Extreme expression: building a platform for industrial plant biotechnology. Plants have remarkable potential as bioreactors for the production of usually non-plant compounds such as medical proteins, industrial proteins including enzymes and polymers. However, to realise this potential, there needs to be very significant advances in the amount of target compounds produced in the bioreactor plants and to develop other plant species as bioreactors. The aim of this project is to develop technologie ....Extreme expression: building a platform for industrial plant biotechnology. Plants have remarkable potential as bioreactors for the production of usually non-plant compounds such as medical proteins, industrial proteins including enzymes and polymers. However, to realise this potential, there needs to be very significant advances in the amount of target compounds produced in the bioreactor plants and to develop other plant species as bioreactors. The aim of this project is to develop technologies that provide the platform to produce large quantities of target novel compounds in plants and extend the range of plant species that can be used as bioreactors. These technologies will provide the basis of a dynamic biofarming industry in Australia.Read moreRead less
Developing biotechnology solutions for improving phosphate acquisition in plants using functional genomics in rice. Global supplies of the most currently used phosphate fertilisers are predicted to be exhausted in less than a century. These fertilisers are non-renewable resources based on phosphate rock deposits and their use are key drivers of both plant production costs and environmental damage in Australia and internationally. Using the power of genetic and functional genomics analyses in ric ....Developing biotechnology solutions for improving phosphate acquisition in plants using functional genomics in rice. Global supplies of the most currently used phosphate fertilisers are predicted to be exhausted in less than a century. These fertilisers are non-renewable resources based on phosphate rock deposits and their use are key drivers of both plant production costs and environmental damage in Australia and internationally. Using the power of genetic and functional genomics analyses in rice, this project will reveal key controllers of phosphate acquisition in plants. Hence, novel biotechnology based solutions can be implemented in a variety of cereal crops to aid reduced use of phosphate fertiliser in agriculture and unlock the large phosphate pool not used by plants in soil.Read moreRead less
Improving plant productivity and human health using next generation biotechnology approaches. Both medical and plant sciences face similar technological problems in harnessing the power of modern DNA sequencing for accelerating the pace of beneficial gene function discovery. Plant and animal researchers will collaborate in this program to meet this common challenge. The research outcomes envisaged in this proposal will benefit human health by enabling more rapid discovery of genes related to obe ....Improving plant productivity and human health using next generation biotechnology approaches. Both medical and plant sciences face similar technological problems in harnessing the power of modern DNA sequencing for accelerating the pace of beneficial gene function discovery. Plant and animal researchers will collaborate in this program to meet this common challenge. The research outcomes envisaged in this proposal will benefit human health by enabling more rapid discovery of genes related to obesity, immunity, fertility, neurological function and cancer. In the plant sphere, the outcomes will shed new light on plant functions related to plant energy metabolism, vitamin biosynthesis drought tolerance and water use by crops. The research will benefit both human health and agricultural food production and quality.Read moreRead less