Brief project overview:
Understanding plant development and responses to the environment is key for improving crop yields and ensuring food and fuel for the future. Many crop species have evolved adaptations that make them more tolerant against abiotic stresses, such as drought, flooding and soil salinity. One of these adaptations is the exodermis, a water- and air-proofed cell layer in the root that protects the root from drying and drowning. Although the importance of the exodermis for crop yield has been shown, development of it is not understood at the molecular level, partly because it's absent in the root model species Arabidopsis. We aim to elucidate the mechanisms involved in exodermal development and drought responses in tomato. To achieve this, novel tools are combined in an efficient way to study root development of a crop species in a short timeframe. Tools used for this project can include bioinformatic analyses of new cell type-specific datasets, rapid hairy root cultures, genome editing by CRISPR/Cas9, ectopic expression constructs, plate-based water deficit treatments, ChIP-seq, qRT-PCR, and confocal microscopy.
The core tasks will include:
carrying out the research outlined above; (co-)supervising PhD and MSc students; communicating the research to wide audiences (scientific, industry, general public) through publications, conference presentations and outreach activities.