About me

I am currently a second year PhD student in Warwick Systems Biology Centre, based in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, UK. Before starting my PhD I worked for a year as a Genotype Analyst at RAGT Seeds Ltd, a cereal breeding company based near Cambridge, UK. Prior to this, I completed my BSc in Biology at the University of York, UK and my MSc in Analytical Genomics at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Supervisors

I am supervised by Professor Vicky Buchanan-Wollaston and Professor David Kreil, both at the University of Warwick, UK.

Thesis title

Systems Analysis of Stress Tolerance in Brassica: Translation from Arabidopsis

Research overview

Introduction

Plants suffer many stresses in the field and due to their immobility they are unable to move away from their environment, so in order to survive and grow, plants must alter their gene expression to escape, tolerate or avoid stress . It is often difficult to predict the combinations of gene networks that are activated when a plant is under stress, due to extensive cross talk between various signalling pathways ^{1, 2, 3}. Thus far, many stress response gene networks and genes that control these networks have been identified in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (see PRESTA). Although these networks are still far from being understood in Arabidopsis, it is unclear how these networks will be applicable to crop plants.

Project Aims

The aim of my project is to carry out a systems analysis of stress tolerance in Brassica oleracea, a vegetable crop that is grown globally. I will be taking advantage of emerging sequencing technologies (RNAseq) and also microarrays to profile gene expression in plants under stress to try to understand the key genes that are controlling the response to stress. The B. oleracea genome is yet to be released, so RNAseq is an excellent approach for gathering information on a global scale from a non-model organism.

References and interesting papers

1. Seki, M. et al. Monitoring the expression profiles of 7000 Arabidopsis genes under drought, cold and high-salinity stresses using a full-length cDNA microarray. The Plant Journal 31, 279–292 (2002).

2. Shinozaki, K., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K. & Seki, M. Regulatory network of gene expression in the drought and cold stress responses. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 6, 410–417 (2003).

3. Xiao, J. et al. Rice WRKY13 Regulates Crosstalk between Abiotic and Biotic Stress Signaling Pathways by Selective Binding to Different cis-Elements. Plant Physiology (2013). doi:10.1104/pp.113.226019

christine.hicks@warwick.ac.uk