What determines plant sensitivity to heat?: Individual to lifetime impacts. Temperature is a major determinant of the distribution of species and yet the capacity to predict the thermal sensitivity of plants is extremely limited. How vulnerability varies as a plant grows from seed to adult and produces more seed is a key question. Whether chronic warming exacerbates or ameliorates effects of extreme events, e.g. triggering the plant to enlist defensive strategies, is also an open question. This ....What determines plant sensitivity to heat?: Individual to lifetime impacts. Temperature is a major determinant of the distribution of species and yet the capacity to predict the thermal sensitivity of plants is extremely limited. How vulnerability varies as a plant grows from seed to adult and produces more seed is a key question. Whether chronic warming exacerbates or ameliorates effects of extreme events, e.g. triggering the plant to enlist defensive strategies, is also an open question. This project will advance fundamental understanding of how thermal tolerance varies across species and over the plant life cycle and how it scales demographically to lifetime vulnerability. The work will yield a significant advance in our capacity to predict impacts of extreme heat events on plant performance and distribution.
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Protecting cereal grain development at high temperatures. This project aims to investigate new temperature-responsive factors that regulate cereal grain development to protect grain production under heat stress. The new research will leverage international collaborations with access to cutting-edge genetic and technological resources, and refine novel X-ray imaging techniques in Australia, to observe how temperature affects flower structure and function in barley and rice. Favourable mutations t ....Protecting cereal grain development at high temperatures. This project aims to investigate new temperature-responsive factors that regulate cereal grain development to protect grain production under heat stress. The new research will leverage international collaborations with access to cutting-edge genetic and technological resources, and refine novel X-ray imaging techniques in Australia, to observe how temperature affects flower structure and function in barley and rice. Favourable mutations that optimise plant yield and fitness will be defined and explored in other, more complex, cereals such as wheat. Expected outcomes will be fundamental breakthroughs in understanding how plants respond to, and buffer, the effects of heat to lead to translational breeding strategies that bolster grain yield.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. This Centre aims to create on-demand, zero-waste, high-efficiency plants and plant products to address grand challenges in sustainability for Space and on Earth. Significant advances in plant, food, and sensory science; process and systems engineering; law and policy; and psychology are expected to deliver transformative solutions for Space habitation – and create enhanced plant-derived food and bioresour ....ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. This Centre aims to create on-demand, zero-waste, high-efficiency plants and plant products to address grand challenges in sustainability for Space and on Earth. Significant advances in plant, food, and sensory science; process and systems engineering; law and policy; and psychology are expected to deliver transformative solutions for Space habitation – and create enhanced plant-derived food and bioresources to capitalise upon emergent and rapidly expanding domestic and global markets. Anticipated outcomes include industry uptake of innovative plant forms, foods, technologies, and commodities; and an ambitious education and international co-ordination agenda to position Australia as a global leader in research supporting Space habitation.Read moreRead less
Boosting C4 photosynthesis to climate proof crop yields. Building next generation C4 crops, such as maize, sugarcane and sorghum, to cope with drought and heat stress is requisite to ensure the supply of food and fodder. Here we will increase the content and / or catalytic efficiency of the primary carboxylase of C4 photosynthesis (PEPC) that supplies CO2 to the carbon concentrating mechanism and ensures high photosynthetic rates. We will develop new SynBio tools to create and test novel PEPC is ....Boosting C4 photosynthesis to climate proof crop yields. Building next generation C4 crops, such as maize, sugarcane and sorghum, to cope with drought and heat stress is requisite to ensure the supply of food and fodder. Here we will increase the content and / or catalytic efficiency of the primary carboxylase of C4 photosynthesis (PEPC) that supplies CO2 to the carbon concentrating mechanism and ensures high photosynthetic rates. We will develop new SynBio tools to create and test novel PEPC isoforms with desirable properties. Ultimately, the project aims to identify isoforms that improve plant fitness under stress conditions. Optimising PEPC activity will provide next generation solutions to improve water balance and carbon assimilation to keep C4 crops productive under future climates.Read moreRead less
Genomics to rust proof the humble oat. This project aims to reduce the impact of the damaging and currently intractable fungal pathogen crown rust (OCR) in Australian oat production. The expected project outcomes are: new sources of enduring high value resistance to OCR, tools to accelerate the use of these resistances, and locally adapted OCR resistant oat germplasm for use in developing profitable oat varieties. The project will use new approaches to tap very recently released genomic resource ....Genomics to rust proof the humble oat. This project aims to reduce the impact of the damaging and currently intractable fungal pathogen crown rust (OCR) in Australian oat production. The expected project outcomes are: new sources of enduring high value resistance to OCR, tools to accelerate the use of these resistances, and locally adapted OCR resistant oat germplasm for use in developing profitable oat varieties. The project will use new approaches to tap very recently released genomic resources and unique oat/ OCR resources assembled over many years. It will lead to responsible stewardship of broadly effective OCR resistance in grazing/milling/hay oats, increasing grower profitability, reducing reliance on fungicides, and underpinning planned growth in our export oat market. Read moreRead less