Epigenetic control in plants: surviving a changing environment

V Brukhin, MJ Wilkinson, GW Griffith & J Warren

The aim of the project is to characterize the relative importance of and crosstalk between C-methylation and histone monoubiquitination in exercising system control in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and commercial crop Theobroma cacao (for which we have a range of candidate regulatory orthologues, germplasm and characterised diseases and control systems). Emphasis will focus on plastic traits for which we have orthologues for both species (stomatal development), on the stages of plant development flanking the meiotic sweep of methylation (e.g. flowering versus embryo development) and on the response to disease (Phytophthora). This work will provide new insight into the ability of a plant to respond to external stimuli and will identify which features are heritable. The student will receive training in conventional and cutting edge technology used for the detection of DNA methylation and genetic variation (PCR, RT-PCR, northern analysis bisulfide sequencing, methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme analysis, and High Resolution Melt analysis).