of the art biochemical and molecular approaches to find out how the pathway components interact and respond to environmental change. In particular, you will use CRISPR-Cas based gene editing to identify key components of the pathway, explore the role of post-translational modifications in key components and test whether variation in the pathway improves cereal performance in dry and hot environments. This project will appeal to students keen to explore plant science from molecule to field, and to contribute to crop improvement and food security.