Sustainable Agriculture and Food

Sustainable Agriculture and Food is one of BBSRC’s key strategic research priorities and work funded in this area contributes towards the UK’s multi-agency Global Food Security programme.

MIBTP has 18 studentships each year earmarked for research projects in this area. Sustainable Agriculture and Food is defined broadly as bioscience addressing the challenge to produce and supply enough safe and nutritious food in a sustainable way for a growing global population in the context of global climate change, other environmental changes and declining resources. MIBTP has particular research expertise in the priority areas of Plant and Crop Science, Animal Health, Soil Science, Agri-systems, and Microbial food safety.

Our Topics

Animal Health and Welfare Microbial Food Safety Plant and Crop Science

Animal Health and Welfare

Research considered relevant to Animal Health includes all aspects of diseases of farmed, lab and companion animals; diseases of wild animals which can transmit to farmed, lab and companion animals (and where the possibility of transmission is included in the application); overseas diseases that could spread to UK livestock.

Research considered relevant to Animal Welfare includes dedicated research that aims to improve the conditions and management of farmed, laboratory*, companion and other managed animals (e.g. zoo animals) through improvement to procedures and husbandry which minimise pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm.

Current Projects

Aston Birmingham

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
A Path from Understanding to Engineering and Deploying Predatory Adhesins Against Superbugs	Professor Andrew Lovering

Coventry Harper Adams

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
A Non-invasive Method to Monitor Status of Johne’s Disease in Dairy Cattle	Dr Tharangani Herath
Improving the Welfare of Farmed Fish by Personality and Physiological Profiling in Aquaculture Settings	Dr Tharangani Herath
Improving Welfare of Salmonids: Impact of Stress on Behaviour and Host-Pathogen Dynamics During Early Life Stages	Dr Tharangani Herath
Reducing Lamb Mortality by Enhancing Placental Efficiency	Dr Claire Kershaw
Sainfoin as an alternative legume forage to support livestock health, biodiversity, and reduced emissions	Dr Nicky Randall

Leicester

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Beyond known characteristics: Moonlighting activity of natural products	Dr Christian Jenul
Self Control: Regulating Expression of Essential Protein Kinases in Mycobacteria	Professor Galina Mukamolova
Establishing black soldier flies as an efficient biodegrading agent	Professor Ezio Rosato
Dynamics of Multispecies Interactions within Polymicrobial Infections: A one Health Perspective	Dr Katrin Schilcher

Warwick

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Mechanisms of dynein-mediated transport of Marek’s Disease Virus	Professor Anne Straube
Functional and structural characterisation of glycosyltransferases involved in protein mannosylation	Dr Manuela Tosin
Investigating functions of the staphylococcal type VII secretion systems	Professor Meera Unnikrishnan
Studying the role of clocks in infection	Professor Meera Unnikrishnan
Modelling the spread and control of livestock and zoonotic infectious diseases	Professor Mike Tildesley

Diseases include infestations by “pests”, i.e. internal (helminth) or external (arthropod) parasites, as well as infections by viral, bacterial, protozoal or fungal pathogens. Farmed animals include: livestock, poultry, fish and bees; Studies of vertebrate or invertebrate wildlife reservoirs or vectors of infection are only included if they focus on the role of wild animals in the transmission to and/or maintenance of disease in the target farmed species, and not on the nature or incidence of disease in the wildlife host per se.

The following disease types are included:

TSEs (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies) research. Diseases include BSE and Scrapie. Includes research on yeast prions.
Endemic Diseases representing a constant presence of disease or infectious agent within a given geographical area and/or population group. Includes research on: tuberculosis, Marek’s disease, mastitis (including research on Staphylococcus aureusand Streptococcus uberis) and coronavirus.
Exotic Diseases not native to a given area or population. Includes Bluetongue, avian flu, foot and mouth, and African swine fever.
Food-borne Zoonoses - diseases that affect animals, which can be transmitted to humans through the food chain. Research includes food-borne bacteria and viruses, notably the pathogenicity of Campylobacter, Escherichia and Salmonella, where studies are at the animal level. It includes food-borne and other infectious diseases of zoonotic origin with implications for public health that are carried by farmed animals, but do not necessarily have a significant impact on animal health.
Parasitic Diseases resulting from a number of microbial protozoan pathogens, including Leishmania, Eimeria, Toxoplasma, and Cryptosporidia and larger helminths, including nematodes.
Non-transmissible diseases – physiological or metabolic diseases such as cancer in animals, metabolic disorders, immune disorders and reproductive disorders.
Research relating to animal welfare where the focus is a welfare-related disease, such as lameness or mastitis
Research on farmed animals that does not specifically relate to disease, such as: genetics and genomics of farmed animals; basic immunology of farmed animals; research into reproduction of farmed animals

Relevant animal welfare research includes:

The basic behavioural, neurobiological, immune, metabolic, physiological and tissue responses of animals to their environmental conditions
The consequences of human intervention, genetic selection and management for the normal function of animals
The incidence and alleviation of disease, pain and mental disorders
Measures of welfare, including developing and validating new measures
Welfare related health/disease (e.g. foot rot, lameness, mastitis, postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome)
Housing, husbandry and environmental impacts on welfare
Relevant behaviour, cognition and perception
Pain and nociception
The impact of early life challenges on development and long term health and welfare
The influence of production traits on animal welfare.

Microbial Food Safety

Microbial Food Safety describes the production, transportation, handling, preparation, storage and consumption of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. Also includes contamination of food with microbial toxins.

Current Projects

Aston Birmingham

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
A Path from Understanding to Engineering and Deploying Predatory Adhesins Against Superbugs	Professor Andrew Lovering
Understanding antibiotic resistance mechanisms in the world's pathogen of most concern: Acinetobacter baumannii	Professor David Grainger
Understanding how pandemic microbes evolve: Vibrio cholerae and the human disease cholera	Professor David Grainger
Development of Rapid Assays for Nucleic Acid-based Disease Targets	Professor James Tucker

Coventry Harper Adams

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
A Non-invasive Method to Monitor Status of Johne’s Disease in Dairy Cattle	Dr Tharangani Herath
Improving Welfare of Salmonids: Impact of Stress on Behaviour and Host-Pathogen Dynamics During Early Life Stages	Dr Tharangani Herath

Leicester

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Impact of Hypermutability and Restriction-Modification by Campylobacter jejuni, a foodborne pathogen, on Bacteriophage Control Measures	Professor Martha Clokie

Warwick

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Genomics-driven exploitation of aphid-killing bacteria as a source of novel biopesticides	Dr Mojgan Rabiey
Development of effective phage cocktails for precise crop protection measures	Dr Mojgan Rabiey

Includes:

Research relating to microorganisms that potentially cause illness in humans via the contamination of food sources (food poisoning). Relevant microorganisms include: Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella, Listeria Clostridium, entero-hemorrhagic bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7 (EHEC, ETEC, VTEC, etc.), enteric viruses. Research should include that where the emphasis is on the interaction of the microbe with the human or farmed animal host.
Research relating to fungal contamination of grain and other foods with mycotoxins (e.g. ergot, aflatoxins), or contamination of foods with bacterial toxins.
Processing of food to inactivate/delay growth of microbial components, e.g. pasteurisation and sterilisation. Food preservation, storage and handling methods to prevent unwanted microbial growth and spoilage (e.g. salting, chilling, freezing, desiccation) – including products that are modified by desirable microbes (cheese, yoghurt, etc.).
Monitoring of the food supply chain to allow traceability of microbial contamination; development of methods for detection of specific microbes or their toxins.
Microbial safety relating to specific diets, for example, baby foods, maternal diet.

Plant and Crop Science

Crop plants are defined as plants (including algae and cultivated mushrooms) grown to be harvested as food (cereals, vegetables, oils), livestock fodder, or for any other economic purpose. Such purposes include: use of trees for wood and paper production; extraction of non- food plant oils; use as materials (e.g. cotton); use for extraction of bio-pharmaceuticals; production of energy crops (such as for biofuels).

Current Projects

Aston Birmingham

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Understanding plant development and evolution in the context of environmental responses.	Dr Juliet Coates
Manipulating meiotic recombination in crop species	Dr Eugenio Sanchez-Moran
Build or destroy? Investigating how plants connect protein synthesis and degradation during mRNA translation to regulate protein quality	Professor Daniel Gibbs
Iron-ing out a role for the Endoplasmic Reticulum in plant metal homeostasis	Professor Daniel Gibbs
Understanding genetic mechanisms of complex traits to improve potato breeding	Dr Lindsey Compton
Exploiting silenced genes to improve wheat breeding	Dr Marco Catoni
Optimising nitrogen-fixing potential of British-grown lentil	Dr Oluwaseyi Shorinola
Quantifying the impact of photorespiration on the photosynthetic carbon uptake of plants	Dr Florian Busch
Nanoscale Innovation for Enhancing Crop Plant Immunity to Climate Stress (NanoCrop)	Dr Peng Zhang
Development of Rapid Assays for Nucleic Acid-based Disease Targets	Professor James Tucker

Coventry Harper Adams

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Improving knowledge of cabbage stem flea beetle biology as a basis for sustainable pest management	Dr Tom Pope
SMART-VW: Sustainable Monitoring and Advanced Recognition Technology for Vine Weevil Management	Dr Joe Roberts
The Impact of Regenerative Agriculture on Above-Belowground Interactions on Crop Productivity	Dr Simon Jeffery
Assessing the impact of modified transient carbohydrate accumulation on agronomic traits of wheat via gene alteration	Dr Alex Watson-Lazowski
Optimising Cover Crop Strategies for Integrated Pest Management of Wireworm	Dr Ben Clunie
Enhancing the Efficacy of Entomopathogenic Control Solutions with Essential Oils for Insect Pest Management	Dr Ben Clunie
The Plant-Insect-Fungi Interaction: exploring the dynamic relationship between plant host, insect and entomopathogenic fungi biopesticide efficacy	Dr Laura Vickers
Strip cropping, autonomous vehicles and regenerative agriculture. Can crop productivity and resilience be improved through combining technology with traditional techniques?	Dr Nicky Randall
The potential of waste wool as a soil amendment to improve plant productivity and agricultural resilience	Dr Nicky Randall
Sainfoin as an alternative legume forage to support livestock health, biodiversity, and reduced emissions	Dr Nicky Randall

Leicester

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Engineering meiotic resilience to climate change in plants	Professor James Higgins
Beyond known characteristics: Moonlighting activity of natural products	Dr Christian Jenul

Warwick

Project Title	Primary Supervisor
Determining how phosphorylation drives functional protein interactions	Professor Alex Jones
Discovery of new bioactive molecules for use in crop protection	Dr Fabrizio Alberti
Integration of environmental signals in plants	Professor George Bassel
3D Organ design in plants	Professor George Bassel
Mapping 3D communication networks in plants	Professor George Bassel
Improving Plant Establishment in Bambara Groundnut Using CRISPR/Cas9	Professor George Bassel
Assessment and engineering of the Brassica self-incompatibility locus to enhance seed production	Dr Graham Teakle
Inheritance of chromatin marks during cell replication in plants	Professor Jose Gutierrez-Marcos
Spatiotemporal control of axillary meristem formation in wheat	Professor Jose Gutierrez-Marcos
Mechanisms controlling transgenerational stress memories in plants	Professor Jose Gutierrez-Marcos
Clock-watchER: Circadian coordination of the plant endoplasmic reticulum	Professor Lorenzo Frigerio, Professor Isabelle Carre
Genomics-driven exploitation of aphid-killing bacteria as a source of novel biopesticides	Dr Mojgan Rabiey
Development of effective phage cocktails for precise crop protection measures	Dr Mojgan Rabiey
Smart pathogens; deploying metabolic decoys to suppress plant immunity	Professor Murray Grant
Dissecting unexpected synergism and antagonism in plant disease resistance signalling	Professor Murray Grant
NITRO DIALOGUE – Interactions between nitrogen fixers and nitrifiers and their impact of agricultural soil emissions	Dr Ryan Mushinski
Epigenetic regulation of plant immunity	Professor Vardis Ntoukakis
Unravelling the Regulatory Mechanisms of Effector-Triggered Immunity for Durable Plant Resistance	Professor Vardis Ntoukakis

This topic includes:

All research involving crop plants or crop plant cells, including managed grass/clover/pasture and grazing crops
Crop breeding, including by genetic modification
Study of diseases (viral, bacterial or fungal) and invertebrate pests of direct relevance to crops, including studies of crop pests and pathogens not directly involving the crop (e.g. combating resistance of insect pests to insecticides, or the study of crop pathogens on model plants or in isolation)
Influences of the environment on crop plants (e.g. climate change, drought)
Soil-crop interactions and studies on the rhizosphere that directly involve crop plants
Pharming – use of crop plants to produce biopharmaceuticals
Studies on pollinators only where direct interaction with a crop is being studied

Useful Links

BBSRC strategic plan BBSRC's Food Security News Global Food Security University of Warwick's Global Priorities Programme: Food Security Warwick's £5m boost for global food security research

Research Departments

Our Topics

Animal Health and Welfare

Current Projects

Microbial Food Safety

Current Projects

Plant and Crop Science

Current Projects

Useful Links

Research Departments

Aston University

University of Birmingham

Harper Adams University

University of Leicester

University of Warwick