Giles Oldroyd

Last updated

Giles Oldroyd
FRS
Born
Giles Edward Dixon Oldroyd
NationalityBritish
Education University of East Anglia
University of California, Berkeley
Awards Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
Scientific career
Fields Plant symbioses [1]
Institutions University of Cambridge
Stanford University
Thesis Identification and characterization of Prf a resistance gene in tomato  (1998)
Notable students Yiliang Ding
Website www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/people/giles-oldroyd

Giles Edward Dixon Oldroyd FRS is a professor at the University of Cambridge, [1] [2] working on beneficial Legume symbioses in Medicago truncatula . [3] He has been a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award winner and the Society of Biology (SEB) President's Medal winner. [4] From 2014 Oldroyd has been in the top 1% of highly cited plant scientists across the world. [5]

Contents

Education

Oldroyd attended Huntington School, York before studying for a BA degree in plant biology at the University of East Anglia from 1990 to 1994. [6] He completed his PhD in 1998 at the University of California, Berkeley, studying plant/pathogen interactions in tomatoes. [7]

Career and research

After his PhD, he moved to Stanford University to work as a postdoctoral scientist studying legume/rhizobial interactions in the laboratory of Sharon R. Long. [8] [9] [10] In 2002, Oldroyd moved to the John Innes Centre to start his own research group and in 2017 he moved his research group to the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge. In 2020 Oldroyd was appointed to the Russel R Geiger Professorship of Crop Science in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge and Director of the new Crop Science Centre, a partnership between the University of Cambridge and the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.

Oldroyd's work focuses on understanding the signalling mechanisms that allow the associations with these beneficial micro-organisms and the use of this information to transfer the nitrogen-fixing capability from legumes to cereal crops. His website says "Our work has implications for global agriculture, but we are most interested in the application of our work to benefit small-holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa".

In 2012 Oldroyd was awarded a $10m research grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with other symbiosis research groups. Their aim is to engineer cereal crops such as maize to undergo the beneficial root nodule symbiosis in order to obtain the nutrient Nitrogen without the application of agricultural fertilisers. [11] [12] The Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture (ENSA) project received a further $35 million grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations in 2023. [13]

As of March 2023, he has an h-index of 81 according to Google Scholar. [1]

Awards and honours

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhizobia</span> Nitrogen fixing soil bacteria

Rhizobia are diazotrophic bacteria that fix nitrogen after becoming established inside the root nodules of legumes (Fabaceae). To express genes for nitrogen fixation, rhizobia require a plant host; they cannot independently fix nitrogen. In general, they are gram negative, motile, non-sporulating rods.

<i>Medicago truncatula</i> Species of legume

Medicago truncatula, the barrelclover, strong-spined medick, barrel medic, or barrel medick, is a small annual legume native to the Mediterranean region that is used in genomic research. It is a low-growing, clover-like plant 10–60 centimetres (3.9–23.6 in) tall with trifoliate leaves. Each leaflet is rounded, 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) long, often with a dark spot in the center. The flowers are yellow, produced singly or in a small inflorescence of two to five together; the fruit is a small, spiny pod.

<i>Ensifer meliloti</i> Species of bacterium

Ensifer meliloti are an aerobic, Gram-negative, and diazotrophic species of bacteria. S. meliloti are motile and possess a cluster of peritrichous flagella. S. meliloti fix atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia for their legume hosts, such as alfalfa. S. meliloti forms a symbiotic relationship with legumes from the genera Medicago, Melilotus and Trigonella, including the model legume Medicago truncatula. This symbiosis promotes the development of a plant organ, termed a root nodule. Because soil often contains a limited amount of nitrogen for plant use, the symbiotic relationship between S. meliloti and their legume hosts has agricultural applications. These techniques reduce the need for inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Root nodule</span> Plant part

Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, primarily legumes, that form a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Under nitrogen-limiting conditions, capable plants form a symbiotic relationship with a host-specific strain of bacteria known as rhizobia. This process has evolved multiple times within the legumes, as well as in other species found within the Rosid clade. Legume crops include beans, peas, and soybeans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nod factor</span> Signaling molecule

Nod factors, are signaling molecules produced by soil bacteria known as rhizobia in response to flavonoid exudation from plants under nitrogen limited conditions. Nod factors initiate the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between legumes and rhizobia by inducing nodulation. Nod factors produce the differentiation of plant tissue in root hairs into nodules where the bacteria reside and are able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere for the plant in exchange for photosynthates and the appropriate environment for nitrogen fixation. One of the most important features provided by the plant in this symbiosis is the production of leghemoglobin, which maintains the oxygen concentration low and prevents the inhibition of nitrogenase activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhizosphere</span> Region of soil or substrate comprising the root microbiome

The rhizosphere is the narrow region of soil or substrate that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms known as the root microbiome. Soil pores in the rhizosphere can contain many bacteria and other microorganisms that feed on sloughed-off plant cells, termed rhizodeposition, and the proteins and sugars released by roots, termed root exudates. This symbiosis leads to more complex interactions, influencing plant growth and competition for resources. Much of the nutrient cycling and disease suppression by antibiotics required by plants occurs immediately adjacent to roots due to root exudates and metabolic products of symbiotic and pathogenic communities of microorganisms. The rhizosphere also provides space to produce allelochemicals to control neighbours and relatives.

Sharon Rugel Long is an American plant biologist. She is the Steere-Pfizer Professor of Biological Science in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, and the Principal Investigator of the Long Laboratory at Stanford.

Symbiotic bacteria are bacteria living in symbiosis with another organism or each other. For example, rhizobia living in root nodules of legumes provide nitrogen fixing activity for these plants.

Actinorhizal plants are a group of angiosperms characterized by their ability to form a symbiosis with the nitrogen fixing actinomycetota Frankia. This association leads to the formation of nitrogen-fixing root nodules.

Microbial inoculants, also known as soil inoculants or bioinoculants, are agricultural amendments that use beneficial rhizosphericic or endophytic microbes to promote plant health. Many of the microbes involved form symbiotic relationships with the target crops where both parties benefit (mutualism). While microbial inoculants are applied to improve plant nutrition, they can also be used to promote plant growth by stimulating plant hormone production. Although bacterial and fungal inoculants are common, inoculation with archaea to promote plant growth is being increasingly studied.

<i>Lotus japonicus</i> Species of legume

Lotus japonicus is a wild legume that belongs to family Fabaceae. Members of this family are very diverse, constituting about 20,000 species. They are of significant agricultural and biological importance as many of the legume species are rich sources of protein and oil and can also fix atmospheric nitrogen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ENOD40</span>

enod40, also known as early nodulin 40, is a gene found in flowering plants. The gene has characteristics of both protein and Non-coding RNA genes. There is some evidence that the non-coding characteristics of this gene are more widely conserved than the protein coding sequences. In soyabeans enod40 was found to be expressed during early stages of formation of nitrogen-fixing root nodules that are associated with symbiotic soil rhizobial bacteria. The gene is also active in roots containing fungi forming phosphate-acquiring arbuscular mycorrhiza. An interaction with a novel RNA-binding protein MtRBP1 investigated in the development of Root nodule suggests ENOD40 has a function of cytoplasmic relocalization of nuclear proteins. In the study of non-legume plants, the over-expression of ENOD40 in transgenic Arabidopsis lines was observed a reduction of cell expansion.

The Legume Information System (LIS) is legume sciences portal specifically for legume breeders and researchers, established and supported by the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. The mission of the Legume Information System is "to facilitate discoveries and crop improvement in the legumes," in particular to improve crop yields, their nutritional value, and our understanding of basic legume science.

Ensifer medicae is a species of gram-negative, nitrogen-fixing, rod-shaped bacteria. They can be free-living or symbionts of leguminous plants in root nodules. E.medicae was first isolated from root nodules on plants in the genus Medicago. Some strains of E.medicae, like WSM419, are aerobic. They are chemoorganotrophic mesophiles that prefer temperatures around 28 °C. In addition to their primary genome, these organisms also have three known plasmids, sized 1,570,951 bp, 1,245,408 bp and 219,313 bp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Harrison</span> Plant biologist

Maria Harrison is a plant biologist, William H. Crocker Scientist professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Science, and adjunct professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. Harrison's lab, including post-doctoral, graduate, undergraduate, and intern students, utilizes a combination of molecular, cell biology, genetic, and genomic techniques to investigate the developmental mechanisms underlying the symbiosis and phosphate transfer between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the roots of model legume Medicago truncatula. Among Harrison's most notable findings are that plants use hormone signaling to regulate AM fungi symbiosis and that phosphate transport is critical to the maintenance of this symbiosis. These discoveries have allowed the field of fungal-plant interactions to pursue new research questions including future manipulation of phosphate acquisition in valuable crop species.

Martin Parniske is a German biologist with a specialisation in genetics, microbiology and biochemistry. He is university professor and head of the Institute of Genetics at the Faculty of Biology of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Parniske's scientific focus is on the molecular interaction between plants and symbiotic and pathogenic organisms including bacteria, fungi, oomycetes and insects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symbiosome</span>

A symbiosome is a specialised compartment in a host cell that houses an endosymbiont in a symbiotic relationship.

Myriam Charpentier is a molecular biologist, who specialises in cell and developmental biology at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. Charpentier studies the environmental and biological stimulus of nuclear calcium signalling in plants.

Felix Dapare Dakora, is a Ghanaian plant biologist investigating biological nitrogen fixation at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. He currently serves as President of The African Academy of Sciences for the 2017–2023 terms. Dakora was awarded the UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences and the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award. Dakora is a Fellow of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common symbiosis signaling pathway</span>

The common symbiosis signaling pathway (CSSP) is a signaling cascade in plants that allows them to interact with symbiotic microbes. It corresponds to an ancestral pathway that plants use to interact with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). It is known as "common" because different evolutionary younger symbioses also use this pathway, notably the root nodule symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria. The pathway is activated by both Nod-factor perception, as well as by Myc-factor perception that are released from AMF. The pathway is distinguished from the pathogen recognition pathways, but may have some common receptors involved in both pathogen recognition as well as CSSP. A recent work by Kevin Cope and colleagues showed that ectomycorrhizae also uses CSSP components such as Myc-factor recognition.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Giles Oldroyd publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. "Professor Giles Oldroyd". Sainsbury Laboratory.
  3. Oldroyd, Giles .E.D.; Downie, J. Allan (2008). "Coordinating Nodule Morphogenesis with Rhizobial Infection in Legumes". Annual Review of Plant Biology. 59: 519–546. doi:10.1146/annurev.arplant.59.032607.092839. PMID   18444906.
  4. 1 2 "PRESIDENT'S MEDALLISTS" (PDF). Society for Experimental Biology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Giles Oldroyd's Publons profile". Publons. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  6. "Professor Giles Oldroyd". Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge . Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  7. Oldroyd, Giles Edward Dixon (1998). Identification and characterization of Prf a resistance gene in tomato (PhD thesis). University of California, Berkeley. OCLC   42329477.
  8. Oldroyd, G.E.D; Wais, R. J; Galera, C; Catoira, R; Penmetsa, R. V; Cook, D; Gough, C; Denarie, J; Long, S. R (2000). "Genetic analysis of calcium spiking responses in nodulation mutants of Medicago truncatula". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 97 (24): 13407–13412. Bibcode:2000PNAS...9713407W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.230439797 . PMC   27237 . PMID   11078514.
  9. "Giles Oldroyd profile" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  10. "Passion drives the best and brightest in biology". THE - Times Higher Education. 14 July 2006.
  11. "GM crop scientists win $10m grant". BBC News. 15 July 2012.
  12. "ENSA - Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture".
  13. "Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa".
  14. "Giles Oldroyd | Faculty Member". Faculty Opinions.
  15. "Giles Oldroyd". The Royal Society. Retrieved 19 September 2020.