Award details

Evolution

Reference	BBS/E/J/000PR9798
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr James Brown
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Saskia Hogenhout, Professor Jonathan Jones, Professor Sophien Kamoun, Dr Jacob Malone, Professor Richard Morris, Professor Paul Nicholson, Professor Diane Saunders, Professor Nicholas Talbot
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	3,836,379
Status	Current
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2017
End date	31/03/2023
Duration	59 months

Abstract

The close association between plants and other organisms drives the evolution of antagonistic traits in host-parasite interactions and of mutually beneficial traits in symbioses. Research at all levels of biological organisation of these interactions is increasing our knowledge of evolutionary processes in plants and associated organisms and thus our ability to manipulate them to benefit stable food production. JIC, TSL and TGAC have made major contributions to progress in this area in the Biotic Interactions ISP. We have used high-throughput technologies to accelerate discoveries about the diversity of genes involved in recognition and adaptation and the structure and evolution of genomes of plants, pests and microbes. We have been at the forefront of research that has produced detailed knowledge about the structural basis of recognition, which increasingly provides a strong foundation for understanding the molecular evolution of specific plant biotic interactions. Our work on dissection of signalling pathways is leading to opportunities to understand the evolutionary relationship of different processes involved in plant-microbe interactions. We have led developments in pathogen genomics and transcriptomics, which have revolutionised our capacity to research large populations of plant pathogens and are giving us unprecedented power to understand the evolutionary forces that shape them. Our theoretical research allows us to increasingly understand which ecological processes maintain balanced polymorphism in coevolving hosts and parasites on the one hand or, as is often the case in agriculture, fuel co-evolutionary arms races. These breakthroughs provide the foundation for the next phase of advances in understanding the co-evolution of plants and associated organisms. We will focus on key topics in research on biological molecules, organisms, populations and communities - our combined expertise will make novel contributions to science and high strategic impact to agriculture in the UK, developing countries and elsewhere. We will exploit scientific and technical advances, particularly in high-throughput technologies, to understand the evolution of effectors that interact with host plants and to identify the processes that shape the evolution and coevolution of molecules at the interface of interactions between plants and other organisms. At the organism level, we will dissect signalling and defence pathways involved in parasitic and symbiotic interactions with the aim of understanding the evolutionary implications of the complex processes involved in plants’ interactions with the environment. We will research the evolutionary forces that shape parasite and plant populations, focussing on the adaptation of populations of important fungal pathogens to methods of crop management including resistant varieties and fungicides, and on the adaptation of plant defence mechanisms to environmental conditions related to global climate change. Our programme of work in this theme will take an innovative direction by building on previous advances in our research to understand the evolutionary dynamics of communities of organisms associated with plants, including soil microflora and multiple pests and parasites, and the interaction of these communities with plant genetic variations.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Microbiology, Plant 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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