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PhD studentship opportunity at University of Edinburgh: Chemical Biology of Plant Salicylic Acid Receptor Complexes Like all organisms, plants are in danger of attack by a large variety of pathogens, which in agricultural settings often cause severe physical and economic losses in yield. To defend themselves, plants rapidly produce the immune signal salicylic acid (SA) upon infection. SA mediates the reprogramming of thousands of genes to prioritize immune responses over normal cellular functions. Consequently, plants that fail to accumulate SA are highly susceptible to pathogen attack, whereas a high level of SA is correlated with enhanced immunity. Innovative chemical crop protection agents mimic SA actions and thereby enhance agricultural yields in an environmentally favourable way. Understanding how SA and its mimics bring about changes in gene expression that lead to immunity, will transform the design of novel crop protection strategies. We recently helped elucidate the identity of the SA receptors and found not one, but at least two receptors in the Arabidopsis genome. Paradoxically, both receptors are part of ubiquitin ligases that target NPR1, an indispensable transcriptional activator of immunity, for proteasome-mediated degradation. This is thought to be important for both the prevention of autoimmunity in absence of pathogen threats, as well as for full-scale activation of NPR1 target genes and associated development of immunity. Central to NPR1 function is its intracellular trafficking from the cytoplasm to the cell nucleus, which is induced by SA. Using a combination of protein biochemistry, chemical biology and advanced live-cell imaging techniques, this PhD project is aimed at understanding the functional properties of SA receptors and NPR1 from Arabidopsis and various crops in transcription reprogramming during activation of immunity. This project is a collaboration between Dr. Steven Spoel at the University of Edinburgh and Bayer CropScience and is funded as an industrial CASE PhD studentship by the BBSRC. Application Deadline: 01 October 2014 For more information visit http://spoel.bio.ed.ac.uk/BBSRC&BAYER PhD.html<http://spoel.bio.ed.ac.uk/BBSRC&BAYER%20PhD.html>