Understanding variation in plant traits in response to a changing environment

In this theme we are developing our understanding of how changes in temperature influence plant and crop development.

We are exploring how plants perceive temperature and how this influences important developmental processes to allow plants to grow and develop in alignment with the seasonal variation that takes place.

We will identify genes and processes which are important in yield formation such as flowering time, pollen, fruit and seed development. We use model plants such as Arabidopsis as well as major field crops such as vegetable Brassicas, oilseed rape and wheat.

We are also investigating why certain processes within plants, such as cell division to create the sex cells, are intolerant of extreme temperature and where evolution has overcome this to give more tolerant plants.

This research will allow us to consider introducing new mechanisms of temperature tolerance into the crops of the future to allow them to cope better with new weather patterns brought about by climate change.

Selected publications from ‘Understanding variation in plant traits’

2021

• In vivo RNA structurome reveals RNA-structure regulation of mRNA processing in plants
• Total FLC transcript dynamics from divergent paralogue expression explains flowering diversity in Brassica napus
• Antagonistic activities of cotranscriptional regulators within an early developmental window set FLC expression level

2020

• Temperature dependent growth contributes to long-term cold sensing – Zhao et al
• RNA G-quadruplex structures exist and function in vivo in plants – Yang et al
• The circadian clock influences the long-term water use efficiency of Arabidopsis Simon et al
• QTL—seq identifies BNAFT.A02 and BnaFLC.A02 as candidates for variation in vernalization requirement and response in winter oilseed rape – Tudor et al

2019

• VERNALIZATION1 controls developmental responses of winter wheat under high ambient temperatures – Dixon et al
• Vernalization and Floral Transition in Autumn Drive Winter Annual Life History in Oilseed Rape – O’Neill et al
• Circadian regulation of the plant transcriptome under natural conditions – Panter et al
• Dmc1 is a candidate for temperature tolerance during wheat meiosis – Draeger et al
• G-quadruplex structures trigger RNA phase separation – Zhang et al

2018

• Absence of warmth permits epigenetic memory of winter in Arabidopsis – Hepworth et al
• Temperature Modulates Tissue-Specification Program to Control Fruit Dehiscence in Brassicaceae – Li et al
• Temperature sensing is distributed throughout the regulatory network that controls FLC epigenetic silencing in vernalization – Antoniou-Kourounioti et al.
• Spatio-temporal expression dynamics differ between homologues of flowering time genes in the allopolyploid Brassica napus – Jones DM, et al