Quantifying new rhizospheric roles of JA in shaping root architecture response in compacted soil

Soil compaction represents a major challenge facing modern farming due to changes in agricultural management practices. Over half of Europe's farmed soils are prone to compaction, costing billions of pounds of losses. Despite its importance, little was known about why roots stop growing in compacted soils. A series of (literally) ground-breaking experiments by our team (Pandey et al, 2021, Science) recently revealed that roots can penetrate highly compacted soil after disrupting their sensitivity to a plant hormone signal called ethylene. However, the current understanding of the key rhizosphere signals a lacking to fully understand the soil compaction response in crop roots.
Aim: In this project, we aim to discover the new roles of a key rhizosphere signal JA in shaping root system architecture in compacted soil using state-of-art imaging and molecular biology techniques.
Output: Discovering a new rhizospheric signal and underlying mechanism of JA which shape root system architecture in compacted soil.