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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template
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Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. E-mails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact details:
Dr Zoë A. Popper
Botany and Plant Science
School of Natural Sciences
National University of Ireland Galway
Galway
Ireland
E-mail: Zoe.popper@nuigalway.ie
Tel: +353 91 49 5431
School:
School of Natural Sciences
Has project been agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed registration school?
Yes
Research Centre / group affiliation:
Research group / centre website:
Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy
Research
http://www.ryaninstitute.ie/
PI website / link to CV:
http://www.nuigalway.ie/botany/popper_home.html
http://www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/people/naturalsciences/zoepopper/
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
If you are already involved in relevant scholarly activities relating to Brazil, please mention them here.
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Dr Popper’s lab collaborates with Profa. Dra. Mastroberti (Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul-UFRGS); she visited the lab at NUI Galway (09/12)
Plant and algal cell wall evolution, diversity and function
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
Coping with flooding; development of aerenchyma
Global climate change predicts that some world regions will experience increased rainfalls
potentially leading to flooding. Flooding can put plants under stress as it reduces the amount of
oxygen which reaches the root system and leads to less efficient energy release through anaerobic
as opposed to aerobic respiration. Many vascular plants that live in water-logged or periodically
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
flooded environments have adaptations which facilitate increased oxygen availability to the roots.
The model fern, Ceratopteris richardii (C-fern), similar to many aquatic and wetland plants,
generates specialised tissue known as aerenchyma in response to flooding. Individual plant cells are
surrounded by polysaccharide- and (glyco)protein- rich cell walls which control cell shape, cell-cell
communication and cell adhesion. Formation of aerenchyma necessarily, among other mechanisms,
requires carefully controlled cell-cell separation and in some cases cell wall degradation. This project
will employ C-fern as a model to investigate, at cellular and tissue levels , the cell wall modifications
that occur during aerenchyma formation and will use methods including histology,
immunocytochemistry, analysis of polysaccharide structure and enzyme activity in plants either
growing under mesic (sufficient water) or flooded conditions. Plants will also be grown under
specific conditions to investigate potential cell wall-localised controls of aerenchyma formation. This
project aims to better understand cell wall modifications involved in plant, responses including
crops which are traditionally either grown in waterlogged (rice) or can produce aerenchyma (maize),
to dynamic habitats.
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:
NUI Galway projects should emphasise features that are not typically available in Brazil — specific equipment,
multi-disciplinarity, aspects of structured programme, links with industry, placements, links with other research
groups etc.
 Students in The School of Natural Sciences at NUI Galway register for a Structured PhD programme
which gives students a chance to rapidly learn generic and discipline-related techniques which they
will employ throughout their PhD e.g. statistics, academic writing and microscopy.
 The lab has links with Profa. Dra. Mastroberti (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS) and
it would be possible for the student to split their research between UFRGS and NUI Galway.
 The lab at NUI Galway shares temperature-controlled growth room and growth cabinet facilities, high
pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and has
access to microscopy-related infrastructure in Botany and Plant Science and Anatomy including
epifluorescent microscope, microtomes, confocal microscope, transmission electron microscope
(TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM).
 NUI Galway is in a botanically diverse location close to the unique floras of the Burren (County Clare,
Ireland) and Connemara.
 Plant and algal cell wall research is multidisciplinary and cross-cutting in nature and gives students
opportunity to learn many different skills.
 Research on plant and algal cell wall diversity is emerging as a strong focus within cell wall research
as evidenced by designated sessions at the International Plant Cell Wall Meeting (last 6 years),
Gordon conference on Plant Cell Walls (last 6 years) and the Plant section of the Society for
Experimental Biology will feature a 1 ½ day session on plant and algal cell wall diversity co-organised
by Dr. Popper and a collaborator, Dr. Domozych,
(http://www.sebiology.org/meetings/Valencia/Valencia.html &
http://plantandalgalcellwalldiversity.blogspot.ie/).
 The lab at NUI Galway has been growing C-fern for several years and a visiting PhD student from the
University of Gent is focussing on aspects of C-fern cell walls.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
N/A
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Preferred: Botany, Plant Science, Plant Biology,
Considered: Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Biotechnology (if have had a plant focus)
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)/Physical Sciences (Mathematics,
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Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences)
Health and Biomedical Sciences / Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health Sciences
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Computing
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals, Minerals Technology
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technologies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
Bioprospecting and Biodiversity
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): _ N_
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): _Y_
Suitable for either/Don’t know: _Suitable for either_