Carr Group:Understanding the effects on abiotic stress of mutualistic viruses of plants
Supervisor:
Professor John Carr
Please note Professor Carr is only recruiting MPhil Students.
Overview:
Recent exciting results suggest that certain plant viruses transmitted exclusively through seeds and pollen, but which cause no obvious disease may ‘pay back’ their hosts by, among other things, improving growth or protecting from insect pests. We will test the limits of this hypothesis by determining the extent to which these ‘persistent’ viruses or their gene products benefit plants against drought and other abiotic stresses using pepper (Capsicum spp.) as a model.
Importance of Research:
New, sustainable methods and tools are needed to protect crops against abiotic stresses such as drought, soil salinity and heat. We will explore the hypothesis that as well as benefiting growth and reproduction of their hosts, persistent viruses protect against abiotic stresses.
What will the successful applicant do?
In this one year MPhil project we will carry out experiments using cured (persistent viruses removed by silencing) and uncured (still infected with a persistent virus) isogenic lines we will investigate if persistent viruses protect their hosts against the effects of water deprivation. Methods will be based on published procedures from this lab (Westwood et al. 2013).
References:
Westwood JH, McCann L, Naish M, Dixon H, Murphy AM, Stancombe MA, Bennett MH, Powell G, Webb AA, Carr JP. A viral RNA silencing suppressor interferes with abscisic acid-mediated signalling and induces drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Plant Pathol. 2013 Feb;14(2):158-70. DOI:10.1111/j.1364-3703.2012.00840.x.