Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100306
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,058.00
Summary
Does spurious maternal-fetal signalling support the evolution of a placenta. This project aims to test a model that explains how the placenta has evolved as a new organ more than 100 times in fishes, reptiles, and mammals including our own ancestors. The project will assess whether regulatory components of the placenta evolve as a result of spurious maternal-fetal signalling following egg retention and eggshell loss in viviparous reptiles. Expected outcomes of this project include a new understa ....Does spurious maternal-fetal signalling support the evolution of a placenta. This project aims to test a model that explains how the placenta has evolved as a new organ more than 100 times in fishes, reptiles, and mammals including our own ancestors. The project will assess whether regulatory components of the placenta evolve as a result of spurious maternal-fetal signalling following egg retention and eggshell loss in viviparous reptiles. Expected outcomes of this project include a new understanding of how complex organs originate and evolve in animals. This will benefit society through a broader depth of understanding of our own evolutionary history and provides a framework for future studies to investigate the origin and evolution of organs more broadly in animals.Read moreRead less
Evolution of the alternation of generations in the land plant life cycle. This project aims to investigate the genetic and evolutionary basis of land plants’ dimorphic life cycle where a single genome can generate two body plans. Like animals, land plants spend part of their life as a diploid, where meiosis generates haploid spores. Unlike animals, these spores grow into multicellular organisms before generating gametes. The project will study a homeodomain protein encoding a gene family that co ....Evolution of the alternation of generations in the land plant life cycle. This project aims to investigate the genetic and evolutionary basis of land plants’ dimorphic life cycle where a single genome can generate two body plans. Like animals, land plants spend part of their life as a diploid, where meiosis generates haploid spores. Unlike animals, these spores grow into multicellular organisms before generating gametes. The project will study a homeodomain protein encoding a gene family that controls the haploid to diploid transition in unicellular algae and fungi. It will investigate land plant genes in a flowering plant and a liverwort. These findings could help scientists understand and manipulate important processes such as pollen and seed production.Read moreRead less
Dissecting the causes and consequences of non-genetic parental effects. This project aims to determine the consequences of paternal and sperm experience for offspring and the mechanisms by which they occur. This project will make unambiguous tests of paternal effects under field conditions and will unravel the molecular pathways by which they occur. The outcome will be a better understanding of how environmental effects are transmitted through the male line. This will provide significant benefit ....Dissecting the causes and consequences of non-genetic parental effects. This project aims to determine the consequences of paternal and sperm experience for offspring and the mechanisms by which they occur. This project will make unambiguous tests of paternal effects under field conditions and will unravel the molecular pathways by which they occur. The outcome will be a better understanding of how environmental effects are transmitted through the male line. This will provide significant benefits, such as implications for climate change impacts and reproductive technologies.Read moreRead less
Evolution in action or the demise of iconic Australian flora? The project aims to investigate the evolutionary history and conservation status of a group of closely related Grevillea species, in the light of increasing pressure from landscape modification. This project will incorporate leading methodologies for massively parallel sequencing, pollinator preference and breeding capacity in order to detect the patterns and processes underpinning divergence in widely distributed species. A phylogene ....Evolution in action or the demise of iconic Australian flora? The project aims to investigate the evolutionary history and conservation status of a group of closely related Grevillea species, in the light of increasing pressure from landscape modification. This project will incorporate leading methodologies for massively parallel sequencing, pollinator preference and breeding capacity in order to detect the patterns and processes underpinning divergence in widely distributed species. A phylogenetic framework will provide the evolutionary relationships among taxa. This project is expected to inform requirements for long-term species persistence and, for threatened species within the group, guide the decision making of biodiversity managers as to what actions are required and where best to invest limited funds.Read moreRead less
Evolution of vascular tissue in land plants. This project will investigate genetic mechanisms of secondary cell wall thickening in a new genetic model representing an ancient plant lineage. This research will reveal the evolutionary origin of plant vascular tissue; a significant innovation that allowed increased size of plants and the origin of wood.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102034
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
How did mammals evolve large brains? A multidisciplinary view from the pouch. This project applies novel data collection techniques to explain how the large brain sizes of today's mammals (including humans) are possible. The focus will be on brain structure, development, and evolution in the mostly Australian marsupials, whose ancestral mode of brain development makes them an ideal group for studies of brain size evolution.