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The Master’s students Jesse Küpers, Iko Koevoets and Sjon Hartman from Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ’s Biology department, have been selected for three of the four available PhD. student positions within a NWO-ALW programme. The programme allows excellent Master’s students to submit a proposal for a PhD. research project in cooperation with knowledge institutions and businesses. A total of 18 proposals were submitted. Hartman, Koevoets and Küpers all conducted their Master’s studies at the Plant Ecophysiology chair group at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ.

Sjon Hartman and Jesse Küpers will stay at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ to conduct their research under the supervision of Prof. Rens Voesenek and Prof. Ronald Pierik respectively. Iko Koevoets will conduct her doctoral research at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam.

Flood-tolerant plants

Sjon Hartman wrote the research proposal ‘NO problem: ethylene-induced regulation of nitric oxide confers flooding tolerance in plants’.

Each year, a significant portion of the world’s harvest is lost due to flooding. Like humans, plants need air to survive, and they will die if they spend too much time under water. Researchers from Utrecht have recently proven that plants use the hormone ethylene as a signal to adapt to low-oxygen conditions.

Hartman will now study how this ethylene signal leads to increased flood tolerance. He also aims to research whether possible differences in this process may explain why some plants are tolerant of flooding, while others are not. The goal is to use the insights gained from a flood-tolerant plant to develop an even more flood-tolerant variant.

Sjon Hartman will receive his Master’s of Environmental Biology diploma cum laude in September.

Salt stress and lateral root development

Iko Koevoets wrote the research proposal ‘Dealing with the weakest link: altered lateral root development during salt stress’. She will conduct her doctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Christa Testerink at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam.

The amount of brackish soil is increasing around the world. Many crops have trouble dealing with salty soil, which makes a large portion of the world’s arable land unsuitable for agriculture. Unfortunately, the world population continues to grow, so there is a dire need for crops that can grow in soil with higher salt concentrations.

The roots play an important role in preventing the plant from absorbing salt from the soil. Lateral roots are a ‘weak link’ in this line of defence, because they are optimally developed to absorb nutrients and water. We will therefore study how the plant adapts its lateral roots to reduce salt absorption and to increase its tolerance to salt.

Iko Koevoets earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s diplomas cum laude. She also attended the Honours programme during her Bachelor’s studies. In addition, she served for a year as a board member of the Vidius student union, a ‘labour union’ for students in Utrecht.

Light signaling in the tip of the leaf

Jesse Küpers submitted the research proposal ‘Moving from tip to base: How local far-red signalling regulates distant growth’.

Plants and vegetation compete with one another for light. During this process, the quality of the light changes the absorption of specific colours of light. Plants observe this, which results in upwards growth away from their neighbouring plants. Küpers will study how the light signalling at the tip of the leaf regulates the growth of the leaf stem.

To do so, he will first study the molecular mechanism that underlies this process in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. He will then study whether similar mechanisms exist in maize, a crop that is vital for feeding the global population. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the development of crops that invest more of their energy reserves into the harvestable part of the plant under high-density conditions.

Jesse was awarded the grant, even though he just began the second year of his Master’s studies.