Background: Global warming is undeniably one of the biggest threats that can affect our ability to produce food.
Currently it is estimated that for each 1°C temperature elevation results in 5% yield lost to farmers.
In general, temperature responses are associated with epigenetic changes, including genome wide decreases in DNA methylation which may affect chromosome structure and thereby, meiosis, pollen fertility and flowering time.
Our previous work has shown that a moderate heat stress can positively affect meiosis (Philips et al, 2015), but similarly to Callens et al (2022) we observed that the timing of the heat stress during meiosis is crucial and can lead to moderate to severe effects on fertility.
In fact, our recent data have shown that the transition from pre meiotic to meiotic anther stages is particularly susceptible to heat stress which coincides with gene expression and chromatin organization, and methylation (eg.
HSP90, .
In addition, our barley anther transcriptome and proteome analysis revealed that the Argonaute gene/protein family, which are known to be involved in DNA methylation pathway (Borges and Martienssen, 2015), was particularly dynamic in early meiosis during this transition (Barakate et al, 2021; Lewandowska et al.
2021).
Finaly, we have found that the fertility of semi-sterile mutants involved in early meiosis (HvDMC1, HvXRCC2) can be fully rescued by growth at 28°C, and that crossovers were rescued in HvDMC1.
All together suggests that the temperature sensitivity of early meiosis can be fine-tuned to increase climate resilience in barley varieties used for plant breeding.
However, the mechanisms regulating fertility and meiosis in different temperatures remain poorly understood. Aims/Objectives:1) Dissect the molecular mechanisms required to mitigate the impact of heat in recombination and barley fertility, and identify the mechanisms underlying temperature-triggered fertility/recombination rescue. 2) We will test whether temperature-dependent epigenetic reprogramming through changes in DNA methylation in different temperature conditions can explain the increased tolerance in Barley mutants. The EastBio partnership offers fully-funded competition based studentships.
Funding covers Home (UK fees), a stipend at UKRI norm level (£19,327 for 2024/2025) and project costs.
Application guidance can be found on the Eastbio website; How to Apply ¦ Biology.
Information on UKRI-BBSRC can be found on the UKRI website UKRI – UK Research and Innovation