News & events
News
Scientists at the Australian Research Council (ARC) ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CoETP) have found that some plants have ten times more communication channels inside their leaves than other plants, which they think is a crucial factor in determining photosynthetic efficiency.
ANU congratulates distinguished scientist and ANU Professor Graham Farquhar AO for being named the 2018 Senior Australian of the Year.
Photosynthesis is an essential biological process that depends on the activity of the enzyme Rubisco which catalyses carbon fixation. Rubisco is slow, inefficient and cannot accurately distinguish between CO2 and O2. ANU researchers have been trying to improve the efficiency of Rubisco in crop plants.
The investigations into carbon fixation and gas exchange by RSBS researchers were essential to the understanding of photosynthesis, and the development of new processes to increase the efficiency of the photosynthetic process in agriculture.
Legumes are an interesting plant to study due to their symbiotic relationship with nitrogen fixing bacteria called Rhizobia, which are housed within specialised root structures called nodules. The work of ANU researchers has been very important for our understanding of symbiosis, nodule formation and nitrogen fixation.
Carboxysomes are polyhedral protein micro-compartments in cyanobacteria which concentrate CO2 and increase the efficiency of carbon fixation. In 1993, RSBS researchers Dean Price, Murray Badger and Susan Howitt determined the genetic sequence encoding for the proteins that form the protein shell of a carboxysome.
Events
Genomes have a highly organised architecture (non-random organisation of functional and non-functional genetic elements within chromosomes) that is essential for many biological functions, particularly, gene expression and reproduction.
During nitrogen-fixing symbiosis, soil bacteria called rhizobia induce the formation of root nodules on legume roots, in which they fix atmospheric nitrogen that the plant can use as a nitrogen source.
In my project I have examined the roles and interplay of the plant signalling factors, flavonoids, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and cytokinin in establishment of symbiotic infection of rhizobia in the roots of the model legume Medicago truncatula.
Biodiversity rests on a foundation of adaptive and neutral variation within populations and species, that interact in communities or coexist in assemblages, to define ecosystems that provide habitat and life support services including a stable climate. New technologies span this biodiversity pyramid and allow rapid and
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.
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.