Improving crop tolerance to environmental stresses using biotechnological approaches

Project description

Improving crop productivity and sustainability is becoming increasingly important. In addition, each growing season brings unique challenges. Increased incidences of environmental extremes and shifting averages leads to stress in the plants, which affect performance and yield. Plant breeders are constantly looking for new traits and genetic markers to help produce new, tolerant varieties. In addition to new varieties, farmers are turning to alternative products to protect their crops. During most stresses, plants accumulate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) through altered cellular metabolism. ROS can be beneficial to the plant, eliciting stress defences and adaptation to stress. However, over-accumulation of ROS is detrimental to the cell, causing "oxidative stress", which ultimately leads to cell death and impaired growth of the plant. Fortunately, many plants exhibit remarkable flexibility, including the ability to bypass parts of metabolism to avoid ROS production.  Projects in my lab, and in others' labs, have shown that boosting the expression of genes that bypass ROS production sites, can improve the tolerance of model plants to a range of stresses. Now we must further characterise this bypass in crop plants. We also have access to a series of natural compounds that can be applied to plants, to improve stress resilience by reducing oxidative stress. Therefore, several projects are currently available within my lab, including those listed below. Under my guidance, students will gain experience with plant molecular, biochemical and physiology techniques, with opportunities for both greenhouse and field-based projects. Current projects: -Quantifying oxidative stress in chickpea and wheat -Discovering genetic markers for self-protection mechanisms against drought and heat in wheat -Exploring chickpea cultivars for nitrogen fixation capabilities during drought stress -Applying natural forestry by-products to crops, to improve environmental stress tolerance

Co-supervisors

Potential co-supervisors are Prof Kathleen Soole, A/Prof Peter Anderson, A/Prof Colin Jenkins

Industry involvement

LongReach Plant Breeders Sylvaco Field Systems

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You must also contact each supervisor directly to discuss both the project details and your suitability to undertake the project.