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ARC Australia-New Zealand Research Network for Vegetation Function. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits, and in their relations to climate, soils and geography. Global generalizations are emerging. Vegetation Function network will reach from plant function into genomics and crop breeding, into palaeoecology and vegetation history, into landscape management for carbon, water and salinity outcomes, into forecasting future ecosystems under global change, and into phylogeny, ....ARC Australia-New Zealand Research Network for Vegetation Function. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits, and in their relations to climate, soils and geography. Global generalizations are emerging. Vegetation Function network will reach from plant function into genomics and crop breeding, into palaeoecology and vegetation history, into landscape management for carbon, water and salinity outcomes, into forecasting future ecosystems under global change, and into phylogeny, ecoinformatics and evolutionary theory. Across this span, working groups will target nine identified opportunities for breakthrough research. Each research target needs input from two or more disciplines. Together, the nine targets link across disciplines, as a network that spans from genomic to planetary scales.Read moreRead less
The Shape of Plants; Discovering factors that control morphology by organizing the cytoskeleton. Understanding how plants generate the huge diversity of shapes seen in nature is both a scientific challenge and a biotechnological opportunity. Microtubules dominate cell architecture, providing dynamic, yet rigid, frameworks for defining or changing growth polarity. We recently discovered and cloned MOR1, a gene that is essential for organizing microtubules and controlling morphogenesis. This place ....The Shape of Plants; Discovering factors that control morphology by organizing the cytoskeleton. Understanding how plants generate the huge diversity of shapes seen in nature is both a scientific challenge and a biotechnological opportunity. Microtubules dominate cell architecture, providing dynamic, yet rigid, frameworks for defining or changing growth polarity. We recently discovered and cloned MOR1, a gene that is essential for organizing microtubules and controlling morphogenesis. This places us in a strong position to resolve a long-standing mystery: how are microtubules organized? We intend to define MOR1's structural attributes, identify its interacting proteins and innovate an ambitious screen for additional genes that have related functions. This project should stimulate new ideas and applications.Read moreRead less
Seagrass tolerance of oil spills - scaling of pollution impacts. Seagrasses provide vital ecosystem services (such as sediment stabilisation and habitat provision) in Australian coastal waters. The contribution of pollutants to current seagrass decline is poorly understood. The Australian shipping industry is the 5th largest in the world but there is very little data on the impacts of petroleum hydrocarbons on intertidal seagrasses and hence no information for coastal resource managers to use in ....Seagrass tolerance of oil spills - scaling of pollution impacts. Seagrasses provide vital ecosystem services (such as sediment stabilisation and habitat provision) in Australian coastal waters. The contribution of pollutants to current seagrass decline is poorly understood. The Australian shipping industry is the 5th largest in the world but there is very little data on the impacts of petroleum hydrocarbons on intertidal seagrasses and hence no information for coastal resource managers to use in decision-making in the event of an oil spill. This project will assess the relative toxicities of a number of petroleum hydrocarbons on Australian seagrass species to provide necessary data for the development of effective management practice.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989084
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$275,000.00
Summary
Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy for Live Cell Imaging. The University of Newcastle has invested heavily in its biological and life sciences to create a research nexus focusing on national research priorities in biotechnology and environmental protection. The Live Cell Imaging platform will be utilized by scientists researching such strategically important areas including developmental biology, intracellular signalling cascades, cell cycle dynamics, plant development and microbiology. Moreover ....Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy for Live Cell Imaging. The University of Newcastle has invested heavily in its biological and life sciences to create a research nexus focusing on national research priorities in biotechnology and environmental protection. The Live Cell Imaging platform will be utilized by scientists researching such strategically important areas including developmental biology, intracellular signalling cascades, cell cycle dynamics, plant development and microbiology. Moreover, this component of the University's research portfolio plays a major role in the postgraduate training of young Australian scientists who will, in turn, fuel future developments in both the life sciences and biotechnology industries.Read moreRead less
Linking Stress Tolerance to Molecular Evolution of Grass Stomata. Salinity and drought are two detrimental environmental stresses, affecting agricultural productivity and ecosystem health in Australia and around the world. This project will focus on the evolutionary, physiological and molecular aspects of stomatal regulation between wheat, barley and their wild relatives for salinity and drought tolerance. This project will advance the scientific knowledge in the evolution of stomatal regulation ....Linking Stress Tolerance to Molecular Evolution of Grass Stomata. Salinity and drought are two detrimental environmental stresses, affecting agricultural productivity and ecosystem health in Australia and around the world. This project will focus on the evolutionary, physiological and molecular aspects of stomatal regulation between wheat, barley and their wild relatives for salinity and drought tolerance. This project will advance the scientific knowledge in the evolution of stomatal regulation in two staple crops wheat and barley. The project will also assist plant breeders with increasing crop salinity and drought tolerance for global food security.Read moreRead less
Physiological and molecular controls of plant transpiration efficiency: investigating the role of the ERECTA gene. Water is the single most limiting factor in agriculture and the world's supply of fresh water is diminishing, the greatest fraction of total water use being by agriculture. Progress in water-use efficiency will have social value, and this program should help us to achieve it. Our progress in this area is already one of the most successful of 'bottom-up' approaches - in the sense of ....Physiological and molecular controls of plant transpiration efficiency: investigating the role of the ERECTA gene. Water is the single most limiting factor in agriculture and the world's supply of fresh water is diminishing, the greatest fraction of total water use being by agriculture. Progress in water-use efficiency will have social value, and this program should help us to achieve it. Our progress in this area is already one of the most successful of 'bottom-up' approaches - in the sense of transferring knowledge from biochemistry and biophysics to breeding and agronomy, as CSIRO now has a successful wheat breeding program based on this earlier work of ours. Now that we have discovered a gene that controls water-use efficiency at the leaf level, we wish to see how the gene works, and how it affects mineral nutrition of leaves.Read moreRead less
Identifying genes controlling the regulatory and metabolic interactions between the energy organelles of the leaf. Plant energy metabolism underlies the synthesis of many important products in crops, and subtle changes in metabolism can enhance key plant traits, such as germination rates, early seedling vigour, biomass/yield, and tolerance to harsh environments. Furthering our understanding on the complex interplay of genes controlling energy metabolism and its impact on leaf function has potent ....Identifying genes controlling the regulatory and metabolic interactions between the energy organelles of the leaf. Plant energy metabolism underlies the synthesis of many important products in crops, and subtle changes in metabolism can enhance key plant traits, such as germination rates, early seedling vigour, biomass/yield, and tolerance to harsh environments. Furthering our understanding on the complex interplay of genes controlling energy metabolism and its impact on leaf function has potential outcomes for smart genetic manipulation either by classical breeding or genetic transformation. There are more than 10,000 genes of unknown function in plant genomes and this represents a tremendous untapped resource for future Australian R&D outcomes and insights from this research proposal will have application to all plant-based agriculture.Read moreRead less
Molecular and Cellular Characterisations of the Cortical Actin Cytoskeleton in the Plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant cells contain extensive arrays of the cytoskeletal protein actin that attach to the plasma membrane and may play important roles in cell elongation through interactions with cortical microtubules. However, the organisation, dynamics and functions of cortical actin remain poorly understood. I will combine cell and molecular approaches to understanding cortical actin in living tissu ....Molecular and Cellular Characterisations of the Cortical Actin Cytoskeleton in the Plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant cells contain extensive arrays of the cytoskeletal protein actin that attach to the plasma membrane and may play important roles in cell elongation through interactions with cortical microtubules. However, the organisation, dynamics and functions of cortical actin remain poorly understood. I will combine cell and molecular approaches to understanding cortical actin in living tissue of Arabidopsis, using both wild-type and previously uncharacterised mutants, and will develop a novel mutational screening strategy to isolate mutants disrupted in plasma membrane or microtubule binding. This research will contribute significantly to a greater understanding of how the plant grows and develops.Read moreRead less
The metabolic and enzymatic regulation of C4 photosynthesis and its impact on photosynthetic productivity. Australia's tropical pastures are dominated by plants utilising the C4 photosynthetic pathway. World wide C4 grasslands contribute to approximately 20% of global primary productivity. C4 plants also include important crop species such as maize, sorghum and sugar cane and are considered ideal species for bio-fuel production. This project will use a novel functional genomic/metabolomics appro ....The metabolic and enzymatic regulation of C4 photosynthesis and its impact on photosynthetic productivity. Australia's tropical pastures are dominated by plants utilising the C4 photosynthetic pathway. World wide C4 grasslands contribute to approximately 20% of global primary productivity. C4 plants also include important crop species such as maize, sorghum and sugar cane and are considered ideal species for bio-fuel production. This project will use a novel functional genomic/metabolomics approach to provide fundamental insights into the biochemical regulation of C4 photosynthesis under different environmental conditions. This will aid in the development of mathematical models of C4 photosynthesis required in climate models of CO2 exchange and enhance our ability to improve photosynthetic performance of agricultural species.Read moreRead less