ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. This Centre aims to create on-demand, zero-waste, high-efficiency plants and plant products to address grand challenges in sustainability for Space and on Earth. Significant advances in plant, food, and sensory science; process and systems engineering; law and policy; and psychology are expected to deliver transformative solutions for Space habitation – and create enhanced plant-derived food and bioresour ....ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. This Centre aims to create on-demand, zero-waste, high-efficiency plants and plant products to address grand challenges in sustainability for Space and on Earth. Significant advances in plant, food, and sensory science; process and systems engineering; law and policy; and psychology are expected to deliver transformative solutions for Space habitation – and create enhanced plant-derived food and bioresources to capitalise upon emergent and rapidly expanding domestic and global markets. Anticipated outcomes include industry uptake of innovative plant forms, foods, technologies, and commodities; and an ambitious education and international co-ordination agenda to position Australia as a global leader in research supporting Space habitation.Read moreRead less
Co-research supporting the development of Aboriginal plant knowledges. Successful commercial development of products manufactured from Australian plant extracts based on shared Aboriginal Knowledges and Western scientific evidence is limited. This research project partnering with an Aboriginal Corporation and a skincare company aims to understand the processes that would be needed for Aboriginal-led product development from a traditionally-used plant. This includes examining how plant materials ....Co-research supporting the development of Aboriginal plant knowledges. Successful commercial development of products manufactured from Australian plant extracts based on shared Aboriginal Knowledges and Western scientific evidence is limited. This research project partnering with an Aboriginal Corporation and a skincare company aims to understand the processes that would be needed for Aboriginal-led product development from a traditionally-used plant. This includes examining how plant materials could be sustainably managed and harvested on Aboriginal homelands, the quantities of plant materials needed for product development and the feasibility of a homelands business. The learnings from this project are expected to inform other First Nations groups seeking to develop their plant knowledges.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Research Hubs - Grant ID: IH180100006
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,995,391.00
Summary
ARC Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture . The ARC Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture aims to transform the production of high quality plant-derived therapeutics into an integrated, national industry that spans primary producers and manufacturers. The Hub will establish a multi-disciplinary collaboration with industry. This Hub will address agronomy and cultivation, germplasm generation, novel extraction technologies and chemistries, through to the discovery and functional characterisation ....ARC Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture . The ARC Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture aims to transform the production of high quality plant-derived therapeutics into an integrated, national industry that spans primary producers and manufacturers. The Hub will establish a multi-disciplinary collaboration with industry. This Hub will address agronomy and cultivation, germplasm generation, novel extraction technologies and chemistries, through to the discovery and functional characterisation of novel lead compounds. This knowledge will be applicable across related industries and build the specialised workforce needed to underpin Australia’s developing medicinal agriculture industry.Read moreRead less
Protecting cereal grain development at high temperatures. This project aims to investigate new temperature-responsive factors that regulate cereal grain development to protect grain production under heat stress. The new research will leverage international collaborations with access to cutting-edge genetic and technological resources, and refine novel X-ray imaging techniques in Australia, to observe how temperature affects flower structure and function in barley and rice. Favourable mutations t ....Protecting cereal grain development at high temperatures. This project aims to investigate new temperature-responsive factors that regulate cereal grain development to protect grain production under heat stress. The new research will leverage international collaborations with access to cutting-edge genetic and technological resources, and refine novel X-ray imaging techniques in Australia, to observe how temperature affects flower structure and function in barley and rice. Favourable mutations that optimise plant yield and fitness will be defined and explored in other, more complex, cereals such as wheat. Expected outcomes will be fundamental breakthroughs in understanding how plants respond to, and buffer, the effects of heat to lead to translational breeding strategies that bolster grain yield.Read moreRead less
Improving plant reproductive success under heat stress: A sweet approach. This project aims to determine how genetic manipulation of cell wall invertase (CWIN) activity could regulate pollen germination, elongation and fruit set under heat stress using tomato as a model. Plant reproductive processes are highly susceptible to heat stress, which often leads to pollination failure and fruit and seed abortion, hence irreversible yield loss. Research has established that CWIN-mediated sugar metabolis ....Improving plant reproductive success under heat stress: A sweet approach. This project aims to determine how genetic manipulation of cell wall invertase (CWIN) activity could regulate pollen germination, elongation and fruit set under heat stress using tomato as a model. Plant reproductive processes are highly susceptible to heat stress, which often leads to pollination failure and fruit and seed abortion, hence irreversible yield loss. Research has established that CWIN-mediated sugar metabolism and signaling may play crucial roles in pollen growth and fruit set under heat stress. The intended outcome is the generation of critical knowledge that will advance understanding on reproductive development under heat stress, thereby providing significant benefits, such as novel ideas and solutions for improving crop yield.Read moreRead less
Targeting chloroplasts to enhance crop salt tolerance. Yield losses in crop plants due to increasingly saline soils are linked to the effects of salt on chloroplasts. By comparing chloroplast water- and salt-transport mechanisms of closely related salt-loving and salt-sensitive plants, this Fellowships aims to discover how chloroplasts maintain function in saline conditions. Novel biophysics and molecular techniques will be used to characterise transporters in model plants, and proof-of-concept ....Targeting chloroplasts to enhance crop salt tolerance. Yield losses in crop plants due to increasingly saline soils are linked to the effects of salt on chloroplasts. By comparing chloroplast water- and salt-transport mechanisms of closely related salt-loving and salt-sensitive plants, this Fellowships aims to discover how chloroplasts maintain function in saline conditions. Novel biophysics and molecular techniques will be used to characterise transporters in model plants, and proof-of-concept complementation experiments aim to confer salt tolerance on sensitive plants. These fundamental insights are likely to lead to rapid, step-change improvements in salt tolerance, especially in agriculturally relevant crops, to benefit Australia’s agri-industry and ensure food security in the future.Read moreRead less
Re-engineering rice root architecture to maximise water use efficiency. This project aims to discover gene networks responsible for producing deeper and more branched roots in rice plants. The roots of plants are the primary mechanism for absorbing water and nutrients from the soil. Manipulating roots to penetrate deeper with greater branching allows plants to thrive with less water and less nutrients. The project will identify key genes and proteins responsible for this process, and alter their ....Re-engineering rice root architecture to maximise water use efficiency. This project aims to discover gene networks responsible for producing deeper and more branched roots in rice plants. The roots of plants are the primary mechanism for absorbing water and nutrients from the soil. Manipulating roots to penetrate deeper with greater branching allows plants to thrive with less water and less nutrients. The project will identify key genes and proteins responsible for this process, and alter their expression in order to assess the role of these regulatory elements in root development in rice plants. The project expects to provide new, more sustainable varieties of rice which will help provide enhanced food security.Read moreRead less
Can altered sugar sensing improve crop productivity? This project aims at genetically manipulating sugar sensing pathways in the model C4 grass Setaria viridis, and at replacing sugar sensors in the model C3 crop Oryza sativa (rice) with those from S. viridis. This project expects to elucidate the impact of altered sugar perception on crop photosynthesis and yield. Expected outcomes includes advancing a novel “pull” approach to improve yield in C3 crops by using C4-like sugar sensors to reduce f ....Can altered sugar sensing improve crop productivity? This project aims at genetically manipulating sugar sensing pathways in the model C4 grass Setaria viridis, and at replacing sugar sensors in the model C3 crop Oryza sativa (rice) with those from S. viridis. This project expects to elucidate the impact of altered sugar perception on crop photosynthesis and yield. Expected outcomes includes advancing a novel “pull” approach to improve yield in C3 crops by using C4-like sugar sensors to reduce feedback regulation of photosynthesis which in turn limits productivity. This is in contrast to previous ‘push’ approaches aimed at directly increasing photosynthesis. Hence, this project provides significant benefits by contributing to the next green revolution needed to lift agricultural yields.Read moreRead less
Identification of novel plant transporters responsible for sucrose efflux. This project aims to clone and functionally characterise previously unknown membrane proteins that facilitate high rates of sucrose efflux from cells located at key transport bottlenecks regulating sucrose transport throughout the plant body and hence plant productivity. These aims will be realised through employing systems specifically designed to clone and functionally characterise sucrose efflux proteins encoded in pla ....Identification of novel plant transporters responsible for sucrose efflux. This project aims to clone and functionally characterise previously unknown membrane proteins that facilitate high rates of sucrose efflux from cells located at key transport bottlenecks regulating sucrose transport throughout the plant body and hence plant productivity. These aims will be realised through employing systems specifically designed to clone and functionally characterise sucrose efflux proteins encoded in plant genomes. Expected outcomes will be an understanding of sucrose transport throughout the plant body, build a valuable international partnership and open up new biotechnological opportunities to improve crop yield.Read moreRead less
Boosting C4 photosynthesis to climate proof crop yields. Building next generation C4 crops, such as maize, sugarcane and sorghum, to cope with drought and heat stress is requisite to ensure the supply of food and fodder. Here we will increase the content and / or catalytic efficiency of the primary carboxylase of C4 photosynthesis (PEPC) that supplies CO2 to the carbon concentrating mechanism and ensures high photosynthetic rates. We will develop new SynBio tools to create and test novel PEPC is ....Boosting C4 photosynthesis to climate proof crop yields. Building next generation C4 crops, such as maize, sugarcane and sorghum, to cope with drought and heat stress is requisite to ensure the supply of food and fodder. Here we will increase the content and / or catalytic efficiency of the primary carboxylase of C4 photosynthesis (PEPC) that supplies CO2 to the carbon concentrating mechanism and ensures high photosynthetic rates. We will develop new SynBio tools to create and test novel PEPC isoforms with desirable properties. Ultimately, the project aims to identify isoforms that improve plant fitness under stress conditions. Optimising PEPC activity will provide next generation solutions to improve water balance and carbon assimilation to keep C4 crops productive under future climates.Read moreRead less