How plants open up: revealing the evolution of stomatal opening mechanisms. This project aims to identify novel and conserved mechanisms that drive the opening of stomata – plant pores that enable CO2 acquisition for photosynthesis. Stomatal movements strongly affect plant productivity and water use efficiency and have profoundly influenced the earth’s climate and terrestrial ecology. This project will address critical gaps in our understanding of how plants open stomata in response to their env ....How plants open up: revealing the evolution of stomatal opening mechanisms. This project aims to identify novel and conserved mechanisms that drive the opening of stomata – plant pores that enable CO2 acquisition for photosynthesis. Stomatal movements strongly affect plant productivity and water use efficiency and have profoundly influenced the earth’s climate and terrestrial ecology. This project will address critical gaps in our understanding of how plants open stomata in response to their environment and the evolutionary history of the genes controlling this fundamental process. A major expected outcome is knowledge of the diversity of stomatal opening pathways, which should ultimately lead to improved predictions of plant responses to environmental change and assist future targeted modification of plant growth.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101133
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$427,067.00
Summary
The quick and the dead: identifying mechanisms for plant drought survival. This project aims to identify genes that control plant responses to low air humidity, which enhance drought survival by restricting water loss. Most plant water loss occurs through pores called stomata. This project expects to identify the genes that close stomata within minutes of decreased humidity by determining the molecular changes that occur over this timeframe and testing candidate genes for a critical role. Divers ....The quick and the dead: identifying mechanisms for plant drought survival. This project aims to identify genes that control plant responses to low air humidity, which enhance drought survival by restricting water loss. Most plant water loss occurs through pores called stomata. This project expects to identify the genes that close stomata within minutes of decreased humidity by determining the molecular changes that occur over this timeframe and testing candidate genes for a critical role. Diverse land plant models will be examined to ensure broad applicability of results. A major expected outcome is new knowledge of genes that minimise plant water loss, which would ultimately benefit plant-based industries through new targets for breeding improved, drought-adapted varieties for food security in a drying climate.Read moreRead less
Disentangling climate and evolutionary controls over the temperature dependence of leaf respiration. The project will use field and laboratory studies to establish if there are systematic differences in the temperature responses of leaf respiration in plants adapted to hot and cold environments. The results will enable climate modellers to better predict impacts of climate change on carbon exchange between vegetation and the atmosphere.
Molecular switches and genetic consequences of grain retention in cereals. Grain retention at maturity was key for crop domestication and laid the basis for farming. Wheat and barley have evolved a novel mechanism for ensuring grain retention and, although the genes are known, the mechanisms for action are not. Grain dispersal in the wild relatives involves highly targeted changes in the walls of a small number of cells. This project will explore how the two identified genes control this proces ....Molecular switches and genetic consequences of grain retention in cereals. Grain retention at maturity was key for crop domestication and laid the basis for farming. Wheat and barley have evolved a novel mechanism for ensuring grain retention and, although the genes are known, the mechanisms for action are not. Grain dispersal in the wild relatives involves highly targeted changes in the walls of a small number of cells. This project will explore how the two identified genes control this process and clarify their mode of action. The genes ensuring grain retention have been so critical for domestication that the region surrounding them has become genetically fixed. The project will assess the implication of fixation on genetic diversity and develop options to bring novel variation into breeding programs.Read moreRead less
Harnessing genetic diversity for complex traits. Genetic diversity underpins crop improvement but has become increasingly narrow in our major crops. Strategies exist for mobilising simple traits (e.g. disease resistance) from wild accessions or landraces into cultivars, but there are no effective approaches for introducing complex traits, including stress tolerance or components of yield. Using barley as an important crop and a genetic model, the project aims to address this problem by applying ....Harnessing genetic diversity for complex traits. Genetic diversity underpins crop improvement but has become increasingly narrow in our major crops. Strategies exist for mobilising simple traits (e.g. disease resistance) from wild accessions or landraces into cultivars, but there are no effective approaches for introducing complex traits, including stress tolerance or components of yield. Using barley as an important crop and a genetic model, the project aims to address this problem by applying a novel approach; partial redomestication of wild accessions by introgressing genes required for modern farming, then evaluating the resulting partially adapted germplasm in hybrids with elite cultivars. The project expects to generate new and diverse germplasm pools for breeding.Read moreRead less
Understanding trifluralin resistance in annual ryegrass, a major Australian agricultural weed. This project aims to better understand the biochemical and molecular basis of trifluralin resistance in annual ryegrass. The herbicide trifluralin is an alternative to soil cultivation in controlling crop-infesting weeds such as annual ryegrass. However, resistance to trifluralin in annual ryegrass now looms. A fundamental understanding and insight into trifluralin resistance will assist resistance man ....Understanding trifluralin resistance in annual ryegrass, a major Australian agricultural weed. This project aims to better understand the biochemical and molecular basis of trifluralin resistance in annual ryegrass. The herbicide trifluralin is an alternative to soil cultivation in controlling crop-infesting weeds such as annual ryegrass. However, resistance to trifluralin in annual ryegrass now looms. A fundamental understanding and insight into trifluralin resistance will assist resistance management, trifluralin sustainability and soil conservation. This will provide significant benefits for Australian grain production and soil conservation.Read moreRead less
Revealing novel mechanisms conferring evolution of resistance to glufosinate and glyphosate in Eleusine indica. Glyphosate and its alternative glufosinate are the most important herbicides in world agriculture. The world’s first cases of glufosinate resistance in Eleusine indica have been recently reported. The aims of the proposed research is to identify the currently unknown biochemical and molecular mechanisms conferring glufosinate resistance, to unravel the novel molecular mechanism endowin ....Revealing novel mechanisms conferring evolution of resistance to glufosinate and glyphosate in Eleusine indica. Glyphosate and its alternative glufosinate are the most important herbicides in world agriculture. The world’s first cases of glufosinate resistance in Eleusine indica have been recently reported. The aims of the proposed research is to identify the currently unknown biochemical and molecular mechanisms conferring glufosinate resistance, to unravel the novel molecular mechanism endowing very high level glyphosate resistance, and to elucidate the evolutionary trajectory of glyphosate resistance in E. indica. This will advance our current knowledge and understanding of resistance evolution and have impact on resistance management.Read moreRead less
The evolution of specialised orchid pollination and its reversibility. This project aims to determine the changes in key floral volatile compounds underpinning pollination transitions, identify their molecular basis, and understand the ecological processes favouring reversals away from extreme specialisation. By focusing on pollination of sexually deceptive Australian orchids, this project would be the first to determine the molecular, chemical and behavioural basis of evolutionary reversals to ....The evolution of specialised orchid pollination and its reversibility. This project aims to determine the changes in key floral volatile compounds underpinning pollination transitions, identify their molecular basis, and understand the ecological processes favouring reversals away from extreme specialisation. By focusing on pollination of sexually deceptive Australian orchids, this project would be the first to determine the molecular, chemical and behavioural basis of evolutionary reversals to more generalised strategies in a group of plants facing high risk of pollinator extinction. The expected outcome, a mechanistic understanding of how pollination transitions occur, would be internationally ground-breaking, and provide crucial insights to protect this diverse but highly threatened group of plants.Read moreRead less
Drought and death: past, present and future survival limits in the Australian vegetation landscape. Science cannot predict the point at which water stress becomes lethal for plants. This research into plant water transport aims to find a new way to understand whether plant species will die or adapt to a future drier climate.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101164
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,058.00
Summary
Evolution of chemical warfare in invasive plants. The project aims to test when, where and how exotic plant populations become invasive through the rapid evolution of chemical compounds that inhibit native plant species. Using an innovative quantitative genetics framework, the intended outcome is to determine how the chemicals are selected, and whether there is sufficient heritable variation for the chemicals to evolve across heterogeneous landscapes characteristic of introduced ranges. The proj ....Evolution of chemical warfare in invasive plants. The project aims to test when, where and how exotic plant populations become invasive through the rapid evolution of chemical compounds that inhibit native plant species. Using an innovative quantitative genetics framework, the intended outcome is to determine how the chemicals are selected, and whether there is sufficient heritable variation for the chemicals to evolve across heterogeneous landscapes characteristic of introduced ranges. The project will deliver key insights into the ecological and genetic mechanisms of adaptive evolution in invasive species, and predict evolutionary dynamics of biological invasions that inform their effective management. The project’s expected outcomes will be useful to policy makers, weed managers and farming communities.Read moreRead less