Cereal grafting:

A research tool to understand plant physiology and root-shoot communication 

Although water use efficiency within a species can vary, the greatest differences are found across species, for example crops like sorghum and millets have higher water use efficiency compared with the global staples like rice and wheat. This project will harness the great potential that the field of monocot grafting entails for crop improvement. Interspecific-cereal grafts will be generated to understand water use strategies that will in turn enable sustained food production.  

Research Team: Crispus Mbaluto, Xabier Simón, Mouesanao Kandjoze, and Anoop Tripathi (collaborator). 

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Improving water use efficiency in rice: 

For this we are employing a multi-pronged approach: (1) developing “water-smart grafts” by combining water-efficient root systems from African and wild rice with elite rice landraces, allowing for in-depth exploration of root-to-shoot signalling and the identification of key genetic determinants of WUE, and (2) leveraging natural variation in WUE across diverse rice accessions to map the genetic and physiological traits linked to improved water use. Moreover, through advanced phenotyping, gene expression profiling, and CRISPR/Cas9-based tissue-specific gene editing, we aim to engineer high-WUE rice lines.  

Research Team: Crispus Mbaluto, Xabier Simón, and Mouesanao Kandjoze. 

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Understanding higher water use efficiency of C4 plants: 

Water use efficiency is a complex trait, governed by different factors, like leaf-anatomy, leaf hydraulics, carboxylation capacity, spatial patterning of stomata, co-ordination of subsidiary cells, underlying mesophyll airspaces and CO2 diffusion etc. This project uses a wide array of functional genomic and synthetic biology techniques to understand the different parameters resulting in high water use efficiency in C4 plants. Gynandropsis gynandra and Amaranthus sp. will be used as dicots while Millets and Sorghum will be used as monocot systems to understand water use efficiency traits.  

Research Team: Xabier Simón, and Mouesanao Kandjoze

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Dissecting aquaporin regulation to enhance water use efficiency and photosynthetic performance: 

We aim to unravel the dynamic regulation of aquaporins, the membrane water channels that are essential for controlling plant water transport and maintaining cellular homeostasis under fluctuating environmental conditions. By integrating high-resolution phenotyping, gene expression profiling, and cell-specific functional analyses, we seek to understand how aquaporins coordinate water fluxes across tissues and influence photosynthetic efficiency and WUE in crops. Focusing on naturally occurring allelic variation and stress-responsive regulatory mechanisms, we will identify key aquaporin isoforms and their upstream regulators that confer resilience under drought and variable water availability. Ultimately, this project will inform targeted genetic or biotechnological interventions to optimise aquaporin function, advancing the development of climate-smart crops that use water more efficiently without compromising productivity. 

Research Team: Xabier Simón, Mouesanao Kandjoze, and Ella Whiteley 

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Engineering graft interfaces for cross-species compatibility and organelle transfer: 

This project pioneers a synthetic biology-enabled strategy to overcome the challenges in dicot–monocot grafting, creating innovative pathways for crop improvement. Our goal is to understand and refine the developmental plasticity required for successful graft union formation, enabling both vascular and functional integration. In addition, we will explore the groundbreaking possibility of horizontal chloroplast transfer from dicots to monocots via grafting. By using fluorescently labelled chloroplasts and vascular tracers, we aim to track plastid movement and assess the transient functionality of organelles across graft interfaces. Together, this multi-pronged approach will expand the toolkit for interspecies grafting, unlock new potential in plant bioengineering, and redefine the boundaries of genetic exchange and physiological compatibility in plants. 

Research Team: Pallavi Singh, (Come join us! We are looking for PDRA, Research Assistant and PhD student). 

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Maximising technological innovation to unlock the unconventional biological potential of mistletoe: 

We are embarking on a novel research direction using European mistletoe (Viscum album), a hemiparasite with unique biological capabilities. Mistletoe forms vascular connections with unrelated host species, bypassing reproductive and genetic compatibility barriers. We explore this natural grafting ability to uncover new strategies for engineering cross-species grafts, with potential to overcome long-standing limitations in crop hybridisation and rootstock-scion innovation. As a hemiparasite, mistletoe also provides a living system to study how water and carbon are partitioned between two genetically distinct organisms, offering powerful insights into water use efficiency and resource allocation. Beyond biology, the sticky mistletoe berry presents a sustainable blueprint for bio-adhesive development. Partnering with mistletoe farmer Dr Henry Webber, our work merges fundamental research with commercial potential from climate-resilient crops to eco-friendly materials, reimagining what a parasite can teach us about plant resilience and innovation. 

Research Team: Dr Nick Aldred and Urvi Gandhi 

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Identifying guard cell specific promoters in cereals: 

Our present understanding of water use is limited and particularly biased by study of certain dicot species like Arabidopsis, tomato and soybean. There is an obvious gap in our understanding of traits underpinning water use, particularly in rice and wheat. This research project will address the following overarching question; can the targeted manipulation of the guard cell in cereal crops like rice and wheat lead to changes in water use efficiency? For guard cell-specific manipulation, the project will employ a wide range of complementary techniques such as single-cell sequencing, epidermal cell enrichment, RNA-sequencing, and genome editing.  

Research Team: Crispus Mbaluto and Ella Whiteley