PhD project

Hunting for VegHog - elucidation of novel crossroads between development and immunity in plants

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Application deadline

31 March 2024

Climate change is one of the biggest threats to global food production, leading to unpredictable weather patterns and geographical migration of pathogens. As sessile organisms, plants must respond to a changing environment in situ and have developed complex systems of perception and response to mitigate against environmental stress. As energy resources are finite plants must balance responses to pathogens and environmental stress with growth and developmental pathways. This can affect crop production if biomass or grain yield is suppressed by environmental circumstances. Understanding this trade off is therefore key to sustaining food production in a changing climate. 

The hedgehog signalling pathway has long been assumed to exist exclusively in animal lineages. However, we have recently discovered evidence for an orthologous plant signalling pathway with profound effects on development. Hedgehog is a lipidated peptide secreted from cells as a short-range signalling molecule. The lipidation of hedgehog is catalysed by Hedgehog acyl transferase (Hhat) and is essential for its function. We have identified mutants in the putative plant homologue of Hhat, named Veghog acyl transferase (VAT), and deduced that loss-of-function mutants are embryo lethal, underlining the importance of this pathway to plant development.  

Interestingly the expression of VAT is largely unaffected by abiotic stress but is strongly down regulated following exposure to pathogens. In mutant plants lacking R-proteins, required to initiate immunity in responses to secreted pathogen effectors, expression of VAT is elevated. This suggests that plants supress the VAT controlled developmental pathway to promote immunity, while pathogens, via effectors, target the VAT pathway to either supress immunity or promote plant growth. This indicates that VAT is a hitherto unidentified regulatory nexus underpinning the trade-off between growth and immunity. 

This project will aim to: 

  1. Generate and characterise weak mutant alleles of VAT to determine what effects VAT has on post-embryonic growth and development. 
  2. Identify the Veghog peptide substrate for VAT by peptidomics, co-purification, proximity labelling, yeast secretion assay and phage display. 
  3. Investigate the mechanistic basis of how Veghog acts to regulate plant development. 
  4. Investigate whether increased or decreased Veghog pathway action can help to promote immunity against bacterial and oomycete pathogens. 
  5. Identify the mechanism underlying how pathogens promote increased Veghog pathway action. 

This project will provide training in molecular biology, protein biochemistry, quantitative plant developmental and immunity biology, plant transformation, mass spectrometry proteomics, yeast secretion assays and phage display. You will join a diverse and collaborative lab with opportunities for international conference attendance and a wide range of scientific and transferrable skills training. Recent ~£65 million investment in the Advanced Plant Growth Centre and International Barley Hub ensure that cutting edge plant growth facilities are available, in addition the world leading biochemical, molecular, structural and proteomic expertise and facilities at Dundee.  

Diversity statement

Our research community thrives on the diversity of students and staff which helps to make the University of Dundee a UK university of choice for postgraduate research. We welcome applications from all talented individuals and are committed to widening access to those who have the ability and potential to benefit from higher education.

How to apply

This project is open to self-funded and externally sponsored applicants, standard entry dates are January and September but we will consider applications year round. If you are interested in applying, please contact Dr. Hemsley (p.a.hemsley@dundee.ac.uk) in the first instance to discuss further, principal supervisors will ask you about your qualifications and your research experience to determine your suitability for the project. You will also be asked to indicate how you intend to fund your PhD. 

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For general enquiries, contact SLS-PhDAdmin@dundee.ac.uk

Supervisors

Principal supervisor

Second supervisor