Future threats to crop protection: the role of mixed Pectobacterium infections in disease risk.
Supervisors:
Leighton Pritchard, Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde
Ashleigh Holmes, The James Hutton Institute
Sonia Humphris, The James Hutton Institute
Summary:
This exciting cross-disciplinary project between the University of Strathclyde and the James Hutton Institute in computational and biological research aims to determine the future threat of mixed species infection in the globally important crop, potato. Blackleg disease, caused by Pectobacterium spp., causes significant problems to the potato industry from farm to fork. Most infections are attributed to a single Pectobacterium species but modern sequencing approaches show that mixed infections are commonplace. Diseases caused by mixed infections can often be more severe and less is understood about the mechanisms involved. This project aims to understand the mechanisms involved in a mixed Pectobacterium infection in potato and determine if the risks are increased in the context of a changing climate, impacting food security.
Using a combination of computational and biological techniques, with access to state-of-the-art laboratories for microbiology and confocal microscopy; controlled-environment facilities and extensive glasshouses for plant experiments; the Crop Diversity High Performance Cluster (HPC) for ‘big-data’ storage and analysis, this project will provide training in:
- Computational biology including bioinformatics, genomics and statistics.
- Microbiology, molecular biology and plant pathology.
- Communication and knowledge exchange.