Our group is interested in engineering enzymes for improved plant productivity and/or stress tolerance. We investigate enzyme structure-function correlations and manipulate these to result in altered biological function. Our methodologies span detailed enzyme kinetics, structural biology, plant breeding and phenotypic analyses. One area we particularly focus on is oxygen-sensing enzymes, Plant Cysteine Oxidases; we are developing variants of these enzymes that may confer improved submergence tolerance characteristics on plants, as well as working to understand their role in evolution through the plant kingdom. DPhil projects in our group could work on identifying the best way to achieve submergence tolerance through Plant Cysteine Oxidase engineering, or on one of our emerging projects such as targeting Gibberellin Oxidase enzymes which are involved in growth signalling.
