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Buried treasure: bioactive plant seed proteins evolving inside hosts. This project aims to examine how evolution in plants shortcuts the creation of new proteins by burying one within another. Scientists now realise that new genes and proteins appear frequently. A recent discovery in plant seeds involves DNA sequence insertions in a gene that makes two proteins instead of one. This project will reveal a new family of buried seed proteins, determine the rules for burying them and search plants fo ....Buried treasure: bioactive plant seed proteins evolving inside hosts. This project aims to examine how evolution in plants shortcuts the creation of new proteins by burying one within another. Scientists now realise that new genes and proteins appear frequently. A recent discovery in plant seeds involves DNA sequence insertions in a gene that makes two proteins instead of one. This project will reveal a new family of buried seed proteins, determine the rules for burying them and search plants for new examples. The first examples from plants create strongly bioactive products so the ability to dig for similar plant events will reveal new and bioactive natural products with biomedical and biotechnology applications.Read moreRead less
Crop genome complexity: sulphur metabolism and mustard pungency. This project aims to explain the molecular basis of crop plant plasticity in the context of a complex crop genome. It will determine how epigenetic mechanisms contribute to regulating the yield of a secondary metabolite harvested from mustard plants in response to variation in environmental factors. Specifically it will explore the relationship between sulphur metabolism and small RNA regulation of glucosinolates. The project shoul ....Crop genome complexity: sulphur metabolism and mustard pungency. This project aims to explain the molecular basis of crop plant plasticity in the context of a complex crop genome. It will determine how epigenetic mechanisms contribute to regulating the yield of a secondary metabolite harvested from mustard plants in response to variation in environmental factors. Specifically it will explore the relationship between sulphur metabolism and small RNA regulation of glucosinolates. The project should uncover the role that duplicated genetic loci and epigenetic marks play in regulating tissue-specific gene networks, particularly in field-grown environments. The project will explore how duplication of genes enables a crop such as mustard to respond to application of sulphur fertiliser and regulate the stockpiling of the 'hot' volatile oil in mustard seed, a valuable export commodity.Read moreRead less
A new signalling component in shoot architecture: trehalose 6-phosphate. This project aims to investigate the role of a new signalling pathway involved in shoot branching. New knowledge is expected on how plants regulate shoot branching via sugar or hormone levels and/or signalling. The aims to build on recent finding that trehalose 6-phosphate (Tre6P) promotes shoot branching and to investigate whether sucrose acts via Tre6P and what role sucrose and Tre6P have compared with plant hormones. S ....A new signalling component in shoot architecture: trehalose 6-phosphate. This project aims to investigate the role of a new signalling pathway involved in shoot branching. New knowledge is expected on how plants regulate shoot branching via sugar or hormone levels and/or signalling. The aims to build on recent finding that trehalose 6-phosphate (Tre6P) promotes shoot branching and to investigate whether sucrose acts via Tre6P and what role sucrose and Tre6P have compared with plant hormones. Significant benefits may include new genetic or management strategies to modify shoot architecture.Read moreRead less
Harnessing peptide hormone outputs to improve root nodulation’s efficacy. This project aims to transform our understanding of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume root nodules. Root nodulation sustainably fixes sizeable amounts of nitrogen to boost crop production worldwide yet its utilisation is waning in favour of using nitrogen fertilisers. The project applies cutting-edge tools to define how two hormone systems boost and limit nitrogen fixation, respectively. The project expects to reveal w ....Harnessing peptide hormone outputs to improve root nodulation’s efficacy. This project aims to transform our understanding of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume root nodules. Root nodulation sustainably fixes sizeable amounts of nitrogen to boost crop production worldwide yet its utilisation is waning in favour of using nitrogen fertilisers. The project applies cutting-edge tools to define how two hormone systems boost and limit nitrogen fixation, respectively. The project expects to reveal ways to reconfigure these hormone outputs to improve nodule number and the efficacy of nitrogen fixation. The findings will benefit agriculture by reducing the reliance on costly nitrogen fertilisers, thus mitigating the huge environmental damage they cause, and will provide more sustainable ways to ensure food security.Read moreRead less
A new route to controlling root system architecture and drought tolerance. This project aims to transform our understanding of the relationship between root architecture and water and nitrogen acquisition, factors critical to determining yield. We have discovered that mutants affected in a peptide hormone receptor have unique root architectural features relevant to acquiring water and nitrogen. The mutants are drought tolerant and their roots are nitrate insensitive. The project aims to define t ....A new route to controlling root system architecture and drought tolerance. This project aims to transform our understanding of the relationship between root architecture and water and nitrogen acquisition, factors critical to determining yield. We have discovered that mutants affected in a peptide hormone receptor have unique root architectural features relevant to acquiring water and nitrogen. The mutants are drought tolerant and their roots are nitrate insensitive. The project aims to define the receptor’s genetic outputs and expects to uncover new ways to improve water and nitrate acquisition and determine if our findings apply to crops. The application of these findings will reduce the severe environmental damage caused by poor nitrogen fertiliser uptake and provide sustainable ways to ensure food security.Read moreRead less
CropVision: A next-generation system for predicting crop production. Accurate and timely production estimates are essential to Australia’s grain producers and industry to better deal with down side risk caused by climate extremes and market volatilities. However, current systems for predicting crop production are inaccurate and unreliable. This project aims to develop a next generation system for advance and high accuracy predictions for yield, crop type and area at field scale. This will be don ....CropVision: A next-generation system for predicting crop production. Accurate and timely production estimates are essential to Australia’s grain producers and industry to better deal with down side risk caused by climate extremes and market volatilities. However, current systems for predicting crop production are inaccurate and unreliable. This project aims to develop a next generation system for advance and high accuracy predictions for yield, crop type and area at field scale. This will be done by integrating the state of the art global climate models (GCM), biophysical crop modelling, and high-resolution earth observation technologies. This project will deliver a next generation crop prediction system to predict crop production at field scale for improved decision-making and enhancing resilience.Read moreRead less
Why is the peribacteroid membrane transcription factor SAT1 required for legume nitrogen fixation and what is its role in other symbiotic systems? This project will investigate the functional activity of the plant membrane bound basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor SAT1 in both nitrogen fixing (Rhizobia) and phosphorus acquiring (Arbuscular Mycorrhizal) symbioses found in plants. The project will identify its regulation and downstream activities across both symbiosis using selected ....Why is the peribacteroid membrane transcription factor SAT1 required for legume nitrogen fixation and what is its role in other symbiotic systems? This project will investigate the functional activity of the plant membrane bound basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor SAT1 in both nitrogen fixing (Rhizobia) and phosphorus acquiring (Arbuscular Mycorrhizal) symbioses found in plants. The project will identify its regulation and downstream activities across both symbiosis using selected legumes and or cereals.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE200100122
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$620,000.00
Summary
Returning WA Rapid Acquisition Fluorescent Microscopy to the cutting edge. The equipment proposal aims to establish West Australia's only super-rapid-speed, high throughput confocal microscopy facility. The technology will provide researchers in biotechnology, medicine, environmental biology and agriculture with contemporary state-of-art opportunities to analyse living cells and/or large-area tissue specimens in three-dimensions with the highest possible speed and high-resolution. West Australia ....Returning WA Rapid Acquisition Fluorescent Microscopy to the cutting edge. The equipment proposal aims to establish West Australia's only super-rapid-speed, high throughput confocal microscopy facility. The technology will provide researchers in biotechnology, medicine, environmental biology and agriculture with contemporary state-of-art opportunities to analyse living cells and/or large-area tissue specimens in three-dimensions with the highest possible speed and high-resolution. West Australia hosts 1 twelve-year old historic rapid-acquisition confocal microscope that is heavily subscribed, no longer manufactured and prone to regular, prolonged, costly breakdowns. Accessing high-speed confocal systems in other states is not a viable option putting WA-based researchers at a significant disadvantage.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100077
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
Automated preparative gas chromatograph for isolating unique and important organic components for structural identification. The rapid capability to purify and identify significant and important organic compounds, present at low levels within complex mixtures, is fundamental to geochemistry, plant biology, chemistry, and environmental science. This facility's automated gas chromatograph will assist in isolating and purifying new compounds from microbes, plants, humans, animals, and environmental ....Automated preparative gas chromatograph for isolating unique and important organic components for structural identification. The rapid capability to purify and identify significant and important organic compounds, present at low levels within complex mixtures, is fundamental to geochemistry, plant biology, chemistry, and environmental science. This facility's automated gas chromatograph will assist in isolating and purifying new compounds from microbes, plants, humans, animals, and environmental and geological samples.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100126
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$160,000.00
Summary
Expanding capability in Western Australian flow cytometry for earth, oceans, environmental and biomedical science: state-of-the-art four laser and 12 colour analysis. This multiparameter flow cytometry facility will find wide application in the biological and environmental sciences, including analysis: of cells in vertebrates giving new understanding of cognitive development; of parasites and bacteria leading to new animal vaccines; and of marine plankton leading to more sustainable ecosystems a ....Expanding capability in Western Australian flow cytometry for earth, oceans, environmental and biomedical science: state-of-the-art four laser and 12 colour analysis. This multiparameter flow cytometry facility will find wide application in the biological and environmental sciences, including analysis: of cells in vertebrates giving new understanding of cognitive development; of parasites and bacteria leading to new animal vaccines; and of marine plankton leading to more sustainable ecosystems and fisheries.Read moreRead less