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Project properties |
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| Title | Sodium accumulation and salt tolerance in Lettuce |
| Group | Plant Physiology, Laboratory of |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 30-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Silvia Bugallo |
| Examiner(s) | Prof. Dr. Christa Testerink |
| Contact info | Silvia.bugalloalfageme@wur.nl, thesis.PPH@wur.nl
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| Begin date | 2025/04/01 |
| End date | 2025/11/01 |
| Description | Plants under salt stress suffer severe changes to their nutrient uptake, which alters their nutrient composition. While some ions are taken up more due to their higher availability, other ions are less so due to higher competition with other ions
To gain an understanding of how these changes impact salt tolerance in lettuce, this project has two different approaches: observing the natural variation within Lactuca, and studying sodium transporter mutants in L. sativa. In this project, we will utilize a new methodology – XRF Spectrometry – to measure the plant’s ion composition changes under salt stress. By observing the natural variation in ion composition of accessions of lettuce (L. sativa) as well as its close relative (L. serriola) under salt stress, this project will determine the salt tolerance responses and potential strategies within the genus. Additionally, to unveil the role of sodium transport and accumulation on plant salt stress tolerance; knockout and overexpressing lines of sodium transporters in L. sativa will be phenotyped, paying close attention to their root and shoot development as well as their sodium accumulation. Flexible start/end date |
| Used skills | Working in sterile conditions, growing plants in hydroponics, use of XRF technology, plant phenotyping, statistics to analyse results. |
| Requirements | Interest and understanding of plant physiology, fulfilled plant-related thesis pre-requisite |