̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Uta Paszkowski

Eight Cambridge researchers elected as members of the European Molecular Biology Organisation

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:00:56 +0000

EMBO Membership honours distinguished scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the life sciences, including 88 Nobel Laureates. It is an international organisation of life scientists, which has more than 1800 members elected by peers.

̽��ֱ��newly elected Cambridge researchers are:

Professor Bertie Göttgens, Professor of Molecular Haematology, Deputy Director of the Wellcome MRC Stem Cell Institute, and a member of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Centre Haematological Malignancies Programme. Bertie’s research group studies how transcription factor networks control the function of blood stem cells, and how mutations that perturb these networks cause leukaemia.

Göttgens said:"This honour is very much a reflection of the dedicated work and collective effort of all members of my research group over the years. Rather fittingly, I kick-started my independent career with a paper in an EMBO Journal. Becoming an EMBO member therefore represents a very special milestone to me."

Professor Kathryn Lilley, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics, Department of Biochemistry, Milner Therapeutics Institute, and a member of the CRUK Cambridge Centre Cell and Molecular Biology Programme. Kathryn’s research aims to interrogate how the functional proteome correlates with complexity.

Lilley said: “I feel extremely honoured to have been elected as a member of EMBO by my peers, which also recognizes the efforts and achievements on my fabulous research group members and numerous collaborators both past and present.”

Dr Serena Nik-Zainal, a CRUK Advanced Clinician Scientist at the ̽��ֱ��’s MRC Cancer Unit, and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Serena’s research combines computational and experimental approaches to understand cellular changes and mutational processes that lead to cancer and age-related disorders.

Nik-Zainal said: “It’s a great honour to become a member of EMBO, opening up opportunities for exploring new interactions with colleagues through Europe and around the world.”

Professor Giles Oldroyd FRS, Russell R Geiger Professor of Crop Science at the Sainsbury Laboratory and Director of the Crop Science Centre. Giles is leading an international programme of research that attempts to achieve more equitable and sustainable agriculture through the enhanced use of beneficial microbial associations.

Oldroyd said: “I have long admired the work that EMBO does to strengthen and coordinate science across Europe and it is an honour to now be a part of this prestigious European fellowship of biologists.”

Professor Uta Paszkowski, Professor of Plant Molecular Genetics at the Department of Plant Sciences. Uta leads the Cereal Symbiosis Group, which investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying formation and functioning of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses (beneficial interactions between roots of land plants and soil fungi) in rice and maize.

Paszkowski said: “Across the organisations supporting the Life Sciences, EMBO stands out by its varied activities to advance science through facilitating knowledge exchange and career development. I am immensely honoured to be elected as a member.”

Professor Anna Philpott, Head of the School of Biological Sciences, Professor of Cancer and Developmental Biology, and member of the CRUK Cambridge Centre Paediatric Cancer Programme. Anna’s research group at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute studies the balance between proliferation and differentiation during development and cancer, using a range of models.

Philpott said: “I am delighted to be invited to join an organisation that has done so much for European science.”

Dr Chris Tate, research leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. ̽��ֱ��research in Chris’ lab focusses on understanding the structure and function of the major cell-surface receptors in humans that are targeted by 34% of marketed small molecule drugs.

Tate said: “ ̽��ֱ��election to EMBO Membership is a great honour and will enhance my interactions with the superb scientists throughout Europe. ̽��ֱ��strength of the scientific community in Europe is amazing and we all benefit enormously from being a member of this family.”

Dr Marta Zlatic, research leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Marta’s lab combines connectomics with physiology and behavioural analysis, in the tractable Drosophila larval model system, to discover the fundamental principles by which brains generate behaviour.

Zlatic said: "I feel extremely honoured and grateful that our research is being recognized in this way."

EMBO Members can actively participate in EMBO’s initiatives by serving on the organisation's Council, committees and editorial boards, participating in the evaluation of applications for EMBO funding, acting as mentors to young scientists in the EMBO community, and advising on key activities. EMBO’s administrative headquarters are in Heidelberg, Germany.

Eight Cambridge researchers - six from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and two from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology - are among the 63 scientists from around the world elected this year as Members and Associate Members of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO).

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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‘Smoke detector’ enables fungal partnership that allowed plants to first survive on land

fpjl2 — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 10:56:53 +0000

New research has revealed that a plant protein known to detect growth-promoting compounds in smoke from burning vegetation has a much older and broader role: recognising initial signals sent from the beneficial soil fungi that deliver nutrients directly into plant cells.

By identifying the molecular signals emitted through the soil by friendly fungi, the protein enables a plant to “roll out the red carpet” for cell colonisation by the fungi, and all the survival advantages this mutually-beneficial relationship brings – the fungi feeds minerals such as phosphate into plant cells in return for sugar extraction.

This “symbiosis” between plants and certain microbial fungi is prevalent across the plant kingdom, and thought to date back to the earliest transitions of plant life from water to land some 450 million years ago, as plants had to develop ways of surviving on land by acquiring nutrients from soil many millennia before they evolved roots.

Scientists believe this ancient relationship with fungi was likely critical to the early terrestrial survival of plants, and consequently the evolution of “all higher life on earth”.

While previous research had shown that plants can clearly tell the difference between beneficial fungi and those that offer nothing or cause disease, how they make the distinction had proved mysterious. Now, latest research has unravelled the genetic code of the plant protein that enables the “cross-kingdom dialogue” between plants and fungi – allowing plants to let the right fungi in.

Surprisingly, the protein is an enzyme known to science as the receptor for Karrikin, a plant hormone created when vegetation is burned. Karrikin – from karrik, the Aboriginal word for fire – triggers seed germination in certain species of plant known as “fire-chasers”: plants that are first to sprout once wildfires have devastated their competitors.

While only those few fire-following species such as eucalyptus and some members of the tobacco family use the protein (called D14L) to “tune into smoke signals”, the latest study shows that this same protein is used by the vast majority of plant life on Earth to tune into fungi – perceiving the molecular signals from friendly fungi, and enabling a relationship that helped sustain plant life on land hundreds of millions of years before the evolution of roots and seeds.

“This protein had already been seen to detect smoke hormones in a few fire-chasing plant species, but now we’ve shown it’s the same protein that is central to the everyday interaction of plants with beneficial fungi. This primary, ancestral role of forging a symbiosis with fungi is harnessed by over 80% of all plant species on the planet,” said Dr Uta Paszkowski, from Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Plant Science, senior author of the study published today in the journal Science.

“Such fungal symbioses assisted plants to make the transition to land. We are beginning to unlock a process which is taking us back to the first stages of plant life on land some 450 million years ago, one of the key evolutionary steps of life on planet Earth,” she said.

For the new study, scientists found the first “mutant” rice plant that had no susceptibility at all to the friendly fungi. ̽��ֱ��team was able to work out the missing gene, and isolated the D14L protein as the critical element for the detection of these fungi in plants.

“Fungi and plants secrete all sorts of molecules, like a dialogue through the soil, and what we captured is the ‘hearing’ side in plants. Removal of the protein renders the plant insensitive to the fungus – in other words, the plant has become deaf,” said Paszkowski.

When colonising a plant, the beneficial fungus blooms within individual plant cells, growing thin tendrils called hyphae that extend into surrounding soil and pump minerals and nutrients straight into the heart of plant cells. Plants colonised by friendly fungi get between 70 to 100% of their phosphate directly from these hyphae, for example. In return, the fungus gets its sugars from the plant.

Plants monitor their surrounding for the presence of other bacterial or fungal invaders normally using ‘receptor-kinases’. “We and others had assumed the protein mechanism plants use for identifying beneficial fungi would be related to those,” said Paszkowski.

She describes it as a “real surprise” to find the D14L protein, a ‘hydrolase’ protein which functions deep inside the cell, to be necessary for the communication with the friendly fungi.

As the D14L protein is also involved in plants developmental responses to light Paszkowski talks of a “gut feeling” that – with this ancient protein responding to light, atmosphere (through smoke detection) and soil environment (through fungal symbiosis) – it could have been a developmental crossroads vital to plants’ evolutionary leap out of the oceans.

“Light; atmosphere; soil: all aspects crucially different when making that change from water to land, and all adaptations that would be influenced by this one protein. ̽��ֱ��D14L protein may take us back to the earliest days of life on land,” she said.

A protein that detects hormones in smoke has a much wider and more ancient role in the plant kingdom – detecting microscopic soil fungi which colonise plants and feed nutrients to their cells. This ancient symbiosis with soil fungi is thought to be how plants survived on land millions of years before they evolved roots.

Fungi and plants secrete all sorts of molecules, like a dialogue through the soil, and what we captured is the ‘hearing’ side in plants

Uta Paszkowski

Paszkowski lab

This microscopic image shows the spores and hyphae of 'friendly' arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus interacting with a plant root.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Fungus enhances crop roots and could be a future 'bio-fertiliser'

fpjl2 — Mon, 04 May 2015 19:02:39 +0000

New research has found that the interaction of roots with a common soil fungus changes the genetic expression of rice crops – triggering additional root growth that enables the plant to absorb more nutrients.

In addition to causing extra root growth, the mycorrhizal fungus also enmeshes itself within crop roots at a cellular level – blooming within individual plant cells. ̽��ֱ��fungus grows thin tendrils called hyphae that extend into surrounding soil and pump nutrients, phosphate in particular, straight into the heart of plant cells.

Plants 'colonised' by the fungi get between 70 to 100% of their phosphate directly from these fungus tendrils, an enormous mineral boost which may eventually mitigate the need for farmers to saturate crop fields with phosphate fertiliser to ensure maximum yield.

̽��ֱ��hope is that mycorrhizal fungi could one day act as a 'bio-fertiliser' that ultimately replaces the need to mine phosphate from the ground for industrial fertiliser. Finding a replacement for mined phosphate is a critical issue as not only is the resultant fertiliser a pollutant – causing algal growth which chokes water supplies – but the big phosphate mines are now depleted to the point where they are expected to run out in the next 30 to 50 years. Many experts are predicting a 'phosphate crisis'.

" ̽��ֱ��big question we are trying to answer is whether and how we can make use of the biofertiliser capacity of mycorrhizal symbiosis in modern and more high input agricultural settings, meaning more intensive farming methods. We need alternatives to phosphate fertiliser if we are to feed growing populations," said Dr Uta Paszkowski from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences, who co-authored the research published today in the journal PNAS.

"Cereals such as rice, wheat and maize are the most important crops in the world, feeding billions of people every day. Mycorrhizal fungi have a mutualistic relationship with plants, including cereals, going back to the earliest days of plant life on land, before roots were 'invented'. By analysing this ancient and common relationship we are gaining insights that could be used to breed crops with the best possible root architectural and symbiotic properties – towards 'designing crops' with very high food outputs," she said.

̽��ֱ��new research pioneers the examination of the root system building units of adult rice plants at a molecular level, as rice can be used as a model for cereal crops generally. Cereal root 'architecture' involves a few big, thickset roots called crown roots that act as a scaffold from which all the smaller, lateral roots spread out into the different layers of soil, which contain the various nutrients.

Researchers found that plants colonised by mycorrhizal fungi have a different genetic expression which causes the cell walls within crown roots to soften, triggering the growth of many more lateral roots which are able to suck in more nutrients, contributing to a healthier plant with a higher yield. This is in addition to the phosphate provided by the fungal 'hyphae' tendrils, which in effect act as extra roots themselves (in return for which, the fungus gets its carbohydrate from the plant).

"Plant roots that have the capacity to explore the widest soil area absorb the most nutrients as a consequence and so are likely to have a greater crop yield. By finding out which parts of the genome are responsible for the best plant root systems we can start breeding for the best root 'architecture'," said Paszkowski.

"Designer crops with the best possible root systems will mean greater crop yield, which means more people fed."

Rice is best grown in highly irrigated paddy fields, but there are many parts of the world where this isn't an option, and 40% of the world's area for rice crop is grown 'dry'. However, the plant-fungi relationship that creates enhanced crops actually works best in dry environments. Mycorrhizal fungi could be of huge benefit to those who rely on dry rice crops in some of the poorest areas of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

̽��ֱ��main hurdle for researchers to overcome is the self-regulation of plants, which means the fungi cannot be tested on an industrial scale alongside traditional fertiliser.

"Plants monitor their own nutritional state. If a plant has enough phosphate it will not allow fungus to enter root – so at the moment it's one or the other. We are working on ways to circumvent this blockage so we can allow symbiosis to contribute in agricultural practices in better developed countries " said Paszkowski.

Mycorrhizal fungi are extremely common in all soils around the world, and are an ingredient in many 'bio' plant foods found in domestic garden centres, but have yet to be used for industrial agriculture.

Inset image: Mycorrhizal fungi blooming within a plant cell

“Ancient relationship” between fungi and plant roots creates genetic expression that leads to more root growth. Common fungus could one day be used as ‘bio-fertiliser’, replacing mined phosphate which is now depleted to the point of impending fertiliser crisis.

By analysing this ancient and common relationship we are gaining insights that could be used to breed crops with the best possible root architectural and symbiotic properties

Uta Paszkowski

Ahmad Nizam Awang

Dry rice field at dusk

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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