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Project properties |
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| Title | Exploring the origin and evolution of desiccation tolerance using comparative transcriptomics |
| Group | Plant Physiology, Laboratory of |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Asif Ahmed Sami, Harm Nijveen |
| Examiner(s) | Mariana Silva Artur, Harm Nijveen |
| Contact info | asif.ahmedsami@wur.nl AND thesis.PPH@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/09/01 |
| End date | 2024/03/01 |
| Description | Desiccation tolerance (DT) is the capacity of cells to withstand extreme dehydration, i.e., losses of up to 90% of cellular water without incurring irreversible damage (Oliver et al., 2020). During the evolutionary history of plants, DT played a decisive role in plant terrestrialization. Despite its early origin, DT followed a complex evolutionary trajectory whereby it was lost from vegetative tissues of most plants and became mostly restricted to spores, pollens, and orthodox seeds (Costa et al., 2017; Leprince et al., 2017). Only a small number of plants (termed resurrection plants) exhibit DT throughout their whole body (Marks et al., 2021).
In this project, the student is expected to perform comparative transcriptomics using RNA-seq data from over 15 species during desiccation stress. These species are spread throughout the evolutionary tree including representatives from algae, bryophytes, ferns, angiosperm orthodox seeds, and resurrection plants. The aim is to identify – • What part of the DT gene regulatory network has been conserver over evolution? • Why DT was lost in most tissues? How drought tolerance differs from DT on a transcriptomic level? • Are the mechanisms implemented during recovery from a desiccated state similar to the early stages of seed germination, i.e., imbibition? Background reading: 1. Costa, M.-C. D., Cooper, K., Hilhorst, H. W. M., & Farrant, J. M. (2017). Orthodox Seeds and Resurrection Plants: Two of a Kind? Plant Physiology, 175(2), 589–599. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.17.00760 2. Leprince, O., Pellizzaro, A., Berriri, S., & Buitink, J. (2017). Late seed maturation: Drying without dying. Journal of Experimental Botany, 68(4), 827–841. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erw363 3. Marks, R. A., Farrant, J. M., Nicholas McLetchie, D., & VanBuren, R. (2021). Unexplored dimensions of variability in vegetative desiccation tolerance. American Journal of Botany, 108(2), 346–358. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1588 4. Oliver, M. J., Farrant, J. M., Hilhorst, H. W. M., Mundree, S., Williams, B., & Bewley, J. D. (2020). Desiccation Tolerance: Avoiding Cellular Damage during Drying and Rehydration. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 71, 435–460. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-071219-105542 If you are interested in this project please contact the supervisor via email with a copy to thesis.PPH@wur.nl with: 1. Your motivation for choosing this project 2. For which purpose (BSc or MSc thesis, research practice, etc) 3. Your BSc/MSc program 4. When you would like to start Please be aware that if you do not provide the required information above it may cause a delay in our reply. |
| Used skills | Data analysis in R or Python
RNA-seq analysis Network inference |
| Requirements | Bioinformatics skills (e.g. BIF-30806 Advanced Bioinformatics, SSB-30306 Molecular Systems Biology or relevant course) and basic knowledge of plant physiology |