Projects
This project aims to improve understanding of the capacity for resilience and response to warming and drying conditions and extreme events in vulnerable alpine communities: interacting suites of alpine plants, soil invertebrates, fungi, and microbes.
Theme
- Behavioural, evolutionary and physiological ecology
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
- Phylogenetics, population genetics and biodiversity
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
- Plant-microbe interactions
Student intake
Open for Summer scholar, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Adrienne Nicotra, Principal investigator
- Celeste Linde, Researcher
- James King, Scholar
- Kate Farkas, Scholar
- Megan Head, Researcher
- Pieter Arnold, Researcher
- Salma Sarker, Scholar
- Thomas Hanley, Scholar
A wide range of opportunities for field and lab-based eco-physiological research are provided by the current projects within the lab. Student projects will be designed to suit the individual interests and goals of the students.
Theme
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
Student intake
Open for Honours, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Marilyn Ball, Supervisor
- Marilyn Ball, Researcher
We are using molecular biology tools and confocal microscopy to mapy the regions in rust effectors required for delivery into host cells, and identify components of the effector secretion machinery. This project interfaces strongly with our stripe rust work on identifying effector molecules.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Plant-microbe interactions
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- John Rathjen, Principal investigator
A proteomics approach to understand the role of plasmodesmata in plant-pathogen interaction.
Theme
- Membrane transporters and channels
- Plant-microbe interactions
Student intake
Open for Summer scholar, Honours students
Status
Current
People
- Florence Danila, Supervisor
- William Yao, Support officer
Engineering aquaporin function to advance water filtration technology for future water security
We have shown an ancient miRNA acts as a genetic switch controlling a broad-spectrum of plant defense genes that confers resistance to the pathogen Phytophthora. We have multiple projects exploring the conservation, mechanism and spectrum of this disease resistance pathway, and potential biotechnological applications.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Plant genetics and gene regulation
- Plant-microbe interactions
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Leila Blackman, Supervisor
- Tony Millar, Supervisor
Genetic, biochemical and physiological tools are being used to explore which residues in Rubisco and its chiropractic helper protein, Rubisco activase, that influence their interactions.
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
This project aims to isolate and identify bacteria and fungi from several major agricultural weed species to assess natural reservoirs of crop and livestock pathogens. Isolating these microbes will also screen for pathogens of the weed host with the potential for novel biocontrol methods.
Theme
- Plant-microbe interactions
This project explores how C4 plants, a group of stress-tolerant plants, respond to heat and drought. Knowledge learnt from this project will give insight into overcoming the current limits of photosynthesis and respiration in different plants and designing crops for improved food and energy production.
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
Student intake
Open for Honours, Master students
Status
Current
People
- Owen Atkin, Principal investigator
- Yuzhen Fan, Researcher
During the last decade the practice of laboratory-directed protein evolution has become firmly established as a versatile tool in biochemical research by enabling molecular evolution towards desirable phenotypes or detection of novel structure-function interactions (see Bershtein & Tawfik, 2008, Curr Opin Chem Biol 12:
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
Examining how plant photosynthesis and growth is influenced by transplanting foriegn or modified Rubisco into higher plant chloroplasts.
Theme
- Plant genetics and gene regulation
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
Understanding the factors additional to miRNA: target complementarity that impacts mRNA-mediated silencing efficacy.
Theme
- Plant genetics and gene regulation
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
The aim of this project is to understand the molecular mechanisms of plant flavonoids in nitrogen fixing symbioses of legumes, including in rhizosphere signaling, rhizobial infection and nodule development.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Plant-microbe interactions
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Ulrike Mathesius, Supervisor
- Ulrike Mathesius, Researcher
Rust diseases are a serious threat to cereals and other crops throughout the world. Significant advances in understanding the molecular basis of rust fungus pathogenicity and rust disease resistance in plants have been achieved using the flax/flax rust pathosystem.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Plant-microbe interactions
Fungi have highly plastic genomes and rapid reproductive cycles, making them fascinating organisms in which to study genome evolution and host adaptation. Within this project you will learn many different bioinformatic tools and at least one programming language e.g. python or R.
Theme
- Plant-microbe interactions
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Benjamin Schwessinger , Supervisor
This project would be a part of the larger International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) project aiming to optimise energy use efficiency in wheat to maximise potential yield.
Theme
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
- Plant genetics and gene regulation
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Justin Borevitz, Supervisor
Genomics of wild Australian brewing yeasts
Theme
- Plant-microbe interactions
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
Student intake
Open for Summer scholar, Honours, Master students
Status
Current
People
- Benjamin Schwessinger , Supervisor
Honours scholarships are available!
Theme
- Plant-microbe interactions
- Phylogenetics, population genetics and biodiversity
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
Structural studies of effector proteins from necrotrophic fungal pathogens of wheat
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Plant-microbe interactions
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Megan Outram, Researcher
- Peter Solomon, Supervisor
- Simon Williams, Supervisor
Plant pathogens produce secreted proteins during infection of their hosts and these proteins, known as effectors, aid in the infection process. In turn, plants have evolved disease resistance genes encoding receptor proteins that can trigger a highly effective defence response upon recognition of these effectors.
Theme
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Host-microbe biology
- Plant-microbe interactions