Projects
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
Most Restorer-of-fertility genes in crops encode RNA-binding pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins. Plants have hundreds of PPR proteins but only a few act as restorers of fertility and these define a clade referred to as ‘Restorer‑of‑fertility‑like’ PPRs (RFL-PPRs).
Theme
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
- Plant genetics and gene regulation
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Joanna Melonek, 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
The fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol) causes a devastating wilt disease of tomato crops that has hitherto been managed by breeding for disease resistant cultivars.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Plant-microbe interactions
ungus Fusarium oxysporum causes devastating wilt diseases of many important crop plants including banana/plantain, cotton, potato, tomato, capsicum, beans, peas, chickpeas and melons. However, individual pathogenic isolates of F. oxysporum are highly specific for a particular species of host plant.
Theme
- Plant-microbe interactions
- Host-microbe biology
The aim of this project is to identify mechanisms that contribute to highly efficient biological nitrogen fixation in legumes through symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, including under future climate change scenarios.
Theme
- Plant-microbe interactions
- Host-microbe biology
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Ulrike Mathesius, Supervisor
C4 plants turbocharge their photosynthetic process by using a biochemical pump to elevate CO2 deep in the leaves in the bundle sheath cells.
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
Student intake
Open for Honours, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Florence Danila, Researcher
- Maria Ermakova, Researcher
- Maria Ermakova, Supervisor
- Robert Furbank, Supervisor
This project applies insights from the SAL1-PAP signalling work to identify the crops lacking the negative regulators and evaluate the impact of such manipulation on their drought tolerance and yield performance under greenhouse and field conditions
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
Climate variability is predicted to increase with climate change and the ability to acclimate to environmental perturbations and extremes has been widely described as having an adaptive benefit resulting in increased fitness.
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
- Plant genetics and gene regulation
Join us to help discover how the water and ion channel features of plant aquaporins are regulated and how this relates to osmotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants.
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
Plant pathogens grow in the extracellular spaces of plant issues. Many fungal and oomycete pathogens, including stripe rust, form specialized feeding structures known as haustoria that penetrate host cell walls. Project: Characterising the genomes of wheat stripe rust. Project: Protein function in plant immunity
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Infection and immunity
- Parasitology
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- John Rathjen, Principal investigator
New sequencing technology now allows genomic data to be assembled from hundreds to thousands of individuals from family and population samples in non model organisms.
Theme
- Plant genetics and gene regulation
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
- Phylogenetics, population genetics and biodiversity
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Justin Borevitz, Supervisor
This is a major area in our lab and connects to other projects as well.
Theme
- Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
- Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
Student intake
Open for Honours, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Barry Pogson, Supervisor
- Estee Tee, Scholar
- Kai Chan, Researcher