Engineering Synthetic Gene Clusters and Genetic Syntax for Crop Protection

About the project

About the Project Plants have evolved a complex arsenal of mechanical and chemical defences to deter or harm herbivores and insect pests. These adaptations ensure survival by making the plant unpalatable, physically impenetrable, toxic, or difficult to digest. For example, Solanaceous plants produce acyl sugars in glandular trichomes that interfere with insect feeding. Other species produce pyrethroids or limonoids that impart toxicity or bitter tastes or upon leaf damage. Often these chemicals are not a single molecule, but an array of chemically similar compounds. However, we are only just beginning to understand the causes and consequences of metabolite structural diversity. In contrast, bitter and toxic protective compounds are rarely abundant in edible crop plants as their presence has been reduced by selective breeding. Insect pests are predominantly managed using broad-spectrum, chemically synthesised pesticides. In some cases, these have negative impacts on beneficial species, and on the ecosystems of agricultural soils and the waterways that they leach into. Further, up to 20 per cent of crops are still lost to insect pests and the pathogens they transmit and losses are predicted to increase by 10-25% for every 1°C increase in global mean surface temperature. Over the past decade, 'omics technologies have rapidly expanded our understanding of biosynthetic pathways, opening new avenues for novel crop protection products and strategies. However, progress remains constrained by difficulty in accessing bioactive compounds, technical challenges in controlling the spatial and temporal expression of complex pathways, and an incomplete understanding of how metabolic complexity influences efficacy. This project aims to overcome these limitations by applying constructive, synthetic biology approaches. The goals are to develop suites of synthetic regulators with cell-type specific and/or condition responsive functions; to optimise synthetic gene clusters using emerging evidence about the important of genetic syntax in multi-gene constructs; to investigate synthetic split systems for rapid production of defence compounds. Depending on the interests and skills of the student, there is also the potential to use protein design to explore the production and utility of natural and novel metabolic variants. This student will be based in the Plant Molecular Engineering Group led by Dr Nicola Patron in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. Work will be done in collaboration with the Lichman Lab at the University of York. Applicants are expected to have (or shortly obtain) a good degree in biological sciences, molecular biology or biochemistry. The student will be trained in a range of bioinformatic, molecular biology, synthetic biology, biochemistry and analytical chemistry techniques. In addition, they will gain professional skills in areas such as project management, writing and presenting. Interested applicants should email Dr. Patron ( njp56@cam.ac.uk ) a one-page CV and a one-page personal statement outlining their research interests, experience and skills. Please use the email subject ‘Gatsby Application 2027’. One applicant will be selected from the primary stage and mentored to apply to the final competitive selection stage.

Research areas