Meet The Hydrosensing Team
Dr. Malcolm J. Bennett is deeply interested in how plant roots sense environmental signals, which has led to key discoveries, including a recent finding on how roots detect soil hardness through a gas-based mechanism. Recently, Dr. Malcolm J. Bennett and collaborators from Tel Aviv, Regensburg, and Trondheim identified the mechanisms behind plant water sensing, a breakthrough that could inform efforts to enhance crop resilience to climate change.
With over 20 years of experience in interdisciplinary research, Dr. Malcolm J. Bennett co-founded the Systems Biology Centre for Plant Integrative Biology, uniting biosciences, computer science, and engineering. Dr. Bennett's leadership in projects like the X-ray CT root imaging facility underscores a commitment to interdisciplinary approaches, positioning Dr. Malcolm J. Bennett to co-lead the HYDROSENSING project with Shani, Ziegler, and Hamann.
How plants sense and adapt to water stress remains a fundamental, unresolved question in plant-environment interactions—one that is especially critical as climate change intensifies. Dr. Thorsten Hamann is excited to join this team in exploring this question. Fascinated by the dynamic nature of plant cell walls, Dr. Thorsten Hamann’s research focuses on how these structures adapt in composition and stiffness to meet the plant’s needs during growth, development, and environmental interaction.
Dr. Thorsten Hamann’s group studies cell wall integrity maintenance as a model for understanding how plants perceive mechanical stimuli and translate them into chemical signals. Notably, the team has shown that a receptor kinase involved in this process regulates both cell wall stiffness and ABA production. This work has been advanced through the use of Brillouin microscopy, which enables live, label-free analysis of cell wall stiffness in sub-epidermal tissues. With expertise in cell wall signaling and ABA induction, Dr. Thorsten Hamann’s group will bring valuable insights and technical resources to the HYDROSENSING project.
Dr. Christine Ziegler is excited to join this interdisciplinary team to tackle the fundamental question of how plants sense water. Since 2006, Dr. Ziegler 's research has focused on membrane transport, particularly on the osmolyte transporter BetP involved in osmotic stress regulation. Her lab was the first to capture BetP’s full molecular cycle and recently uncovered how lipid-protein interactions play a role in stress sensing.
At Regensburg University since 2012, Dr. Christine Ziegler has built a structural biology toolbox, including CryoEM, and collaborates with the Ultrafast Nanoscopy Center. With expertise in membrane transport biochemistry, Dr. Ziegler looks forward to using innovative tools like Raman imaging and advanced genetic techniques to explore plant transporters, aiming to provide insights that could help address climate change challenges.
Since 2014, Dr. Eilon Shani’s lab at Tel Aviv University has become a leader in plant hormone transport research, identifying one of the first gibberellin transporters and uncovering novel transport mechanisms for IAA and ABA. The lab has also developed advanced genomic platforms to address functional redundancy.
Dr. Eilon Shani has secured numerous prestigious grants, including an ERC grant (2017) and HFSP grants (2015, 2019). His group develops genome-scale, multi-targeted, CRISPR- and amiRNA based, forward-genetics tools to uncover inaccessible genetic variation in plants. This expertise in plant genomics and hormone transport will complement the strengths of the Hamann, Bennett, and Ziegler labs, aiming to answer the key question of how plants sense water stress.
Team at Nottingham University
Leah Band is a Professor of Mathematical Biology who focusses on developing models to understand plant development. She brings expertise in a wide range of modelling techniques, including cell-based modelling, asymptotic analysis, biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and parameter inference. Of particular relevance to this project is her development of cell-based models to understand how the localization and properties of membrane transporters and metabolism enzymes affect plant hormone distributions, which has led to high-profile papers in Science, Nature Plants, PNAS and The Plant Cell. She has also developed tissue-level models of water transport during lateral root emergence (Nat Cell Biol, 2012) and models to understand how phloem properties affect long-distance sugar and hormone transport (J Theor Biol, 2023).
Poonam is a BBSRC Discovery Fellow at University of Nottingham. Her research focusses on studying root branching adaptations in response to heterogenous soil moisture conditions. She is specifically interested in uncovering molecular mechanisms behind the water-driven root adaptive response termed ‘Xero-branching’ (Mehra et al., 2022, Science). Xero-branching is characterized by complete suppression of root branching in an area of low water availability in soil (e.g. air-filled gap). Her goal is to discover the role of mechanosensing and ABA transport in regulating Xero-branching. As a part of the ERC synergy project, Poonam will support the screening of CRISPR libraries and imaging novel water sensors during xerobranching conditions.
Anthony Bishopp is a developmental biologist with expertise in vascular tissues and hormone signalling. Specifically this has involved understanding factors shaping both spatial and temporal patterns of auxin and cytokinin response at the root tip. This work has involved developing new reporter systems as well as imaging these with confocal and light sheet microscopy.
Danielle Colyer is a PhD student funded by the ERC Hydrosensing project and is based at the University of Nottingham. Her research focuses on specific molecular targets in the Hydrosensing project, characterising their molecular functions in water stress sensing in Arabidopsis. Danielle is also working alongside Christine and the team from Regensburg to structurally determine the functions of these key targets. As a result, she will be working closely in both teams to bridge the work between the water stress genetic screens and the structural biology.
Leah Band is a Professor of Mathematical Biology who focusses on developing models to understand plant development. She brings expertise in a wide range of modelling techniques, including cell-based modelling, asymptotic analysis, biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and parameter inference. Of particular relevance to this project is her development of cell-based models to understand how the localization and properties of membrane transporters and metabolism enzymes affect plant hormone distributions, which has led to high-profile papers in Science, Nature Plants, PNAS and The Plant Cell. She has also developed tissue-level models of water transport during lateral root emergence (Nat Cell Biol, 2012) and models to understand how phloem properties affect long-distance sugar and hormone transport (J Theor Biol, 2023).
Poonam is a BBSRC Discovery Fellow at University of Nottingham. Her research focusses on studying root branching adaptations in response to heterogenous soil moisture conditions. She is specifically interested in uncovering molecular mechanisms behind the water-driven root adaptive response termed ‘Xero-branching’ (Mehra et al., 2022, Science). Xero-branching is characterized by complete suppression of root branching in an area of low water availability in soil (e.g. air-filled gap). Her goal is to discover the role of mechanosensing and ABA transport in regulating Xero-branching. As a part of the ERC synergy project, Poonam will support the screening of CRISPR libraries and imaging novel water sensors during xerobranching conditions.
Anthony Bishopp is a developmental biologist with expertise in vascular tissues and hormone signalling. Specifically this has involved understanding factors shaping both spatial and temporal patterns of auxin and cytokinin response at the root tip. This work has involved developing new reporter systems as well as imaging these with confocal and light sheet microscopy.
Danielle Colyer is a PhD student funded by the ERC Hydrosensing project and is based at the University of Nottingham. Her research focuses on specific molecular targets in the Hydrosensing project, characterising their molecular functions in water stress sensing in Arabidopsis. Danielle is also working alongside Christine and the team from Regensburg to structurally determine the functions of these key targets. As a result, she will be working closely in both teams to bridge the work between the water stress genetic screens and the structural biology.
