Principal Supervisor name and department: Dr. Jose Gutierrez-Marcos, School of Life Sciences
Second Supervisor name and department: Dr. Sara Kavala, Department of Computing
Where will the student be based?
Split between departments (70% SLS and 30% Computing)
PhD project title: Epigenetic basis of environmental memory in plants
Project description:
Plants are sessile organisms that are known for their adaptive plasticity to the changing environment.
Environmental changes cannot only influence gene expression patterns but also affect the stability of the genome. Both of these responses seem to involve epigenetic mechanisms. Recent data suggest that environmental signals, in addition to the direct influence on plant growth, can also cause phenotypic changes that can be transmitted to the progeny, sometimes remaining stable for several generations. In this respect, the formation of environmental epialleles and their maintenance represents an important, yet unexplored, source of variation and adaptive power that can contribute to rapid evolution and more importantly to the improvement of crop plants.
The aim of this project is to investigate (i) the mechanism(s) by which different environmental stresses are able to modify the plant epigenome and (ii) how these epigenetic modifications are maintained across generations. Using Arabidopsis as a plant model system, the student will investigate different signalling pathways that are likely to influence of the application of these epigenetic modifications upon biotic and abiotic stress. These will be achieved by a combination of genetic, molecular and computational analysis.
Key experimental skills involved:
The student will gain skills in molecular epigenetic analysis (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, bisulphite sequencing and small RNA profiling) coupled to next-generation sequencing (NGS). In addition, the student is expected to contribute to the computational analysis of NGS epigenetic data using existing informatics tools and support present in the group.
References:
Becker, C. et al. (2011) Spontaneous epigenetic variation in the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome.
Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10555
Hidetaka , I. et al. (2011) An siRNA pathway prevents transgenerational retrotransposition in plants subjected to stress. Nature 472, 115–119
Contact details:
Jose Gutierrez-Marcos: J.F.Gutierrez-Marcos@warwick.ac.uk