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News

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

A plant biologist and geochemist from The Australian National University have both been recognised for their outstanding contributions to their fields of science.

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Jeremy Pickett-Heaps
Wednesday, 21 Apr 2021

One of the illustrious founder members of RSBS passed away on 11 April 2021. Jeremy David Pickett-Heaps FAA, FRS worked in the (then) Department of Developmental Biology from 1968-70. His surveys of ultrastructural aspects of cell division in green algae (many collected from Lake Burley Griffin and Sullivan’s Creek) led him to a new formulation of the evolution of the Plant Kingdom, a landmark contribution in the plant sciences, now confirmed and fleshed out by sequencing data.

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Thursday, 15 Apr 2021

Florence Danila of Australian National University’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis has discovered how plants improve photosynthesis by trapping carbon dioxide inside cell layers.

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Tuesday, 16 Mar 2021

ANU experts have found a way to precisely measure a crop’s water loss through its skin, not just the pores on their leaves.

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Tuesday, 16 Mar 2021

A new study shows that long-term drought in biodiverse Amazonian tropical rainforest can fundamentally change the soil, increasing the abundance of an unusual group of fungal species that may help the trees resist drought, and by altering the underlying biogeochemistry.

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Thursday, 11 Mar 2021

Three researchers from ANU who've changed the way we see the world have been recognised for their ground-breaking work with prestigious awards from The Australian Academy of Science.

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Events

A headshot of a smiling man with short black hair, wearing a blue denim shirt, against a plain white background.
5 Feb 2025 | 12pm

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), also known as retrotransposons, essentially carry two open reading frames that code for GAG and POL. Some ERVs additionally carry a third gene called envelope (env), becoming infectious.

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Small flowers bloom among green foliage against a backdrop of gray rocks.
29 Jan 2025 | 12pm

Phylogenetic distance is a key measure used to develop host test lists that will delimit the fundamental and realised host range of candidate biocontrol agents.

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A man with a beard, wearing a blue plaid shirt, smiles slightly while standing with folded arms and his reflection visible in a dark glass window.
14 Jan 2025 | 12pm

Our group is broadly interested in understanding how metazoan cells fold complex proteins, and how the need to fold those proteins impacts their ability to evolve.

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3D molecular model showing a spherical cluster of interconnected proteins with regions highlighted in pink and grey.
6 Dec 2024 | 3:30pm

Rubisco is the most abundant protein on earth, catalysing photosynthetic CO2 fixation to provide all usable carbon in the biosphere. However, its slow and non-specific catalytic activity limits crop productivity and its resultant over-production represents a huge nitrogen cost.

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29 Nov 2024 | 3:30pm

The rust fungi (Pucciniales) comprise the largest order of plant pathogenic fungi and are among the most serious threats to both agricultural crops and natural ecosystems.

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A panoramic view of golden wheat fields under a bright, sunlit sky.
19 Nov 2024 | 10am - 12:45pm

The Australian agrifood sector faces complex and multifaceted challenges to its continued growth and evolution, including a changing climate and geopolitical instability.

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