About the project
This project aims to understand how the rapid domestication and breeding of plant crop species influences nutrient allocation to nectar and pollen. We will use multidisciplinary techniques including transcriptomics, HPLC/LCMS, and behavioural approaches to understand how changes in available nutrients in nectar and pollen may impact pollinators and pollination success.
Nectar and pollen are critical currency in the success or failure of pollination, yet how plants allocate nutrients to these processes is little understood. An essential part of securing food is the pollination of crops. Animal-assisted pollination is responsible for securing 75% of crop species across the globe. Bees have co-evolved with angiosperms for over 120 million years, yet in only 10,000 years, humans have rapidly selected for a range of size, shape, colour, and taste traits in our crops. How this selection has influenced the nutrients allocated to nectar and pollen is understudied but represents a future breeding target for increasing yield.
Three approaches will be applied to understand the impact of rapid domestication and breeding on nutrient allocation to plant reproductive processes:
- Explore the differences in the transcriptome in the development of nectaries/nectar and pollen between progenitor species and their domesticated lineages.
- Using liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC/MS), in collaboration with The Jodrell Laboratory at The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the nutrients in pollen and nectar will be quantified.
- Understanding what the changes in nutrient profiles in domesticated crops/cultivars mean for pollinators regarding their nutrient requirements, behaviour, and physiology.
This studentship is fully funded by The School of Biological Sciences. It will give a self-motivated and talented student the opportunity to join a new lab in the Plants and Food Security Group. They will be supported by a school with world-class research facilities and an environment focused on cutting-edge research.
