April Hastwell

Peptide regulation of plant-microbe interactions in legumes

Legumes are capable of forming beneficial symbioses with bacteria and fungal microbes within the soil, however, they are also at risk from harmful microbial pathogens. While the beneficial symbioses allow the plant to uptake valuable nutrients, reducing the amount of agricultural inputs, pathogenic organisms significantly impact the plant fitness and untimely yield. When the plant and a microbe interact, there are numerous plant signalling pathways that are activated to enable or prevent the interaction from occurring. Many small signalling proteins, known as peptides, are at the centre of these interactions. These peptides are small, mobile signals and often contain complex post-translational modifications to enable important messages to be relayed across cells and organs.

Aspects of this project will use bioinformatics, molecular biology, microbiology and plant physiology to help understand how groups of different signalling peptides are involved and how they help control plant-microbe interactions.