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Mineral content of leaves and the ratio of water loss to carbon gain: environmental and genetic controls and comparison with stable isotopic measures. The ash content of leaves has promise as a cheap screen of water-use efficiency or of 'vigour' in crop plants, but the underlying mechanisms are not understood. The underlying science is at the intersection of plant growth, water use and nutrition. This project will aid breeders in understanding the conditions under which the screen may work.
Halophytes for high-saline agriculture: optimising performance and understanding physiology. The recent drought has shaved off up to 1 per cent of Australia's economic growth and resulted in losses of over $6 billion in crop and livestock production. At the same time, very large volumes of water with impaired chemical quality are generated by industry and municipal water treatment processes. In most cases, these cannot be used directly for crop irrigation and have to be disposed of at extreme co ....Halophytes for high-saline agriculture: optimising performance and understanding physiology. The recent drought has shaved off up to 1 per cent of Australia's economic growth and resulted in losses of over $6 billion in crop and livestock production. At the same time, very large volumes of water with impaired chemical quality are generated by industry and municipal water treatment processes. In most cases, these cannot be used directly for crop irrigation and have to be disposed of at extreme cost and waste. This project will utilise halophytes as 'alternative cash crops' to use the saline water produced by the coal seam gas operations in the Surat Basin area in Queensland. This will result in a saving of at least $48 million over the five years of operation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101143
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,220.00
Summary
An electrophysiological insight into the role of chloroplasts in stomatal drought signalling. Drought implies a range of stresses with which plants have to cope. Drought is not only a domestic issue for Australian people who live in this dry continent but also significantly affects global food supply and drives climate change. Stomata guard cells exert major controls on global water and carbon cycles. Although the total stomatal pore area may be five per cent of a leaf surface, transpirational w ....An electrophysiological insight into the role of chloroplasts in stomatal drought signalling. Drought implies a range of stresses with which plants have to cope. Drought is not only a domestic issue for Australian people who live in this dry continent but also significantly affects global food supply and drives climate change. Stomata guard cells exert major controls on global water and carbon cycles. Although the total stomatal pore area may be five per cent of a leaf surface, transpirational water loss through the stomata contributes to 70 per cent of total agricultural water usage. As an environmental signal, drought regulates stomatal movements. This project seeks to understand the mechanisms of drought induced molecular retrograde signals and their regulation over stomata. The outcomes will aid the development of strategies for reducing water loss from crops.Read moreRead less
A novel DNA motif involved in plant mitochondrial stress responses. The future of Australia's agriculture is threatened by limited water resources, temperature extremes and soil salinity. This project aims to unravel how plants are able to adapt to this continuously changing environment, by focusing on the role of mitochondria - cellular compartments essential for energy metabolism and plant stress responses.
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL190100056
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,795,000.00
Summary
Smart Plants and Solutions for Enhancing Crop Resilience and Yield. The Fellowship aims to produce transformative solutions targeting crop resilience and food security. The chloroplast, the site of photosynthesis, regulates a suite of cellular processes that control photosynthesis, growth and drought resilience. It is expected that a first ever blueprint of the suite of communication networks used by the chloroplast will be discovered. I will use synthetic biology to rewire the network in order ....Smart Plants and Solutions for Enhancing Crop Resilience and Yield. The Fellowship aims to produce transformative solutions targeting crop resilience and food security. The chloroplast, the site of photosynthesis, regulates a suite of cellular processes that control photosynthesis, growth and drought resilience. It is expected that a first ever blueprint of the suite of communication networks used by the chloroplast will be discovered. I will use synthetic biology to rewire the network in order to generate 'smart plants' that are higher-yielding and more resilient in both good and bad seasons by precisely switching on and off resilience. Such re-imaginings of crop systems, inclusive of societal implications, will help chart the future of Australian agriculture.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100073
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$280,000.00
Summary
High-throughput sample preparation robotics to enable emerging large-scale plant genomics, metabolomics and proteomics research. Discovering and breeding plants that are best suited for new environmental conditions requires the analysis of many samples to discover the underlying genes, metabolites and proteins. The project will build two robotic instruments that will facilitate the rapid grinding and extraction of plant tissues to facilitate these discoveries across Australia.
On the physiology of plant transpiration. This project aims to better understand plant transpiration. It is significant from both a basic and a practical perspective. It intends to solve a conundrum of the biophysics of the evaporative sites within leaves. That is, in dry air, the relative humidity of intercellular air spaces suggests much lower liquid water potentials than those typically measured. At a practical level, the failure to sustain transpiration in dry conditions leads to desiccation ....On the physiology of plant transpiration. This project aims to better understand plant transpiration. It is significant from both a basic and a practical perspective. It intends to solve a conundrum of the biophysics of the evaporative sites within leaves. That is, in dry air, the relative humidity of intercellular air spaces suggests much lower liquid water potentials than those typically measured. At a practical level, the failure to sustain transpiration in dry conditions leads to desiccation and tissue death, and plants differ in this vulnerability. The aim is to apply a novel nanoparticle technique to measure the water potential distribution within the leaf, identify hydraulic resilience attributes, and develop a modern theory of optimal transpiration under varying conditions.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE200100181
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,050,000.00
Summary
Crossing the biology meso-nanoscale divide by scanning electron microscopy. This project aims to establish complementary scanning electron microscope (SEM) facilities at The University of Melbourne and LaTrobe University to advance research into crops, disease, neurosciences and coral reefs. SEMs are rapidly evolving instruments that permit high resolution imaging of visible size samples such as parts of plants and animals. The potential innovations, applications and benefits to society are far ....Crossing the biology meso-nanoscale divide by scanning electron microscopy. This project aims to establish complementary scanning electron microscope (SEM) facilities at The University of Melbourne and LaTrobe University to advance research into crops, disease, neurosciences and coral reefs. SEMs are rapidly evolving instruments that permit high resolution imaging of visible size samples such as parts of plants and animals. The potential innovations, applications and benefits to society are far reaching, with the facility expected to impact the development of drought and salinity tolerance in crops, production of fibres by plants, resilience of Great Barrier Reef corals to warming, advances in medicinal agriculture, control of important diseases of livestock and humans, and sensory processing and ocular disease.Read moreRead less
Predicting and improving the productivity of plants in future climates. Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) sustains all terrestrial vegetation, yet the effects of increasing concentrations of this gas on plant productivity are difficult to predict. The project aims to undertake experiments on the leaf-level processes that underpin plant productivity in multiple global vegetation systems. This could enable the development of a new theoretical approach to predicting plant productivity in cha ....Predicting and improving the productivity of plants in future climates. Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) sustains all terrestrial vegetation, yet the effects of increasing concentrations of this gas on plant productivity are difficult to predict. The project aims to undertake experiments on the leaf-level processes that underpin plant productivity in multiple global vegetation systems. This could enable the development of a new theoretical approach to predicting plant productivity in changed environmental circumstances at all scales. The results of this project could provide new tools for understanding the vulnerabilities and sensitivities of natural and managed landscapes under environmental pressures associated with increasing CO2.Read moreRead less
Defining and engineering the rhizosphere for Australian rainfall patterns. The manner in which plants use carbon and water defines agricultural and natural landscapes. Today's models that predict plant improvement rely on carbon and water usage by plant leaves. However, the first interaction between plants, carbon and water occurs in the rhizosphere; a diverse zone with dynamic root-microbiome interactions. We will use advanced visualisation and mathematics to determine fine scale relationships ....Defining and engineering the rhizosphere for Australian rainfall patterns. The manner in which plants use carbon and water defines agricultural and natural landscapes. Today's models that predict plant improvement rely on carbon and water usage by plant leaves. However, the first interaction between plants, carbon and water occurs in the rhizosphere; a diverse zone with dynamic root-microbiome interactions. We will use advanced visualisation and mathematics to determine fine scale relationships between microbes and roots in the rhizosphere when exposed to water levels reflective of current and projected rainfall values. From generated knowledge of water and carbon dynamics caused by intimate microbe-root interactions, we will provide water saving, soil regeneration and improved carbon biosequestration strategies.Read moreRead less