果冻传媒

Sheetal is a PhD researcher in Life Sciences at the 果冻传媒, building on a strong academic foundation with a B.Sc. in Agriculture and an M.Sc. in Plant Breeding and Genetics. Sheetal's work bridges fundamental molecular genetics and field-level crop resilience, focusing on developing epigenetic toolkits and CRISPR-edited crops to withstand compound biotic and abiotic stresses. With a decade-long trajectory spanning hands-on agronomy, quantitative genomics, and precision phenotyping, Sheetal's goal is to translate cutting-edge plant biotechnology into scalable, grower-focused solutions that safeguard global food security against climate volatility.

Sheetal's PhD project title is "The Inhibition of Arabidopsis MYST HATs Triggers Immunity to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)"

Sheetal is supervised by Professor Vardis Ntoukakis and Professor Miriam Gifford

Project summary

The Inhibition of Arabidopsis MYST HATs Triggers Immunity to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Plants growing in their natural habitats are constantly challenged by a broad spectrum of biotic and abiotic stresses. To survive and adapt, plants have evolved complex mechanisms that are triggered upon stress perception. Under stressful conditions, plants prioritize stress responses over growth-related functions, leading to widespread reprogramming of gene expression to facilitate stress adaptation. A critical component of this gene reprogramming is histone acetylation, a post-translational modification predominantly occurring on lysine residues of histone proteins.

This project asks how plants use epigenetic switches, specifically MYST-type histone acetyltransferases (HATs), to coordinate immune and drought responses, and how this knowledge can be translated into crops that remain productive under stress. MYST HATs are enzymes that place acetyl marks on histones to open chromatin and activate stress-responsive genes, positioning them at the point where plants decide whether to prioritise growth or defence.

In Arabidopsis thaliana, two MYST family HATs, HAG4/HAM1 and HAG5/HAM2 have been identified as important regulators of plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Knockout mutants of hag5 show enhanced resistance to bacterial pathogens Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato and increased drought tolerance. Controlled dehydration and rewatering assays demonstrated that hag5 mutants display improved recovery and reduced leaf water loss compared to wild type. Yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation assays identified ARIA, a known ABA-signalling protein, as an interactor of HAG5. Phylogenetic analysis revealed high conservation of HAG5 across plant lineages, with sequence identity of 94% and 84% to its orthologs BoHAM2 (Brassica oleracea) and SlHAM2 (Solanum lycopersicum), respectively. Consistent with this conservation, hag5 mutants in Brassica oleracea also display enhanced drought tolerance relative to the DH1012 control line, as indicated by increased biomass upon recovery and reduced leaf water loss in decapitation experiments. With over 80% sequence conservation in staple crops including rice, maize and tomato, HAG5 represents a high-value target for engineering climate-resilient crops to meet the challenges of a warming world.

hag5 mutants show improved drought recovery and reduced leaf water loss compared to wild-type Arabidopsis. HAG5 interacts with the ABA-signalling protein ARIA and is highly conserved across Brassica, rice, maize, and tomato; positioning it as a promising target for engineering climate-resilient crops.