Defining a new paradigm in plant temperature sensing

Understanding how plants detect and respond to changes in ambient temperature is essential for developing new crops that are resilient to the changing climate. In the past few years, some of these “thermometers” have been identified, with our lab being particularly interested in a temperature ‘sensing’ protein we discovered. This protein is conserved across crop species of agricultural importance, indicating that it could be a promising target for future plant breeding efforts. In this project, the student will first investigate how growth traits (length of stem and root, fresh and dry biomass) are impacted by warm temperatures in the model plant Arabidopsis. They will then compare how these physiological responses change in a transgenic line that overexpresses the thermometer. In parallel, the student will learn how to extract RNA, synthesise cDNA and perform qPCR to determine how the expression levels of the temperature sensor impact the expression of genes induced by warm temperatures. There may also be an opportunity for the student to use confocal microscopy to start investigating the cellular dynamics of temperature sensing in plants. Students will need to find their own accommodation and be expected to present their findings orally at a research day in York on 08th September 2026.

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