News & events
News
An international study has found a drought alarm system that first appeared in freshwater algae may have enabled plants to move from water to land more than 450 million years ago – a big evolutionary step that led to the emergence of land animals, including humans.
Human error, not human biology, largely accounts for the apparent decline of mortality among the very old, according to a new report by Saul Newman of the Research School of Biology, ANU. The result casts doubt on the hypothesis that human longevity can be greatly extended beyond current limits.
A scientific breakthrough intended to help boost the yields of food crops has solved a long-standing question of how cyanobacteria, known as blue-green algae, builds the carbon-capturing engines called carboxysomes in a protein liquid droplet formation.
Susanne von Caemmerer is recognised as a worldwide expert for using mathematics to represent the process by which plants convert sunlight, gases and water into sugars and oxygen – photosynthesis.
Fred Chow has dedicated his working life to the study of photosynthesis.
Sam Periyannan was born and brought up on a small sugar cane farm in Southern India. He never dreamed he would become a crop researcher, rather than a cane farmer.
Events
Global climate change is challenging many forested ecosystems with drought, mean temperature increases, heat waves, and biotic agent outbreaks.
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.
Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations could reach >1000 ppm by 2100, increasing global temperatures 3-4 °C. Both elevated CO2 and warming affect photosynthesis, altering plant growth, survival, and crop yield and quality.
Fungal pathogens of crop plants are a major cause for yield loss and a critical concern for global food security.
Nitrogen is a key determinant of crop productivity as the acquisition of nitrogen is crucial for photosynthesis and growth.
Legumes can get infected by both symbionts and parasites, often concurrently, in the field.