Disease resistance is mediated by recognition of pathogen avriulence effectors (AVR) through host nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLR).

The interaction of C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDES (CEPs) with CEP RECEPTOR1 (CEPR1) controls root growth and development, as well as nitrate uptake, but has no known role in determining yield.

There is an increasing body of evidence for the existence of animal cultures. Recent work has also suggested cultural traits can be subject to selection, changing in form, function or distribution.

This seminar will discuss the terabytes of unused satellite data that observe the natural world, yet have not been widely used for field biology, in the context of agriculture.

Annals of Botany Special Lecture by Professor Rod Peakall (ANU) at the Botany 2020 - Virtual meeting July 27-31, USA

Praying mantises are the only insects known to have stereo vision. We used a comparative approach to determine how the mechanisms underlying
stereopsis in mantises differ from those underlying primate stereo vision.

Silencing of transposable elements (TEs) is essential for maintaining genome stability. Plants use small RNAs (sRNAs) to direct DNA methylation to TEs (RNA-directed DNA methylation; RdDM). Similar mechanisms of epigenetic silencing in the fungal kingdom have remained elusive.

This research project investigates how photoassimilates moves from source leaves to other sink tissues that accumulate large amounts of carbohydrates. Many sinks such as stem and seeds/grains rely on the accumulation of sugars and starch during their development as they mature and become storage tissue.

Having spent much of the last 15 years trying to improve molecular phylogenetics, I had formed the fairly firm view that my research was very interesting (of course!!!) but rather useless in the short term.