This event is presented by Plantae, and co-hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

Despite the advances in genome sequencing and assembly, detailed annotation of plant genomes is now a bottleneck in genomic analysis and an impediment to realizing the full potential of genome editing for crop improvement.

Rubisco is a critical enzyme in the carbon fixation reactions of photosynthesis, however it is catalytically slow and non-specific.

By 2050, food production may need to increase by up to 70% in order to feed a global population of an estimated 9.7 billion people.

The urgent need to find alternatives to petroleum-based fuels and products is driven by concerns for the environment, dwindling fossil fuel reserves, and the issue of energy security.

Gene silencing induced by small RNAs (sRNAs) is an important mechanism responsible for many crucial physiological responses in plants, such as genome integrity, defense against virus, adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses and regulation of development.