Modelling crop metabolism to improve precision and effectiveness of controlled-environment agriculture
Supervisors:
Dr Leighton Pritchard, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (University of Strathclyde)
Prof Derek Stewart, The James Hutton Institute
Summary:
Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA), often known as “vertical farming,” is an important contributor to our sustainable future food security. In CEA we can control temperature, light, humidity, nutrition and other factors to maximise yield or desirable crop characteristics, and optimise plant growth to generate positive sustainable impacts by minimizing inputs such as herbicide, pesticide, fuel, fertiliser and water, while increasing crop production per unit area. This project in whole-genome metabolic modelling and integrative ‘omics data analysis, will train a student in computational biology and modelling to improve precision and effectiveness of controlled-environment agriculture for high-value crops. A central research goal is to (i) construct a base whole-genome model (GEMM) for one or more high-value plants, and (ii) constrain this base model under a range of conditions and tissue-specificities, using data collected from legacy and ongoing research projects, and public datasets.
This will provide a model compendium of metabolic activities to underpin “what-if” experiments modulating conditions in silico to predict crop responses, and provide an enabling resource to facilitate future development of optimized conditions for crop growth cycles in CEA. The computational, statistical, and bioinformatics skills the student will gain through this project are valued highly in industry and academia, and will prepare them for careers in a number of exciting and expanding fields.