The metabolic footprint of plants. Plant roots "leak" 5-10% of the C fixed in photosynthesis. Surprisingly, we have a limited understanding of which compounds leak from roots.This project will identify the compounds leaking from roots and explore their function in tolerance of biotic and abiotic stress and implications for soil respiration.
Wall ingrowth formation in plant transfer cells - discovering regulatory transcription factor cascades. This project will discover how specialised plant 'transfer cells', designed for optimum transport of nutrients, develop complex wall ingrowths. Discovering the genes which regulate wall ingrowth deposition in these cells will generate opportunities to improve crop yield and therefore contribute to addressing global food security.
Limits to the resilience of Australian forests and woodlands to drought. Water availability is a primary determinant of plant growth and the distribution of plant species and communities throughout the world. In Australia, climate change is predicted to result in increasing temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns, leading to more intense droughts in some areas. This project will examine the resilience of Australian forests and woodlands to drought under both current and future climate s ....Limits to the resilience of Australian forests and woodlands to drought. Water availability is a primary determinant of plant growth and the distribution of plant species and communities throughout the world. In Australia, climate change is predicted to result in increasing temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns, leading to more intense droughts in some areas. This project will examine the resilience of Australian forests and woodlands to drought under both current and future climate scenarios. The results of this work will feed into the new generation of dynamic global vegetation models, allowing for robust prediction of changes in the structure and productivity of Australian vegetation communities in the face of rapid climate change.Read moreRead less
Plant transfer cells: discovering regulatory mechanisms directing assembly of their ingrowth walls. Specialised transfer cells facilitate nutrient transport within plants which is essential for their growth. This project will explore how structural and functional changes are regulated to form a transfer cell. The results of this research will contribute to scientific knowledge applicable to increasing crop yield.
Oxygen isotope discrimination during C4 photosynthesis. Plants with the C4 photosynthetic pathway, like sugarcane and pasture grasses, are vital to Australian agriculture and natural ecosystems. This project will use novel laser spectroscopy to measure oxygen isotope discrimination during photosynthesis and quantify the influence of C4 plants on isotopic signatures of atmospheric CO2.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE140100133
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$230,000.00
Summary
Expansion and Upgrade of the Newcastle Plant Growth Facility. Expansion and upgrade of the Newcastle plant growth facility: The project will upgrade and expand the Newcastle plant growth facility to ensure a continuous supply of high quality plant material required for competitively-funded research programs. This outcome will be achieved by replacing plant growth cabinets that have passed their built-in 15 year redundancy by many years, and the addition of specialist cabinets for Arabidopsis res ....Expansion and Upgrade of the Newcastle Plant Growth Facility. Expansion and upgrade of the Newcastle plant growth facility: The project will upgrade and expand the Newcastle plant growth facility to ensure a continuous supply of high quality plant material required for competitively-funded research programs. This outcome will be achieved by replacing plant growth cabinets that have passed their built-in 15 year redundancy by many years, and the addition of specialist cabinets for Arabidopsis research housed in a renovated PC2 space. Together, the infrastructure additions will enhance the productivity and excellence of core areas of plant biology research in plant development and nutrient transport, which are both areas of research that will be critical to address issues of food security in the future.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
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100001
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$345,475.00
Summary
Pushing the limits of fluorescence microscopy with adaptive optics. This project aims to establish an adaptive optics, super-resolution optical microscopy facility to image cellular events with the highest possible spatial resolution, in a whole cell or tissue context. Sophisticated computer-controlled deformable mirrors will be used to correct the way light is distorted as it passes through specimens, thereby overcoming aberrations found in thick and complex samples. This adaptive optics system ....Pushing the limits of fluorescence microscopy with adaptive optics. This project aims to establish an adaptive optics, super-resolution optical microscopy facility to image cellular events with the highest possible spatial resolution, in a whole cell or tissue context. Sophisticated computer-controlled deformable mirrors will be used to correct the way light is distorted as it passes through specimens, thereby overcoming aberrations found in thick and complex samples. This adaptive optics system will enable researchers to study complex behaviour of biological specimens, at the optical resolution limit in plant and animal tissues, leading to basic biology and biotechnology outcomes in biofuels, biomaterials and biomedicines.Read moreRead less
Is physiological flexibility of forest trees constrained by home climate in a rapidly warming world? The projected average Australian climate warming of 3 degrees celsius by 2070 represents a shift in climate equivalent to moving 900 km from Sydney to Brisbane. As forest trees cannot migrate fast enough to avoid these unprecedented increases in temperature, the resiliency of Australian forests to climate warming will depend on their capacity to physiologically adjust to higher temperatures. But, ....Is physiological flexibility of forest trees constrained by home climate in a rapidly warming world? The projected average Australian climate warming of 3 degrees celsius by 2070 represents a shift in climate equivalent to moving 900 km from Sydney to Brisbane. As forest trees cannot migrate fast enough to avoid these unprecedented increases in temperature, the resiliency of Australian forests to climate warming will depend on their capacity to physiologically adjust to higher temperatures. But, can forest trees successfully adjust to new climates in their current locations? This project plans to determine how thermal acclimation influences leaf and tree carbon exchange, and whether this depends upon a tree’s “home” climate. These knowledge gaps limit our ability to predict the future of our forests and consequences for carbon cycling in a warmer world.Read moreRead less
Exploiting natural variation to discover tools to increase crop plant yield. This project aims to identify the specific biochemical and underlying molecular modifications that contributed to the evolution of the C4 pathway by studying C3, C4 and C3-C4 intermediate Flaveria species. Most land plants use C3 or C4 photosynthesis to assimilate CO2. Plants using the C4 pathway evolved from C3 ancestors in multiple plant lineages, and show higher rates of photosynthesis and conversion of solar radiati ....Exploiting natural variation to discover tools to increase crop plant yield. This project aims to identify the specific biochemical and underlying molecular modifications that contributed to the evolution of the C4 pathway by studying C3, C4 and C3-C4 intermediate Flaveria species. Most land plants use C3 or C4 photosynthesis to assimilate CO2. Plants using the C4 pathway evolved from C3 ancestors in multiple plant lineages, and show higher rates of photosynthesis and conversion of solar radiation to biomass in arid, high-light and saline environments, which are expanding due to global climate change. The outcomes of this project could define what is required to engineer plant varieties with increased yield and the ability to withstand effects of climate shift, and contribute to our understanding of convergent evolutionary processes.Read moreRead less