Ms Chloe Betts
Profiles

Ms Chloe Betts

School of Biological and Marine Sciences (Faculty of Science and Engineering)

Biography

Biography

PhD student
Project title: Coordination of Physiological Responses to Multiple Stresses by Abscisic Acid in Barley: A Field Focused Study
Project supervisors: Dr Anne Plessis, Professor Nicholas Smirnoff, Dr Michael Hanley, Dr James Buckley

Qualifications

BSc in Biology, University of Bristol (2017-2020)
Research

Research

Research interests

My research focuses on understanding the role of the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) in controlling physiological responses in barley to the complex combination of environmental stresses encountered in the field. As adverse weather and insect herbivory increases due to climate change, understanding how plant stress responses are coordinated is becoming increasingly important to maintain global food security. Although responses to single stresses have been extensively studied in laboratory conditions, the findings are difficult to translate to field conditions. 
During my PhD I will investigate the role of ABA in coordinating responses to drought, both on its own, and when combined with other stresses. I will conduct greenhouse and field experiments to analyse the synthesis of stress metabolites, and the growth of wild type and an ABA-deficient mutant line of barley.