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Dear Colleagues,
Prof. Paul Birch and I have a 4 year PhD studentship available to develop novel protein-protein interaction technologies and apply them to studying molecular
plant-pathogen interactions. I would be grateful if you could forward this advert to any good students looking for a PhD. The closing date for applications is the 18th of April.
Best wishes,
Piers
4 Year BBSRC funded PhD studentship: Understanding the molecular basis of how plant pathogens cause disease – who does what to whom and where?
Plant pathogens are one of the major global causes of crop loss and food spoilage. Understanding how plants perceive and respond to pathogens is therefore
vital in understanding how to breed plants with improved pathogen resistance. The interactions between plants and pathogens is very complex but perception of pathogens is achieved by 2 major groups of proteins; receptor-like kinases perceive extracellular
stimuli such as bacterial proteins and cell wall fragments, while R-proteins perceive intracellular changes to protein function and activity caused by pathogen proteins (termed “effectors”) that have been secreted into the plant cell. Understanding these protein-protein
interactions is critical to our understanding of the processes underlying plant resistance or susceptibility to pathogens. As an agronomically-relevant model system we use the Oomycete pathogen
Phytophthora infestans, the causative agent of potato late blight, and the model plant
Nicotiana benthamiana to study plant-pathogen interactions.
Traditional methods to study protein-protein interactions in plants (and all other organisms) are limited for a variety of reasons, but largely because
all of these methods are invasive, destructive or do not reflect the native environment of the cell where interactions are taking place. This means that our ability to define the composition of protein complexes, and particularly how these complexes change
after a stimulus such as pathogen challenge, is very poor. The field is therefore in critical need of new approaches to drive future research.
We have recently developed a new enzyme mediated method to map protein-protein interactions in-vivo that is non-invasive and maintains the native plant
cellular environment intact. This allows us to identify and analyse changing protein-protein interactions in a meaningful cellular context and extract hitherto unavailable information.
The aim of this project is to develop this system further using synthetic biology methods and use it to identify new interacting partners of plant R-proteins
and Phytophthora infestans effectors. Identified proteins will be assessed for their roles in defending against pathogen attack or promoting pathogen virulence with the ultimate aim of improving crop protection strategies and aiding food security. The
project will involve training in molecular biology, structural biology, synthetic biology, mass spectrometry and plant pathology.
Please feel free to contact Dr. Piers Hemsley ([log in to unmask]) or Prof. Paul Birch ([log in to unmask])
for more information and informal discussion. Information on the respective laboratories is available here:
http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/people/piers-hemsley and
http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/people/paul-birch.
Application procedure (closing date 18th April 2017) is detailed here:
http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/phdprog/phd-studentships/programmes/bbsrc-eastbio-doctoral-training-partnership-dtp-studentship
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Dr. Piers Hemsley |
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