Dr. Erin Ritchie

Agriculture faces increasing pressure to boost productivity under the growing challenges of climate change. Engineering crops with multi-gene cassettes—for example, to produce anti-herbivory compounds—offers a promising route to improve resilience. However, controlling the expression of multiple genes remains challenging, and constant (constitutive) activation of stress-related pathways can reduce growth and yield.

Our project addresses this by developing short, inducible enhancers that enable precise and predictable expression of genes, only when they are needed. Using Plant STARR-seq, a massively parallel reporter assay, we systematically analyse the expression of thousands of candidate sequences to uncover the regulatory “grammar” of inducible elements. For this project, we focus on jasmonate signalling, a key plant hormone pathway activated by wounding and herbivore attack, and aim to generate jasmonate-inducible enhancers. Enhancers such as these, and similar tools will support the development of smarter genetic strategies for crop protection and performance.