biological sciences HONOURs 2014 - The University of Sydney

More documents

Recommendations

Info

48 PLANT AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIon Research Interests My mission is to understand how plants function and interact with the wider world. My research is organised into two basic themes. The first is how plants are affected by and cope with their environment. The scope of this research includes the internal activities of plants - that is the chemical and physical processes associated with life (photosynthesis, respiration, gas exchange, nutrient uptake). The second major theme is the role of plants in ecosystem processes (ecosystem cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and energy, and major interaction process such as competition). Honours projects 1. The metabolic footprint of plants. Planet Earth bears the metabolic footprint of plants. This is because plants use planet Earth as a substrate for chemical reactions and as a resting place for waste products. In contrast to the wellknown metabolic footprint of plants on the atmosphere, the below-ground metabolic footprint of plants is poorly known. We know that >10% of carbon fixed via photosynthesis may be exuded from roots as a diverse soup of organic molecules. This enormous flux of carbon belowground provides fuel for soil microbes and is a major player in global CO 2 balance, yet it Associate Professor Charles Warren Room 225A, Heydon- Laurence Building A08 T: (02) 9351 2678 E: charles.warren@ sydney.edu.au is still treated as a “black box”. The aim of this project is to go beyond the “black box” view by characterising the molecules that exude from roots and their function. 2. Ecosystem cycles of nitrogen. Our understanding of ecosystem cycles of nitrogen and plant nitrogen nutrition are changing very rapidly. For 100 years it was accepted that plants could take up only nitrate and ammonium, 20 years ago it was shown that plants could also take up amino acids, a couple of years ago it was shown plants could also take up oligopeptides. In recent months my lab has made the next major breakthrough. In contrast to the consensus view that the pool of non-peptide small organic nitrogen is dominated by protein amino acids, we found that soil contains at least 100 nitrogen-containing compounds from 12 compound classes. The exciting next steps are to discover what role these other organic compounds have in ecosystem nitrogen cycles and plant nutrition.
SMALL RNAs AND BIOFACTORIES 49 Research Interests RNA interference (RNAi), was discovered and described by our group, in plants, in the late 1990s and has revolutionised plant and animal research. The technology gives researchers the ability to silence almost any gene, at will, and works by redirecting an intrinsic RNA-degrading mechanism that is present in almost all eukaryotic cells. We now know that the mechanism not only provides defence against viruses but also regulates patterns of development and epigenetics. The main players in this pathway are Dicers, Argonautes and a suite of small (s) RNAs. We have been studying the different sRNA pathways to elucidate their components and how they operate and are currently studying a family of proteins (called DRBs) that we believed would discriminate between the different Dicerproduced sRNAs and transfer them to the appropriate Argonautes. Some of these proteins are behaving as predicted, others are showing interesting and unexpected properties that hint at the possibility of other twists to the RNA-mediated developmental-control pathway. We have ongoing research examining the nature of a mobile silencing signal, the basis of epigenetic gene regulation (including transgenerational epigenetic inheritance), and how other non-coding RNAs are mediating genome regulation. A recent direction that we are taking, and for which we were awarded an ARC “Super Science” grant, is the use of Native Australian Nicotiana species as biofactories for the rapid and high level production of valuable proteins (e.g. vaccines, antibodies, and other therapeutic agents). In conjunction with this we are sequencing the entire genome and transcriptome of Nicotiana benthamiana to identify why it is such a special plant for the rapid expression of foreign proteins. To get a greater impression of the work we do, visit our group genome website sydney.edu.au/science/molecular_bioscience/sites/benthamiana/ Professor Peter Waterhouse Room 202, Macleay Building A12 T: (02) 9114 0745 E: peter.waterhouse@ sydney.edu.au
Page 1 and 2: iological sciences HONOURs 2014 sci
Page 3 and 4: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Honours Coordin
Page 5 and 6: Why do Honours? 5 Flesh fly by Jess
Page 7 and 8: When does Honours begin? 7 You can
Page 9 and 10: 9 How do I apply? Photo courtesy Di
Page 11 and 12: 11 27 Eddie Holmes Evolutionary gen
Page 13 and 14: BEHAVIOUR AND GENETICS OF SOCIAL IN
Page 15 and 16: REGULATION OF PLANT DEVELOPMENT 15
Page 17 and 18: NUTRIENT BALANCING AND LOCUST PHYSI
Page 19 and 20: TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 19 Research Int
Page 21 and 22: MOLECULAR GENETICS 21 Research Inte
Page 23 and 24: PLANT SYSTEMATICS 23 Research Inter
Page 25: ECOLOGY OF TERRESTRIAL ARTHROPODS 2
Page 28 and 29: 28 GROUP BEHAVIOUR AND SWARM INTELL
Page 30 and 31: 30 MICROBIAL ECOLOGY Research Inter
Page 32 and 33: 32 ANIMAL-PLANT INTERACTIONS Resear
Page 34: 34 REPTILE EVOLUTION AND BEHAVIOURA
Page 37 and 38: NUTRITION, INFECTION AND HOST-FITNE
Page 39: EVOLUTIONARY AND ECOLOGICAL PHYSIOL
Page 42 and 43: 42 PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Research
Page 44 and 45: 44 URBAN ECOLOGY AND BIODIVERSITY E
Page 46 and 47: 46 ANIMAL DEVELOPMENT AND STRESS Re
Page 50 and 51: 50 CARNIVORE ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION AND
Page 52: School of Biological Sciences T +61

biological sciences HONOURs 2014 - The University of Sydney

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?