Opportunities

ELSA Studentship: The emission of ozone-depleting halocarbon gases from brassicas, rice, and other crop plants and natural vegetation containing orthologues of the “Harmless to Ozone Layer Gene”

School: Environmental Sciences
Supervisor(s): Professor Bill Sturges; Dr Lars Ostergaard; Dr David Oram
Application Deadline: Available Now
Description:
Methyl chloride (CH3Cl) and methyl bromide (CH3Br) are the primary carriers of natural chlorine and bromine to the stratosphere where they catalyse the destruction of ozone. Methyl iodide, and a host of other atmospherically short-lived halogenated hydrocarbons (lifetimes less than about half-a-year) are also now believed to influence the chemistry of both the troposphere and stratosphere. Although some of these gases have industrial or agricultural sources (notably methyl bromide), most of them have partly or wholly natural origins. It is known that the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana produces and emits methyl halides and that the enzyme primarily responsible for the production, is encoded by the HARMLESS TO OZONE LAYER (HOL) gene, which was named based on its loss-of-function phenotype [7]. A phylogenetic analysis using the HOL gene suggests that the ability to produce methyl halides is widespread among vascular plants, and there is evidence of halocarbon emissions from several important temperate and tropical crop plants (e.g. brassicas and rice). Further details...