More about the project
Annual productivity gains in major crops are approaching their maxima in favourable, but not stressed, conditions. It has been more than 50 years since the Borlaug-led Green Revolution developed crops that made greater use of fertiliser and partitioned more biomass into grain. A new approach is needed to ensure crop production under the combined impacts of climate change, land degradation and resource scarcity. A key limitation is photosynthesis and how the captured energy is directed towards grain production.
Our strategy is to optimise how wheat plants capture and use energy to drive higher yield crops. Discoveries by our team within two Centres of Excellence and an International consortium focused on determining genetic variability in photosynthesis, respiration and energy use efficiency in high yielding wheat lines have provided us with a suite of analytical tools, target traits and genes for improving growth and yield.
Key areas of research will be:
- Deciphering how wheat genetics can be tuned for better photosynthesis and energy use efficiency
- Gene editing of photosynthesis and energy genes that are linked to yield and crop performance
- Field analyses in conjunction with machine learning of elite wheat lines and diversity panels for mapping and improving photosynthesis and energy use
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Potential Project supervisor
There will be multiple supervisors on this project, including:
Robert (Bob) Furbank heads the Furbank Lab – Improving photosynthesis and crop yield, and is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Training Centre for Future Crop Development.
Robert was awarded a Bachelor of Science (first class Honours) from the University of Wollongong, in 1979. He completed his PhD at The Australian National University, in 1982.
Robert is internationally known for his research into aspects of photosynthesis and carbon allocation/transport in crop plants, and understanding and manipulating C4 photosynthesis. He is also part of the CIMMYT led International Wheat Yield Consortium and the IRRI Global Rice Initiative Science Partnership.
He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II research fellowship in 1987 and two ACT ICT Innovation Awards in 2013 and the CSIRO Plant Industry Leadership Award in 2014.
Potential Project supervisor
There will be multiple supervisors on this project, including:
Barry Pogson. Barry is the Director of the ARC Training Centre for Future Crop Development, and has been a highly cited and awarded researcher. Some notable achievements and roles in the science community include:
- ISI Highly Cited Scientist
- ASPB Top Cited Author Award for The Plant Cell
- ANU Vice Chancellors Supervisor Award
- 15 articles in the top 1% in their field for citations (ISI highly cited articles)
- Senior Editor, The Plant Cell
- Co-editor, Science Advances
- Chair, Global Plant Council
- Fenner Medal from the Australian Academy of Scientists
- Goldacre Award from the Australian Society of Plant Scientist
More significantly his research group have received 4 national awards for research excellence, two awards for teaching and supervision excellence, and six students have received University medals and/or awards for their honours thesis in the past ten years.