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Modelling Interactions: understanding how the environment influences plant development

Reference	BBS/E/J/000C0661
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Veronica Grieneisen
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	133,695
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2012
End date	31/03/2017
Duration	59 months

Abstract

The main aim of this project is to link insights on developmental programmes to the growing knowledge on how the environment can influence plant response through pathogens, micro-organisms and nutrients in the soil. We will integrate current hypotheses on plant-microbial, plant-insect, and plant-soil interactions within mathematical and computational frameworks, to better understand the developmental plasticity of plants and how it can be influenced and guided by external factors. In particular, we aim to unravel how external agents can influence responses at the cellular level, such as cell polarity, and how this, in its turn, can elicit responses at the tissue level, such as nodulation. Our hypothesis is that important signalling components in plants, such as auxin and cytokinin, are being modulated during such interactions. Our multi-level modelling approach strives to integrate the regulatory networks involved in such responses with intracellular patterning mechanisms, cell-cell communication (such as polar auxin transport, biophysical interactions, cell wall communication and symplastic transport) and tissue modifications. In this way we wish to move to a higher-level understanding of the immense plasticity in development when plants interact with the environment. It will help us developing methods to let the plant perform better during such interactions. An important concept that underlies this in silico integration is that multi-level feedbacks are in fact causing the adaptive responses to the environment, and therefore, need to be approached through quantitative and qualitative descriptions. Our research involves close collaboration with several experimental groups within the BIO ISP.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Plant Science, Soil Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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