Advancing plant and evolutionary biology with BBSRC grant success
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have recently awarded four grants to academics at Oxford Biology for research into plant and evolutionary biology. We look forward to sharing how this research develops over the next few years.
Dr Francesco Licausi has been awarded a pioneer grant, which enables scientists to pursue original and early-stage research. Francesco will lead a project that explores the origin and role of oxygen gradients in the architecture and activity of meristems – unspecialised cells from which plant tissues and organs develop. Previous studies have prompted questions about the association between low oxygen levels and stem cell activity and organisation. The study aims to use synthetic biology approaches primarily in yeast cells to evaluate the impact of oxygen gradients on meristems and their resilience to perturbations. This research aligns with the broader goal of understanding the rules of life associated with multicellularity and oxygen availability and offers a promising avenue for exploring the origins of multicellularity and its implications for various biological processes.
The following three projects were funded via a responsive mode grant which supports curiosity-led research and continues to advance excellent bioscience across the BBSRC portfolio.
Mature pea pod with one side of the wall (pericarp) removed to expose six seeds
Professor Lars Østergaard will be investigating how plant growth regulators control pea pod development. The evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) led to the formation of fruits that protect and nurture the developing seeds. Focusing on pea (Pisum sativum) as a model species for the legume family, this research delves into the dynamics and evolution of a hormone variant, 4-Cl-IAA that controls fruit formation and seed development via a seed-to-pod signalling mechanism. By deciphering the molecular conversation regulating pea reproductive development, this study seeks to uncover fundamental insights into the evolution of plant signalling pathways and their broader implications both for crop improvement in agriculture and their potential for drug development in the medical industry.
Professor Renier van der Hoorn will investigate a predicted plant-pathogen arms race. He aims to use this knowledge to engineer extracellular immunity and improve crop protection. The team has used cutting edge artificial intelligence (Alphafold2 Multimer) to predict novel protein-protein interactions and identified four novel pathogen-derived inhibitors of the secreted P69B immune protease of tomato, an enzyme that plays a role in the plant's immune response against pathogens. This project seeks to decipher inhibition mechanisms and interactions to gain better understanding on the role of these inhibitors in pathogen virulence, explore the evolutionary dynamics of the P69 gene family, and engineer inhibitor-insensitive P69s, offering a promising avenue for durable resistance against pathogens and advancing crop protection strategies.
Neural architecture of lamprey embryo, one of the species to be studied in the project (photo by V Papadogiannis)
Professor Seb Shimeld’s project will determine how the regulatory architecture of a pair of homeobox genes functions. The research will focus on understanding the intricate mechanisms underlying the development of specialized cells and structures, in the brain and spinal cord, responsible for relaying sensory information in jawed vertebrates. This project centres on a uniquely conserved pair of genes within the Hmx family, which encode transcription factors critical for gene regulation. These genes exhibit an unprecedented level of conservation across vertebrates, reflecting remarkable evolutionary constraint driven by their crucial role in the nervous system. Through a combination of experiments this project seeks to unravel the 'how' and 'why' behind the conservation and function of this gene pair. Insights gained from this study not only promise to deepen our understanding of the brain and sensory system development but also offers valuable insights into broader questions regarding our own sensory nervous system and reveals a key set of steps in our evolution.
Learn more about the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) – UKRI here.
