Elucidation of a gene regulatory network for photosynthesis in grasses - AfS, ENWW

Photosynthesis is responsible for capturing the vast majority of the consumable energy that the Earth obtains from the Sun. Thus, understanding how photosynthesis is regulated is of fundamental importance to our understanding of life on Earth and also to future food security and renewable bioenergy. Despite our detailed understanding of the biochemistry and cell biology of photosynthesis, we know little of the genetic regulators that coordinate the expression of the large cohort of genes that underpin it. Moreover, the majority of our knowledge of how photosynthesis is regulated comes from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, with almost nothing known about how photosynthesis gene expression is regulated in the most globally important food and energy crops, the grasses. This project aims to address this knowledge gap by leveraging gene expression datasets from multiple grass species to identify a core gene regulatory network for photosynthesis in grasses. Identified transcription factor-to-promoter sequence interactions will be subject to validation in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, the outputs from this project will provide new insight into how the world's most important food crops regulate the capture of energy from the Sun. In addition, this project will also reveal how this regulatory network has been modified and adapted to facilitate the evolution of the derived and highly efficient form of photosynthesis known as C4 photosynthesis, which is present in the world's fastest growing and most energy efficient plants.

BBSRC priority areas:
1) Food, nutrition and health. 2) Bioenergy: generating new replacement fuels for a greener, sustainable future. 3) Data driven biology. 4) Sustainably enhancing agricultural production. 5) Systems approaches to the biosciences. 6) Technological development for the biological sciences.