Atkin Group - Plant respiration in a changing world

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Atkin Group

My group studies plant metabolic responses to environmental gradients, including how leaf respiration varies within and among biomes across the globe.  Working with climate modeling groups in the UK and USA, we are using the results of our field surveys to improve representation of leaf respiration in terrestrial biosphere models.  We are also using molecular, biochemical and physiological studies to understand the factors responsible for temperature-mediated changes in respiratory metabolism, both in crop (wheat and rice) and natural ecosystem species. Understanding the processes that control heat tolerance of leaf carbon metabolism is also a focus of our current research.    

ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology

The Atkin Group plays a key role in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (PEB), a cutting edge research centre focused on better understanding the way in which plants interconvert forms of chemical energy in response to environmental change. PEB’s vision is to enhance plant energy efficiency by simultaneously optimising energy capture, conversion and use in changing environments to improve the sustainable productivity of plants. The Atkin, Borevitz and Pogson labs also collaborate in an International Wheat Yield Partnership Grant to improving yield in wheat by optimising energy use efficiency.

Visit PEB website here: http://www.plantenergy.edu.au/

PEB has over 110 internationally competitive staff and students across four Australian Universities (ANU, UWA, UoA & LaTrobe) work together to define the complex system that determines overall energy efficiency in plants by discovering the key signals, 'gatekeeper' cells, and (epi)genetic controls that regulate this energy system and to manipulate these in combination in order to tune energy efficiency across the whole plant to enhance yields.

Accomplishments thus far include: in the last 5 years PEB has secured over $40 million in research funding (2014-2015) and published over 250 articles including key breakthroughs published in Nature, Cell, Science, PNAS & Plant Cell = more than 20% of all Australian publications in top-ranked plant science journals were authored or co-authored by PEB staff.

PEB is proud to sponsor ANU Jan Anderson HDR Supplementary Scholarships and also the Warwick Hillier Honours Scholarships. Further to these prestigious scholarships, PEB also offers Honours scholarships ($7K) and top-up scholarships for PhD students ($7K), in addition to well funded research, conference travel and graduate training programs.

Current grants

  • International Wheat Yield Partnership looking at Improving wheat yield by optimising efficiency of respiratory energy use, funding provided by the Grains Research and Development Corporation. 2016-2019
  • ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (CE140100008). 2014-2020.
  • USA DoE Grant. 2014-2017. Global land model development: time to shift from a plant functional type to a plant functional trait approach. [CIs: Peter Reich and Arindam Banerjee (Uni of Minnesota, USA, Peter Thornton (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)]

 

Plant genetics and gene regulation
Plant environmental biology and functional ecology
Photosynthesis and plant energy biology
Behavioural, evolutionary and physiological ecology

Group Leader

Postdoctoral Fellows

Technical Officer

Honorary Associate Professor

Divisional Visitors

Laboratory Technicians

PhD Students

Technical Assistants

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Project Status
ARC Future Fellowship - impacts of climate change on plant respiration Complete
Can seedling screens of energy use efficiency in wheat transfer to yield in the field? Current
Energy use and the plant canopy - measuring local respiration trends. Current
Improving nitrogen use efficiency in cereals Complete
Investigating the genetic architecture of thermal acclimation of leaf energy metabolism using GWAS Current
Leaf respiration under drought Complete
Out of the darkness: predicting rates of respiration of illuminated leaves along nutrient gradients Complete
Student projects - additional topics for the future Current

Selected publications

  • Bahar, N.H.A., Ishida, F.Y., Weerasinghe, L.K., Guerrieri, R., O'Sullivan, O.S., et al. & and Atkin, O.K.  (2017). Leaf-level photosynthetic capacity in lowland Amazonian and high-elevation, Andean tropical moist forests of Peru.  New Phytologist.  Early online doi: 10.1111/nph.14079
  • O’Sullivan, O.S., Heskel, M.A., Reich, P.B., Tjoelker, M.G., et al. & Atkin, O.K. (2017). Thermal limits of leaf metabolism across biomes.  Global Change Biology 23: 209–223
  • Heskel, M.A., O’Sullivan, O.S., Reich, P.B., Tjoelker, M.G., et al. & Atkin, O.K. (2016).  Convergence in the temperature response of leaf respiration across biomes and plant functional types. PNAS USA.  113(14): 3832-3837.
  • Harper, A.B., Cox, P.M., Friedlingstein, P., Wiltshire, A., Jones, C.D., Sitch, S.A., Mercado, L.M., Groenendijk, M., Robertson, E., Kattge, J., Bönisch, G., Atkin, O.K., et al. (2016). Improved representation of plant functional types and physiology in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES v4.2) using plant trait information. Geoscientific Model Development 9: 2415-2440. 
  • Heskel, M.A., Atkin, O.K., O’Sullivan, O.S., Reich, P., Tjoelker, M.G., et al. (2016) Reply to Adams et al.: Empirical versus process-based approaches to modelling temperature responses of leaf respiration. PNAS, USA.  113: E5996-E5997
  • Atkin, O.K., Bloomfield, K.J., Reich, P.B., Tjoelker, M.G., et al. (2015).  Global variability in leaf respiration among plant functional types in relation to climate and leaf traits.  New Phytologist 206: 614–636
  • Long, B.M., Bahar, N.H.A. and Atkin, O.K. (2015).  Contributions of photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic cell types to leaf respiration in Vicia faba L. and their responses to growth temperature.  Plant Cell and Environment 38: 2263–2276
  • Atkin O.K., Meir P. and Turnbull M.H. (2014) Improving representation of leaf respiration in large-scale predictive climate–vegetation models. New Phytologist 202: 743-748.
  • Gauthier, P.P.G., Crous, K.Y., Ayub, G., Duan, H., Weerasinghe, K.W.L. K. Ellsworth, D.S., Tissue, D.T., Evans J.R., and Atkin O.K. (2014).  Drought increases heat tolerance of leaf respiration in Eucalyptus globulus saplings grown under ambient and elevated atmospheric [CO2] and temperature. Journal of Experimental Botany 65: 6471–6485
  • Weerasinghe, L.K., Creek, D., Crous, K.Y., Xiang, S., Liddell, M.J., Turnbull, M.H. and Atkin, O.K. (2014). Canopy position affects the relationships between leaf respiration and associated traits in a tropical rainforest in Far North Queensland.  Tree Physiology 34: 564-584
  • Heskel, M.A., Greaves, H., Turnbull, M.T., O’Sullivan, O.S., Shaver, G., Griffin, K.L. and Atkin, O.K. (2014). Thermal acclimation of shoot respiration in an Arctic woody plant species subjected to 22 years of warming and altered nutrient supply.  Global Change Biology 20: 2618–2630
  • Atkin, O.K., Turnbull, M.H., Zaragoza-Castells, J, Fyllas, N., Lloyd, J., Meir, P. and Kevin L. Griffin (2013).  Light inhibition of leaf respiration as soil fertility declines along a post-glacial chronosequence in New Zealand: an analysis using the Kok method.  Plant and Soil 367: 163–182. 
  • Huntingford, C., Zelazowski, P., Galbraith, D., Mercado, L.M., Sitch, S., Fisher, R., Lomas, M., Walker, A., Jones, C.D., Booth, B.B.B., Malhi, Y., Hemming, D., Kay, G., Good, P., Lewis, S., Phillips, O.L., Atkin, O.K., et al. (2013). Simulated resilience of tropical rainforest to CO2–induced climate change.  Nature Geoscience 6: 268–273
  • O’Sullivan, O.S., Weerasinghe, K.W.L.K., Evans, J.R., Egerton, J.G., Tjoelker, M.G. and Atkin, O.K. (2013).  High-resolution temperature responses of leaf respiration in snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) reveal high-temperature limits to respiratory function. Plant Cell and Environment 36: 1268-1284
  • Xiang, S., Reich, P.B., Sun, S. and Atkin, O.K. (2013) Contrasting leaf trait scaling relationships in tropical and temperate wet forest species.  Functional Ecology 27: 520-532.
  • Ayub, G., Smith, R., Tissue, D.T. and Atkin, O.K.  (2011) Impacts of drought on leaf respiration in darkness and in the light in Eucalyptus saligna exposed to industrial-age atmospheric CO2 and growth temperature.  New Phytologist 190: 1003–1018.
  • Crous, K.Y., Zaragoza-Castells, J., Löw, M., Ellsworth, D., Tissue, D.T., Tjoelker, M.G., Barton, C.V.M., Gimeno, T.E., and Atkin, O.K. (2011) Seasonal acclimation of leaf respiration in Eucalyptus saligna trees: impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2 and summer drought.  Global Change Biology 17: 1560–1576
  • Nicotra, A., Atkin, O.K., Bonser, S.P.,Davidson, A., Finnegan, E.J., Mathesius, U., Poot, P., Purugganan, M.D., Richards, C.L., Valladares, F., van Kleunen, M. (2010)  Plant phenotypic plasticity in a changing climate.  Trends in Plant Science 15: 684-892
  • Gorsuch, P.A., Sargent A., Penfield, S., Quick, W.P. and Atkin, O.K. (2010) Systemic low temperature signaling in Arabidopsis.  Plant and Cell Physiology 51: 1488-1498
  • Gorsuch, P.A., Pandey, S., and Atkin, O.K. (2010). Thermal de-acclimation: how permanent is the leaf phenotype when cold-acclimated plants experience warming? Plant, Cell and Environment 33: 1124–1137
  • Atkin O.K. and Macherel, D. (2009) The crucial role of plant mitochondria in orchestrating drought tolerance.  Annals of Botany 103: 581-597
  • Atkin, O.K., Atkinson, L.J., Fisher, R., Campbell, C.D., Zaragoza-Castells, J., Woodward, F.I., Pitchford, J., and Hurry, V. (2008). Using temperature-dependent changes in leaf scaling relationships to quantitatively account for thermal acclimation of respiration in a coupled global climate-vegetation model.  Global Change Biology 14: 2709-2726
  • Armstrong, A.F., Badger, M.R., Day, D.A., Barthet, M., Smith, P., Whelan, J., Millar, A.H. and Atkin, O.K. (2008) Dynamic changes in the mitochondrial electron transport chain underpinning thermal acclimation of leaf respiration.  Plant, Cell and Environment 31: 1156-1169
  • Armstrong, A.F., Wardlaw, K.D. and Atkin, O.K. (2007). Assessing the relationship between cold acclimation of leaf respiration and photosystem II redox poise in Arabidopsis thaliana.  Plant, Cell and Environment 30: 1513-1522
  • Campbell, C.D., Atkinson, L.J., Zaragoza-Castells, J., Lundmark, M., Atkin, O. and Hurry, V. (2007).  Acclimation of photosynthesis and respiration is asynchronous in response to changes in temperature regardless of plant functional group.  New Phytologist 176: 375-389.
  • Atkin, O.K., Scheurwater, I. and Pons, T.L. (2007). Respiration as a percentage of daily photosynthesis in whole plants is homeostatic at moderate, but not high, growth temperatures New Phytologist 174: 367-380.
  • Armstrong, A.F., Logan, D., Tobin, A.K., O’Toole, P. and Atkin, O.K. (2006).  Heterogeneity of plant mitochondrial responses underpinning respiratory acclimation to the cold in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves.  Plant, Cell and Environment 29: 940-949.
  • Atkin, O.K. and Tjoelker, M.G. (2003).  Thermal acclimation and the dynamic response of plant respiration to temperature.  Trends in Plant Science 8: 343-351

 

All publications

 

PS Seminar Series: RNA lost in transit: Secondary modifications, motifs, and function(s) of systemic delivered messenger RNAs

Event | Fri 4 May 2018

Abstract - Cell-to -cell communication is a principal in multi-cellularity to coordinate growth and differentiation of or

PS Seminar Series: Controlling protein homeostasis and reactive oxygen species – keys to plant stress tolerance

Event | Wed 18 April 2018
Plants are able to survive normally lethal temperatures if first acclimated by a more moderate heat stress, a process that can occur on a daily basis. We have dissected mechanisms involved in high temperature acclimation using both genetics and biochemistry in Arabidopsis.

PS Seminar Series (LEAPS Edition) - ANU Plant Science in 2018 - where to next?

Event | Fri 2 February 2018

Abstract - coming soon

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