An international research team has found they can increase corn productivity by targeting the enzyme in charge of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Scientists at ANU have engineered tiny carbon-capturing engines from blue-green algae into plants, in a breakthrough that promises to help boost the yields of important food crops such as wheat, cowpeas and cassava.
The ANU and CSIRO will set up a new farming innovation centre at ANU to advance research, education and technology in farming and global food production, thanks to more than $1 million in new funding commitments.
Simon Williams uses protein biochemistry and structural biology approaches to understand how plant pathogens cause disease and how the plant immune system prevents infection.
In chloroplasts of embryophytes, superwobbling between codons and anticodons has been demonstrated to facilitate translation of the standard genetic code by a minimized set of only 30 tRNAs (Rogalski et al., 2008).
The timing of flowering needs to be tightly controlled to maximize reproductive success. Plants perceive seasonal cues (e.g., day length and temperature) to adjust the timing of flowering.
Nocturnal stomatal conductance (gsn) represents a significant, enigmatic source of water-loss, with implications for whole plant metabolism, thermal regulation and water-use efficiency.
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.