Molecular characterisation of response to drought on a perennial species

A Ravagnani, L Skot & GM Jenkins

Drought is one of the environmental factors most affecting crop productivity and, therefore, a major challenge in sustainable agriculture. This is becoming increasingly important in view of climate changes that will lead to extremes of weather, such as longer and more severe drought and intense rainfall. Strategies to cope with water scarcity are different according to the plant life style. Most of our knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of the response to drought comes from studies carried out on annual species. In this project we propose to investigate the genetic control of this trait in white clover (Trifolium repens L.), a perennial and most important forage legume of temperate grassland systems. Limited natural variability for drought tolerance in white clover has hampered the success of classical breeding efforts. The proposed molecular approach will help identify key genes that could be used in genotype building programmes.

The proposed project is part of a larger ongoing work on drought tolerance in clover, therefore the student will benefit from a range of plant physiology/breeding (A. Marshall, M. Abberton) and molecular (L. Skøt , A. Ravagnani, G. Jenkins) expertise. He/she will be trained in a wide range of basic molecular techniques, as well as more specialised ones, such as SSH. The student will be also trained in the use of a variety of bioinformatics and genomics tools, with a particular emphasis on translational genomics for the transfer of information from model species, such as M. truncatula and L. japonicus, to crops. He/she will gain experience in plant physiology and phenotypic characterisation of response to drought in T. repens and M. truncatula. The project will allow considerable input from the student in the selection and analysis of candidate genes, and will produce a number of high impact publications.