Providing an adequate and safe supply of food for a growing global population faces multiple challenges, not least the effects of climate change, intensive agriculture and environmental pollution. To address these challenges, we need to increase the resilience of crop plants to extreme temperatures and drought and their resistance to an ever-evolving pathogen landscape.

Currently, we focus on understanding how the plant immune system recognises pathogens, and how pathogens evolve to evade recognition and manipulate the host response. We also investigate how virulence, toxicity and antimicrobial resistance change as microbes adapt to changes in agricultural environments and host plants.

We are expanding our research to address the complex relationship between plants, pathogens, and their associated microbiota, as well as the impact of pollutants and intensive agricultural practices on these microbial communities. This knowledge will underpin the use of microbial competitors for crop protection and decontamination.

Synthetic biology provides a complementary approach to securing adequate supplies of food in an environmentally sustainable manner. We are using directed evolution to select microorganisms that produce high-value ingredients for human consumption or animal feed.

Focus areas

Our research within this domain focusses on:

• Fungal pathogens and mycotoxin
• Viral pathogens
• Bacterial pathogens
• Oomycete pathogens
• Pathogen diversity and evolution
• Microbiota
• Plant immunity
• Resistance protein engineering
• Synthetic biology