Plant Biology Seminar Series
Seminars from the RSB Division of Plant Sciences.
13
Oct
2023
3.30pm 13 October 2023
Carl McCombe - PhD Candidate, Williams Group - Plant structural immunology
Agricultural crop production is continually challenged by plant-pathogenic fungi, jeopardizing global food security. Central to plant-fungal interactions are small proteins called effectors, which can be secreted by pathogens into plant cells to promote disease.
Past events
28
Sep
2023
PS Seminar Series: Redesigning plants to support long-term Space exploration and for on Earth sustainability »
Jenny Mortimer is Associate Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology at the University of Adelaide, Australia, in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine & The Waite Research Institute.
13
Sep
2023
PS Seminar Series: Carbon sequestration with benefits to soil and plants »
One of society’s greatest challenges is sequestering vast amounts of carbon to avoid dangerous climate change without driving competition for land and resources.
06
Sep
2023
PS Seminar Series: Acclimation of photosynthesis and leaf respiration to warming and elevated CO2 – Results from experimental field studies in boreal and tropical regions »
Photosynthesis and leaf respiration are key metabolic processes for plant growth and their carbon exchange with the atmosphere are the largest within the global carbon cycle.
30
Aug
2023
PS Seminar Series - PhD Exit Seminar - Structural investigation of the interaction between SIX effectors and resistance proteins »
Fungal pathogens are the main causative agents of disease in plants. Fusarium oxysporum is a diverse fungal pathogen able to infect a wide plant host range.
23
Aug
2023
PS Seminar Series - Technology for Continuous Directed Evolution of RuBisCO »
The enzyme Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (RuBisCO) is responsible for the entry of atmospheric carbon into the biosphere during photosynthesis. Despite this key role, RuBisCO maintains several biochemical shortcomings, making it an attractive target for laboratory protein engineering.
18
Aug
2023
PS Seminar Series - Specific plant organelle pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins can act as C-to-U RNA editing factors in diverse genetic systems »
Site-specific C-to-U RNA editing is a hallmark of plant organelle transcript maturation. Up to thousands of specific cytidines are converted into uridines in plant chloroplasts and mitochondria, with no evidence of editing activity in the cytosol.
16
Aug
2023
PS Seminar Series - Growth in fluctuating light buffers plants against photorespiratory perturbations »
Photorespiration (PR) is the pathway that detoxifies the product of the oxygenation reaction of Rubisco. It has been hypothesized that in dynamic light environments, PR provides a photoprotective function by serving as a sink for excess ATP and/or reducing equivalents.
04
Aug
2023
PS Seminar Series - The algal chloroplast as a testbed for synthetic biology and whole genome engineering »
The tiny, self-contained genetic system of the chloroplast (or plastid) in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is well suited for genetic engineering and has recently seen a surge in the deployment of synthetic biology approaches.
26
Jul
2023
PS Seminar Series - Plastid encoding of key genes for enhanced physiological and structural properties »
In my talk, I’d like to introduce two of my postdoctoral studies where I explored the independent expression of two genes in tobacco: Rubisco activase (RCA) and a spider silk gene, Major ampullate spidroin 1 (MaSp1).
24
Jul
2023
PS Seminar Series- Advances in plant and microbial science: approaches to address global food and climate security »
Talk followed by panel discussion about future directions in Plant Science.
14
Jul
2023
PS Seminar Series: Translation with a minimal set of tRNAs - chloroplasts as model for manipulating isoacceptor tRNA abundance »
In chloroplasts of embryophytes, superwobbling between codons and anticodons has been demonstrated to facilitate translation of the standard genetic code by a minimized set of only 30 tRNAs (Rogalski et al., 2008).
28
Jun
2023
PS Seminar Series - Seasonal control of flowering: Why lipid matters »
The timing of flowering needs to be tightly controlled to maximize reproductive success. Plants perceive seasonal cues (e.g., day length and temperature) to adjust the timing of flowering.
14
Jun
2023
PS Seminar: A hard day's night; determining a role for stomatal conductance in nocturnal heat tolerance »
Nocturnal stomatal conductance (gsn) represents a significant, enigmatic source of water-loss, with implications for whole plant metabolism, thermal regulation and water-use efficiency.
09
Jun
2023
PS PhD Exit Seminar - Tender freaks: Exploring resilience to global change among fringe-dwelling forest species. »
Global climate change is challenging many forested ecosystems with drought, mean temperature increases, heat waves, and biotic agent outbreaks.
19
Apr
2023
PS Seminar Series - A SWEET Journey from Source to Sink in Setaria viridis »
Currently there is little known about the apoplastic transport pathways of C4 grasses and how sugars are exported from the source leaves to the sinks such as stems and seeds.