Norwich Research Park

Colney Lane
Sami Ullah Khan Norwich NR4 7UH, UK
Plant Genomics lab allan.downie@bbsrc.ac.uk
Department of Plant Sciences tel: (44) 1603 450207
Quaid i- Azam University, fax: (44) 1603 450045
Islamabad, Pakistan.
1st August 2010
Dear Mr Khan,
I am delighted that the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has awarded
you a Scholarship that will cover the return air ticket, bench fee and a living allowance.
In the light of that I will be delighted to host you for a six month training period here at
the John Innes Centre. Over the past ten years or so my group has been working on
population-dependent dependent regulation of Rhizobium gene expression and we have
developed several methods and techniques as well as publishing around twenty papers in
this area. I think that our expertise in this area will complement the training that you are
currently receiving at Quiad i-Azam University. During this training period I propose that
you could analyse regulation of the Rhizobium leguminosarum rhi genes, which are
important for symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes. These genes are regulated by
quorum sensing regulation using N-acyl homoserine lactones and we would be able to
teach you how to assay their expression, how to identify mutations affecting their
expression and perhaps identify what stresses cause their induction. We can teach you
both analytical methods and genetic methods and the advantage of this project is that it
will be directly relevant to your work in Pakistan.
With regard to your visit, we will be able to help you find accommodation, we
will treat you in the same way that we treat our PhD students here with regard to training
and we will supply the consumables that are required for your experimental work. To that
end it would be most helpful if your award could pay £1000 to offset the consumable
costs. For reference, we will not be able to pay you any stipend and it will not be possible
to extend your visit beyond six months. Therefore it is important that your award will
have sufficient funds to cover your travel and your living costs while you are here. I look
forward to seeing you here.

Yours sincerely

Prof. J. Allan Downie

Telephone (44) 1603 450207