PhD Studentship: How Do Circadian Clocks Communicate Between Plants and Bacteria?

Primary supervisor - Prof Antony Dodd

Did you know that almost all life on Earth, from plants to humans, has a 24-hour biological clock? Until recently, we thought that most bacteria- despite making up 12% of global biomass- lacked biological clocks. We have made a game-changing discovery: a true circadian clock in Bacillus subtilis, a non-photosynthetic bacterium. This challenges everything we thought we knew about bacterial life and its relationship with other organisms.

In this PhD, you will take this discovery further. Could bacteria and plants be synchronizing their clocks to benefit each other? We propose an entirely new concept, whereby bacteria and plants exchange resources in a rhythmic, cooperative cycles that enhances survival and fitness.

In this project, you will play a key role in uncovering mechanisms that synchronize bacterial and plant circadian rhythms. Ultimately, this will help to better understand how soil microbes contribute to both crop nutrition and soil health.

This PhD will provide considerable training in chronobiology, signal transduction in plants, microbiology, and data analysis and interpretation. As part of the “MicroClock” programme funded through an ERC Synergy grant, you will benefit from being part of a large international team that is studying the B. subtilis circadian clock from molecular to ecological scales. Specifically, the project is in collaboration with the groups of Martha Merrow at LMU Munich, and Ákos Kovács at Leiden University, and includes exciting travel opportunities to work with these collaborators.

If you’re an ambitious student excited about circadian biology, microbiomes, and cross-kingdom interactions, and are happy working within an international collaboration, this could be an ideal PhD opportunity.

Entry requirements

At least UK equivalence Bachelors (Honours) 2:1 or UK equivalence Masters degree. English language requirement (Faculty of Science equivalent: IELTS 6.5 overall and 6.0 in each component).

Start date: 1 October 2026

Additional Funding Information 

This project is awarded with a 4-year fully funded European Research Council PhD studentship which covers tuition fees, an annual tax-free maintenance stipend set at the UKRI rates (£20,780 for 2025/6), and research training support grant. 

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