Spatial regulation of rice D14L for pre-symbiotic perception of beneficial fungi
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Plant Sciences
Abstract
A key event in the evolution of higher life on earth is the transition of plant life from water to land. To explore the terrestrial environment plants had to develop strategies for the acquisition of soil nutrients with initially primitive root precursors. Ever since, plants have lived in symbioses with nutrient-delivering beneficial fungi. Today, the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the most commonly occurring beneficial plant-fungal interaction on earth, contributing to plant fitness, plant biodiversity and global nutrient cycles. Yet, we are only beginning to unveil the molecular processes leading to mutual recognition in the rhizosphere.
Colonization of plant roots by AM fungi requires the reciprocal exchange of diffusible molecules before fungal attachment to the root surface occurs. Chitin-related compounds secreted by AM fungi trigger plant molecular and developmental responses. Receptor kinase proteins detect these fungal molecules in the extracellular space and initiate a cellular reprogramming leading to a change in root system development. Mutational analyses showed that these receptor kinases are indeed required for development of AM symbioses but appear not to be essential. How plants perceive these prevalent beneficial fungi has therefore still been an unanswered question.
My group has found that an intracellular alpha/beta hydrolase type protein, called DWARF 14 LIKE (D14L) is crucial for fungal perception by rice. In our recent Science publication we report our finding that the deletion of this gene from the rice genome rendered the plant unable to sense the fungus. Interestingly, the protein has additional roles in detecting the smoke constituent karrikin and in mediating developmental responses to light. It is evolutionarily conserved and may have therefore served similar functions in early terrestrial plants.
The recognition of the fungus by the root and the subsequent establishment of primary contact involves distinct root tissue and cell types. The precise coordination of signaling events in space and time is thus essential for the successful development of AM symbioses. With this proposal we wish to determine where in the root tissue (relative to the approaching fungus) the protein needs to be present, and by magnifying onto the subcellular level, where within the cell the protein functions in initiating signal transduction and what are the respective 'molecular translations' of signalling.
Given the central role of D14L in a variety of responses to environmental stimuli elucidating the tissue/cell type contributing to the signaling is vital for understanding coordination and specificity of this general and ancient plant symbiosis.
Colonization of plant roots by AM fungi requires the reciprocal exchange of diffusible molecules before fungal attachment to the root surface occurs. Chitin-related compounds secreted by AM fungi trigger plant molecular and developmental responses. Receptor kinase proteins detect these fungal molecules in the extracellular space and initiate a cellular reprogramming leading to a change in root system development. Mutational analyses showed that these receptor kinases are indeed required for development of AM symbioses but appear not to be essential. How plants perceive these prevalent beneficial fungi has therefore still been an unanswered question.
My group has found that an intracellular alpha/beta hydrolase type protein, called DWARF 14 LIKE (D14L) is crucial for fungal perception by rice. In our recent Science publication we report our finding that the deletion of this gene from the rice genome rendered the plant unable to sense the fungus. Interestingly, the protein has additional roles in detecting the smoke constituent karrikin and in mediating developmental responses to light. It is evolutionarily conserved and may have therefore served similar functions in early terrestrial plants.
The recognition of the fungus by the root and the subsequent establishment of primary contact involves distinct root tissue and cell types. The precise coordination of signaling events in space and time is thus essential for the successful development of AM symbioses. With this proposal we wish to determine where in the root tissue (relative to the approaching fungus) the protein needs to be present, and by magnifying onto the subcellular level, where within the cell the protein functions in initiating signal transduction and what are the respective 'molecular translations' of signalling.
Given the central role of D14L in a variety of responses to environmental stimuli elucidating the tissue/cell type contributing to the signaling is vital for understanding coordination and specificity of this general and ancient plant symbiosis.
Technical Summary
We follow a multidisciplinary approach to maximize the resolution of our analysis by exploiting the resources available in rice. Rice offers a high attractive plant system for an integrated combination of genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic and cell biological approaches, having a well annotated genome, efficient transformation protocols and its roots being amenable to confocal microscopy.
With the proposal aiming at the elucidation of the spatial regulation of D14L signaling activities across root tissues and subcellular compartments the technical workplan largely builds on Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation, confocal microscopy, and also RNA seq and LC-MS/MS as central methodologies.
Efficient protocols for the transformation of cereal crops have been established in the team of the joint-applicant Emma Wallington (EW) who routinely deliver a high number of transformants with, in rice, at least 40% of lines carrying single copy T-DNA integrations. We base all our constructs for plant transformation on the GAL4-VP16/UAS transactivation system to increase transgene transcription (and thereby sensitivity) without losing cell- or treatment specificity.
Multiphoton and lightsheet confocal microscopy will enable the deep root tissue analysis of fluorescent protein accumulation and where desired in real time. These microscopes are used on a daily basis to monitor fluorescent proteins in rice roots by another PDRA in my group (Ronelle Roth). The proposed work is thus feasible in rice.
RNAseq and LC-MS/MS analyses will be performed on tissue from the same individuals allowing for the direct comparison where desired. These efforts follow established protocols at the respective platforms at the University of Cambridge and enable the quantitative and qualitative estimate of transcripts and proteins.
With the proposal aiming at the elucidation of the spatial regulation of D14L signaling activities across root tissues and subcellular compartments the technical workplan largely builds on Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation, confocal microscopy, and also RNA seq and LC-MS/MS as central methodologies.
Efficient protocols for the transformation of cereal crops have been established in the team of the joint-applicant Emma Wallington (EW) who routinely deliver a high number of transformants with, in rice, at least 40% of lines carrying single copy T-DNA integrations. We base all our constructs for plant transformation on the GAL4-VP16/UAS transactivation system to increase transgene transcription (and thereby sensitivity) without losing cell- or treatment specificity.
Multiphoton and lightsheet confocal microscopy will enable the deep root tissue analysis of fluorescent protein accumulation and where desired in real time. These microscopes are used on a daily basis to monitor fluorescent proteins in rice roots by another PDRA in my group (Ronelle Roth). The proposed work is thus feasible in rice.
RNAseq and LC-MS/MS analyses will be performed on tissue from the same individuals allowing for the direct comparison where desired. These efforts follow established protocols at the respective platforms at the University of Cambridge and enable the quantitative and qualitative estimate of transcripts and proteins.
Planned Impact
The project will achieve academic, economic and social impacts.
Academic impact will predominantly be on research in the area of plant-microbe interaction. Its impact on symbiosis research will be profound as our findings cause a shift in the understanding of plant recognition of AM fungi from the rather receptor-like kinase focused recognition paradigm to an alpha-beta hydrolase driven intracellularly mediated signaling activation model. Its impact on plant developmental biology is linked with the dual function of both D14L in symbiotic and developmental processes so that investigation addressing specificity for one signaling branch (in our case mainly the symbiotic) produce information immediately relevant to define specificity in the others (karrikin and strigolactone signaling). The whole plant science community will be impacted because of the elucidation of a novel yet plant kingdom-wide conserved signaling pathway. Finally, the identification of an endogenous signaling node mediating perception of rhizosphere organisms constitutes a novelty within the plant science community with the strongest impact on inter-organismic plant communications studies.
Economic impact will be accomplished through the immediate relevance of the knowledge developed in this project to cereal science. Additional impact will derive from the parallel exploration of our approach in rice and wheat with potential to extrapolate further to other cereal species such as maize or barley. Dissemination of our research to a broader community of farmers and breeders will create impact via exchange of information and facts, and ultimately knowledge transfer.
Societal impact of the proposed work will be achieved by employing our findings to stimulate the public's attention to plant research and to issues related to plant and crop science. Our project can serve as an example case to illustrate in a public friendly fashion the efforts of addressing fundamental biological questions to create the understanding required for advancing modern agricultural to grant sustainable food security.
The project will provide benefits to the UK Competitiveness in (a) global science as the discovery of D14L as a critical plant determinant for the recognition of AM fungi uniquely positions my group to lead the field; (b) in sustainable food production as plant symbioses will potentially be of huge importance for future agriculture e.g. by reducing the demands on chemical fertilizers.
The proposed work is at the leading edge of research aimed at unravelling the key mechanisms that lead to plant symbioses. The UK is a world leader in this area (e.g. https://www.ensa.ac.uk/home/) and this programme will allow important advances to be made that will ensure it remains at the forefront of plant symbiosis research.
Academic impact will predominantly be on research in the area of plant-microbe interaction. Its impact on symbiosis research will be profound as our findings cause a shift in the understanding of plant recognition of AM fungi from the rather receptor-like kinase focused recognition paradigm to an alpha-beta hydrolase driven intracellularly mediated signaling activation model. Its impact on plant developmental biology is linked with the dual function of both D14L in symbiotic and developmental processes so that investigation addressing specificity for one signaling branch (in our case mainly the symbiotic) produce information immediately relevant to define specificity in the others (karrikin and strigolactone signaling). The whole plant science community will be impacted because of the elucidation of a novel yet plant kingdom-wide conserved signaling pathway. Finally, the identification of an endogenous signaling node mediating perception of rhizosphere organisms constitutes a novelty within the plant science community with the strongest impact on inter-organismic plant communications studies.
Economic impact will be accomplished through the immediate relevance of the knowledge developed in this project to cereal science. Additional impact will derive from the parallel exploration of our approach in rice and wheat with potential to extrapolate further to other cereal species such as maize or barley. Dissemination of our research to a broader community of farmers and breeders will create impact via exchange of information and facts, and ultimately knowledge transfer.
Societal impact of the proposed work will be achieved by employing our findings to stimulate the public's attention to plant research and to issues related to plant and crop science. Our project can serve as an example case to illustrate in a public friendly fashion the efforts of addressing fundamental biological questions to create the understanding required for advancing modern agricultural to grant sustainable food security.
The project will provide benefits to the UK Competitiveness in (a) global science as the discovery of D14L as a critical plant determinant for the recognition of AM fungi uniquely positions my group to lead the field; (b) in sustainable food production as plant symbioses will potentially be of huge importance for future agriculture e.g. by reducing the demands on chemical fertilizers.
The proposed work is at the leading edge of research aimed at unravelling the key mechanisms that lead to plant symbioses. The UK is a world leader in this area (e.g. https://www.ensa.ac.uk/home/) and this programme will allow important advances to be made that will ensure it remains at the forefront of plant symbiosis research.
Publications
Choi J
(2018)
Mechanisms Underlying Establishment of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbioses.
in Annual review of phytopathology
Chiu CH
(2019)
Mechanisms and Impact of Symbiotic Phosphate Acquisition.
in Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
Chiu CH
(2022)
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi induce lateral root development in angiosperms via a conserved set of MAMP receptors.
in Current biology : CB
Wang M
(2018)
Blumenols as shoot markers of root symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
in eLife
Choi J
(2020)
The negative regulator SMAX1 controls mycorrhizal symbiosis and strigolactone biosynthesis in rice.
in Nature communications
Nadal M
(2017)
An N-acetylglucosamine transporter required for arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses in rice and maize.
in Nature plants
RamÃrez-Flores MR
(2017)
Co-ordinated Changes in the Accumulation of Metal Ions in Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays L.) in Response to Inoculation with the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus Funneliformis mosseae.
in Plant & cell physiology
Sugimoto K
(2018)
Multifaceted Cellular Reprogramming at the Crossroads Between Plant Development and Biotic Interactions.
in Plant & cell physiology
Chiu CH
(2020)
Receptor-Like Kinases Sustain Symbiotic Scrutiny.
in Plant physiology
McGaley J
(2021)
Visualising an invisible symbiosis.
in Plants, people, planet
Montero H
(2021)
A mycorrhiza-associated receptor-like kinase with an ancient origin in the green lineage.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Sawers RJH
(2018)
The impact of domestication and crop improvement on arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in cereals: insights from genetics and genomics.
in The New phytologist
Montero H
(2019)
Arbuscular mycorrhizal phenotyping: the dos and don'ts.
in The New phytologist
Montero H
(2022)
A simple and versatile fluorochrome-based procedure for imaging of lipids in arbuscule-containing cells.
in The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology
McGaley J
(2021)
Visualising an invisible symbiosis
Paszkowski U
(2021)
Visualising an invisible symbiosis
Montero H
(2019)
Arbuscular mycorrhizal phenotyping: the dos and don'ts.
Title | Co-existence - performing arts |
Description | Essi Kausalainen was an Artist in Residence for October - December 2015 at Wysing Cambridge. We first met and discussed our common interest in co-existence then. The conversations continued and let Essi to (a) compose a music piece for clarinet and female voice describing co-existence in the context of plant symbioses with beneficial fungi and (b) to an installation type of work that was exhibited in Helsinki, Brussels, Paris, Stockholm and London Sommerset House. At the Festival of Ideas in Cambridge Essi exhibited her installation and we had a public debate on the reciprocal advancement through interdisciplnarity as in this case evidenced by art-plant biology. This activity received coverage by a journal from the Nature Publishing Group (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-017-0058-9). |
Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | An editorial in a globally visible scientific journal disseminated the thoughts exchanged. |
Description | The D14L receptor protein conditions rice plants for beneficial interaction with soil-borne Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) Fungi. Successful signalling frequently involves the spatially coordinated distribution of promoter activities (tissue level) and proteins (cellular level). The results of tissue or subcellular misexpression patterns of key signalling components can provide insights into the spatio-temporal requirement of the signalling protein, here the D14L receptor. We found that while the promoter activity of D14L is restricted to the vasculature, we detect D14L transcript across all outer cell layers of the root. In addition, the mutant phenotype can be rescued by driving the expression of D14L into the rhizodermal cell layer. in parallel, we observed that the expression domain of the D14L receptor overlaps with that of the paralogous strigolactone receptor, evidenced by the overexpression of D14L in a cell-type specific fashion causing a phenotype equivalent to a loss-of-function of strigolactone biosynthesis. Further corroboration and characterisation of these exciting preliminary observations are still ongoing. |
Exploitation Route | The findings lie at the heart of plant development and plant-microbe interactions and informs about fundamental mechanisms underpinning plant performance in different environmental contexts. |
Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
Title | Transformed rice plants transferred to project lead Dr. Uta Paszkowski at University of Cambridge |
Description | Rice plants (>300) transformed with a number of transcriptional reporter,functional complementation and trapping constructs to study the communication between the rice root tissues and arbuscular myccorhizal fungi necessary for AM symbiosis to occur. |
Type Of Material | Biological samples |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Analysis of the transgenic rice plants produced within the funded project is going |
Description | Confocal microscopy |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | The Sainsbury Laboratory |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The Sainsbury Laboratory Unviersity Cambridge has complementary confocal microscopy equipment to the department o Plant Sciences and the Cambridge Advanced Imaging Centre. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to SP( laser scanning confocal microscope. |
Impact | Manuscripts in preparation. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | rice transformation |
Organisation | National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | we produced the constructs for rice transformation and analysed the transgenic lines |
Collaborator Contribution | rice transformation |
Impact | Roth et al., Nature Communications 2018 |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Bristol: GARNET -Gene Editing Workshop - invited talk "Gene editing in cereal crop species" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Interest from both academic researchers and commercial companies on our results |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
Description | CSIRO Gene Editing workshop - invited presentation, Kiama, Sydney, Australia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited presentation by Emma Wallington and discussion with researchers on the implementation of gene editing at NIAB. Comparisons were made with efficiency of gene editing in rice, barley and wheat. Specific examples included the creation of d14l mutant rice lines for the "Spatial regulation of rice D14L for pre-symbiotic perception of beneficial fungi" project and the validation of candidate genes for male sterility in wheat. Outcomes from this included further discussions with several international researchers to develop new research collaborations and joint funding proposals; several joint project proposals are currently being written. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Cambridge Science Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | For two years 2017 and 2019 we hosted a booth at the Cambridge Science Festival. We inform the broader audience about the relevance and fascination of the beneficial interaction with nutrient-delivering soil fungi and about the research question we are currently addressing in the lab. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2019 |
Description | Cambridge Summer School |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | The Cambridge Summer School is attended by people from allover the world who seek additional academic education. It is attended by ~ 100 people. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Cambridge University DTP student cohort visit 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Overview of crop transformation projects at NIAB. Discussion with visitors on how and why we make GM wheat crop plants using Takeall disease as an example of a project which could not be achieved without GM, plus our implementation of new technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Cereal Engineering Consortium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The CEC brings together a community of the world's top scientist using their skill and understanding to create solutions predominantly for small holder famers in sub-Saharan Africa. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://www.ensa.ac.uk/cec/ |
Description | Chief Scientific Adviser & Chief Plant Health Officer visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Emma Wallington gave an overview of our GM projects with wheat, rice and OSR transformation. Particular focus on disease resistance targets within the Community Resource for Wheat Transformation and the Engineering Resistance to Takeall projects |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Cross institute Interdisciplinary Workshop - Predictive Breeding & Genomic Approaches Roslin Institute, Edinburgh |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Oral presentation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Indian Female Leaders in Crop and Ag Science workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Emma Wallington gave a presentation of our GM projects with wheat, rice and OSR plus new developments in the technology such as CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, and examples of how we are using this technology in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Invited keynote talk "Gene editing in rice and wheat", CamBioScience CRISPR design and strategy course, Cambridge 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | CamBioScience CRISPR course participants were largely focussed on human or animal cell applications, so no direct impact |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited seminars |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Over the years of the award, I was invited to a number of different Universities and Research Institutions to present our research. These include the Universities of Edinburgh (UK), Leeds (UK), York (UK), Aberdeen (UK), Sheffield (UK), Munich (GER), Tuebingen (GER), Duesseldorf (GER), Bremen (GER), Halle (GER), Zurich (CH), Fribourg (CH) and Aarhus (DK), and research institutions John Innes Centre (UK), Max Planck Institutes Cologne and Marburg (GER), Gregor Mendel Institute Vienna (AUT). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019 |
Description | Invited talk at Gene Editing conference, SLUC, Cambridge 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited talk on our use of gene editing in rice and wheat across a range of projects |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Monogram meeting - JIC, Norwich, 24-26 April 2018, oral presentation "Gene editing in cereal crop species" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | requests for more information and future projects |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | NIAB Directors Day display |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Exhibit in the NIAB marquee covering a number of BBSRC funded projects using crop transformation. Demonstrations of wheat tissue culture and the effect of takeall fungus infection on wheat roots provided an excellent visual demonstration of a project which uses genetic modification to tackle a disease in wheat for which there is no resistance which can be bred in traditionally. Other exhibits demonstrated our implementation of gene editing techniques and its use in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | NIAB Directors Day displays 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Practical demonstrations of crop tissue culture plus an overview of our GM projects focused on wheat, rice and OSR. We also included explanations of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, and examples of how we are using this in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | NIAB Open Day 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Practical demonstrations of crop tissue culture plus an overview of our GM projects focused on wheat, rice and OSR. We also included explanations of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, and examples of how we are using this in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | NIAB Open Day display |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Exhibit in the NIAB marquee covering a number of BBSRC funded projects using crop transformation. Demonstrations of wheat tissue culture and the effect of takeall fungus infection on wheat roots provided an excellent visual demonstration of a project which uses genetic modification to tackle a disease in wheat for which there is no resistance which can be bred in traditionally. Other exhibits demonstrated our implementation of gene editing techniques and its use in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | NIAB Poster Day 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Practical demonstration of tissue culture using a number of contrasting crop species plus an overview of crop transformation projects at NIAB. Discussion with wider NIAB staff and visitors on how and why we make GM wheat crop plants using Takeall disease as an example of a project which could not be achieved without GM, plus our implementation of new technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Science on Sundays at the Botanic Garden Cambridge |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Science on Sundays informs the audience of the Botanic Garden Cambridge about plant-related research ongoing at Cambridge University. The audience is hugely diverse and the interaction has been engaging and enthusiastic. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | UEA/JIC MSc student visit (2016) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Practical demonstration and overview of our wheat, OSR and rice GM projects including the implementation and use of new developments such as gene editing in wheat and rice in relevant projects |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | University of Cambridge, Dept. of Plant Sciences student visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Oral presentation with exhibits of some of our wheat and rice GM projects for two groups of undergraduate plant science students from University of Cambridge. The students were able to see all of the tissue culture stages in the wheat transformation process from immature embryo to transgenic wheat plants. The takeall project was presented as an example of a project which uses genetic modification to tackle a disease in wheat for which there is no resistance which can be bred in traditionally. New developments such as CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing were discussed, and the rationale for its implementation in a number of wheat and rice projects. The students were interested and engaged with our team to discuss the technologies, the practical applications and the regulatory landscape. We subsequently received applications for summer placements. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |