Research group
Guiziou Group
Engineering plant roots and associated microbiomes for sustainable agriculture
Sarah Guiziou
Group Leader
Group activities.
In the Guiziou group, we aim to improve the tolerance of plants to climate change, including recurrent drought.
To achieve this, we focus on three key areas:
- Understanding how roots develop complex structures to access soil resources
- Developing synthetic biology technology for plant-beneficial bacteria
- Engineering root architectures, root microbiomes, and their interactions.
As a result of climate change, agriculture is facing the twin challenges of unpredictable rainfall and the accelerating spread of pests and pathogens across wider regions. Increasing the use of agrochemicals is undesirable due to negative consequences to the environment. .
A sustainable alternative is to develop plant varieties that are better suited for cultivation in a changing climate, and to promote plant-beneficial bacteria colonisation increasing nutrients available to the plant.
An essential and hidden part of plants are their roots, which mediate nutrient and water uptake. In the context of climate change, root systems need to become more resilient to recurrent droughts and more efficient at absorbing scarce resources from the soil.
Nutrient and water uptake is achieved through interactions with beneficial soil micro-organisms present in the soil, which help the root to absorb nutrients and protect the plants from pathogens. Therefore, improving both the root structure of plants and the symbiosis between the root and its microbiome is a promising strategy to support sustainable crop production.
The long-term aims of the group is to support the development of plants with deep-root architecture, suited to foraging for limited water supplies and engineer interactions between plants and beneficial microbes to promote nutrient uptake.
We are applying unique technology and expertise based on integrases, enzymes that mediate site-specific and irreversible changes to DNA sequences. We will keep developing new technology to support the understanding and engineering of root development and root-microbe interactions.
