Protecting future food supplies. Growing the next generation of plant pathologists.
Matilda worked with Luca Steel at Rothamsted Research, studying the wheat leaf disease, Zymoseptoria tritici. Investigating genes used by this fungus to overcome plant defences, using molecular methods to build plasmids for gene complementation experiments.
Tegan worked with Helen Fones at the University of Exeter, exploring how a fungus causes wheat disease. The particular fungal disease she was working on (Zymoseptoria tritici) may form biofilms during infection on wheat plants. Studying these biofilms using microscopy and molecular analysis helped Tegan to reveal more about the fungus.
Bemi worked with Chinthani Karandeni Dewage and Dr Yongju Huan at the University of Hertfordshire, investigating the effectiveness of fungicides in treating disease, for oilseed rape crops.
Jacob worked with Philip Carella at the John Innes Centre. Investigating a bacterial-cereal plant interaction to understand what causes plant disease.
Max worked with Kim Hammond-Kosack at Rothamsted Research. Investigating plant cell wall components and how they are impacted by Fusarium head blight infection.
Amber worked with Martin Darino at Rothamsted Research, using as a tool to detect . Investigating which parts of the plants are targeted during a fungal infection.
Alex worked with Ciara Keating at University of Glasgow, using coding and software analysis of the Pectobacterium genome as a tool to predict characteristics traits for disease on potato.
Christabel worked with Mariana Schuster at the University of Oxford, using Agrobacterium tumeficiens as a tool to investigate plant immune responses in tobacco. Her project focussed on the proteolysis of immune effectors in plants – exploring how plant proteins can be targeted.
Jade worked with Wanxin Chen at Rothamsted Research, exploring a fungus that stays in the soil and infects the roots, causing a disease called “Take All of Wheat”.
Mariam worked with Lida Derevnina at the University of Cambridge, using bioinformatics tools and Python scripts, PCR, Golden Gate cloning, E. coli transformation and RNA extraction to reveal key molecules used by nematodes when they infect plants.
Tanicha worked with Pietro Spanu at Imperial College London, exploring Fusarium wilt of coffee. Observing the fungus growing on agar plates, to look for hyphal fusions – where fungi connect and genetic material might be passed from one to another.
