More than defence: primary roles for cyanogenic glucosides. The tropical crop, sorghum, produces toxic cyanide to avoid being eaten by herbivores, but this diverts resources away from growth and reproduction. Using non-toxic sorghum mutants, this project seeks to explain how cyanide production is regulated and enhance agricultural efficiency in the face of climate change.
The LINK to Regulating Lysine Levels in Wheat. This project aims to characterise a recently discovered allosteric mechanism called 'Ligand-Induced association by Lysine (K)' (LINK) model. LINK model regulates the function of a key biosynthetic enzyme in bacteria and plants, including agriculturally-important species such as wheat. Also, it represents a highly significant discovery to the field of biochemistry. The expected outcomes of this project include an in-depth understanding of the molecul ....The LINK to Regulating Lysine Levels in Wheat. This project aims to characterise a recently discovered allosteric mechanism called 'Ligand-Induced association by Lysine (K)' (LINK) model. LINK model regulates the function of a key biosynthetic enzyme in bacteria and plants, including agriculturally-important species such as wheat. Also, it represents a highly significant discovery to the field of biochemistry. The expected outcomes of this project include an in-depth understanding of the molecular basis of a new allosteric mechanism for regulating intracellular lysine levels, which in the longer term offers excellent potential to be manipulated for agricultural benefits.Read moreRead less
Leaves in 3D: photosynthesis and water-use efficiency. This project aims to develop leaf anatomical ideotypes with improved photosynthesis and water-use efficiency for wheat, rice, chickpea and cotton using novel three dimensional imaging and modelling techniques. This project expects to generate new understanding of the role of leaf anatomy on leaf function. Expected outcomes of this project include the world's first 3D spatially-explicit, anatomically accurate model of leaves of crop plants to ....Leaves in 3D: photosynthesis and water-use efficiency. This project aims to develop leaf anatomical ideotypes with improved photosynthesis and water-use efficiency for wheat, rice, chickpea and cotton using novel three dimensional imaging and modelling techniques. This project expects to generate new understanding of the role of leaf anatomy on leaf function. Expected outcomes of this project include the world's first 3D spatially-explicit, anatomically accurate model of leaves of crop plants to allow virtual experiments identifying optimized anatomy for improved photosynthetic performance. Benefits to the agricultural industry include increased crop productivity and water-use efficiency to meet future global food demand and to make the most of Australia's limited water resourcesRead moreRead less
Engineering the plant mitochondrial electron transport chain for tolerance of environmental stress. Plants often face hostile environments that place them under stress. Reactive oxygen molecules produced under these conditions act as signals to activate defense mechanisms, but also cause cell damage. Mitochondria are subcellular compartments involved in energy production and are essential for plant growth and development, but they have also been implicated in the response of plants to environmen ....Engineering the plant mitochondrial electron transport chain for tolerance of environmental stress. Plants often face hostile environments that place them under stress. Reactive oxygen molecules produced under these conditions act as signals to activate defense mechanisms, but also cause cell damage. Mitochondria are subcellular compartments involved in energy production and are essential for plant growth and development, but they have also been implicated in the response of plants to environmental stress, and in production of reactive oxygen molecules. This project will investigate special features of plant mitochondria that ameliorate oxidative stress. Potential outcomes include crops better able to cope with environmental stress.Read moreRead less
Optimising crop root systems to enhance capture of soil water and nutrients. The project’s goal is to improve crop breeding for increased efficiency of acquiring soil resources. Increasing a crop’s efficiency in capturing soil resources (water and nutrients) is an imperative task in ensuring food security. This project plans to use barley as the model cereal crop and characterise root traits in a panel of cultivars assembled to represent maximum diversity as well as in biparental mapping populat ....Optimising crop root systems to enhance capture of soil water and nutrients. The project’s goal is to improve crop breeding for increased efficiency of acquiring soil resources. Increasing a crop’s efficiency in capturing soil resources (water and nutrients) is an imperative task in ensuring food security. This project plans to use barley as the model cereal crop and characterise root traits in a panel of cultivars assembled to represent maximum diversity as well as in biparental mapping population followed by association and linkage mapping to identify genetic markers linked with specific root traits. These markers will be incorporated into a computer model of 3-D root structure and function. The enhanced computer model would be able to simulate optimal root systems for specific environments and generate a list of selectable root-trait markers.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE110100239
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$480,000.00
Summary
Small biological molecule tissue imaging mass spectrometry facility for Western Australia for spatial metabolomics and lipidomics. This tissue imaging facility for Western Australia will provide researchers with access to much needed instrumentation. The facility will support major research efforts in key disciplines, including agriculture and animal science, fisheries and medical science.
Re-balancing global resources: Manipulating toxic prussic acid (dhurrin) to improve nitrogen use efficiency in forage sorghum in a changing climate. Sorghum is grown widely is Australia and world-wide for forage, grain (mostly for animal feed) and biofuels. It grows well in dry areas. The problem is that the leaves contain a toxin that releases prussic acid (cyanide) that can reduce animal production or even kill stock feeding on it, especially when water stressed. The problem will get worse wit ....Re-balancing global resources: Manipulating toxic prussic acid (dhurrin) to improve nitrogen use efficiency in forage sorghum in a changing climate. Sorghum is grown widely is Australia and world-wide for forage, grain (mostly for animal feed) and biofuels. It grows well in dry areas. The problem is that the leaves contain a toxin that releases prussic acid (cyanide) that can reduce animal production or even kill stock feeding on it, especially when water stressed. The problem will get worse with climate change. Low-cyanide plants developed by us using non-GM methods grow fast, but accumulate nitrate instead which is also toxic. This is a waste of expensive fertiliser too. We aim to develop plants that divert resources to growth instead of toxins in order to reduce fertiliser use and help prepare for the future. The fast growing plants may also be useful as a biofuel crop.Read moreRead less
Determining how the soluble dietary fibre beta-glucan is made in cereals. This Project aims to define the molecular mechanisms that control the processes involved in the biosynthesis and regulation of mixed linkage glucan, a major soluble dietary fibre in the cell walls of cereal grains. Plant cell walls determine the quality of most plant-based products used in modern human societies, yet the regulatory mechanisms responsible for their modulation are not well understood. Key distinguishing feat ....Determining how the soluble dietary fibre beta-glucan is made in cereals. This Project aims to define the molecular mechanisms that control the processes involved in the biosynthesis and regulation of mixed linkage glucan, a major soluble dietary fibre in the cell walls of cereal grains. Plant cell walls determine the quality of most plant-based products used in modern human societies, yet the regulatory mechanisms responsible for their modulation are not well understood. Key distinguishing features of the Project will be the international, integrative, and multidisciplinary approach towards addressing this major challenge in plant biology and the potential of the fundamental scientific discoveries to benefit end-users in the food, feed and beverage industries.Read moreRead less
Improving heat and drought tolerance in canola through genomic selection in Brassica rapa. This project aims to improve heat and drought tolerance in canola by identifying stress tolerance genes in the genetically diverse turnip family. An effective large-scale screening test for heat and drought tolerance will be developed and a number of heat- and drought-tolerant lines will be identified for genomic breeding and selection.
Nutrient transfer across symbiotic membranes in soybean. Legume plants interact with soil bacteria that fix nitrogen from the air to obtain nitrogen required for growth, reducing their use of fertilisers. Understanding how nutrients are exchanged between bacteria and legumes may improve the efficiency of this process. This would make legumes a more valuable component of sustainable agricultural systems.