‘Depressed’ plants
Research in a new paper shows that the interaction of plants and soil fungi – mycorrhiza – does not always benefit the plant. Beneficial soil microbes such as mycorrhizal fungi [...]
A salt-tough Aussie rice shares some of its secrets
A team of scientists from the University of Sydney, Macquarie University and the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) have identified a novel source of salt tolerance in an endemic Australian [...]
High-throughput 3D modelling to dissect the genetic control of leaf elongation in barley
Counting and measuring the length of leaves on a barley plant sounds simple enough. But try doing it on hundreds of plants on a daily basis, something you would need [...]
Novel salt-tolerant genetic loci detected in glasshouse show increased wheat grain yield in the Australian environment
A team of scientists, including the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility's Dr Bettina Berger, have identified a number of novel beneficial genetic loci (so-called quantitative trait loci or QTL) that associated [...]
Shared knowledge helps accelerate research results for global benefit in C4 rice project
High-throughput 'Setraia virids' mutant populations at IRRI - (Image source: C4 Rice Centre IRRI) Setaria viridis successfully screened for mutants with altered CO2 compensation points using high-throughput [...]
The hunt for combined drought and heat tolerant crops
New review paper discusses what is known, and where research is turning next, in the pursuit of physiological traits for combined stress tolerance in crops Unique new combined drought/heat/humidity/light research [...]
Graphene promise for more efficient fertilisers
Fertilisers with lower environmental impacts and reduced costs for farmers are being developed by University of Adelaide researchers in the world-first use of the new advanced material graphene as a [...]
Designing a field trial with the big picture in mind
How many plants? How many replicates? Fully randomised, randomised blocks or Latin square? These are standard and time-honoured questions when designing a field trial or greenhouse experiment according to the Australian Plant [...]
New discovery to accelerate development of salt-tolerant grapevines
A recent discovery by Australian scientists is likely to improve the sustainability of the Australian wine sector and significantly accelerate the breeding of more robust salt-tolerant grapevines. With funding from [...]
Small group scoops international effort to sequence huge wheat genome
The wheat genome is finally complete. A giant international consortium of academics and companies has been trying to finish the challenging DNA sequence for more than a decade, but in [...]
The hunt for high salt tolerant barley crops gets closer
Soil salinity severely impacts crop growth and yield. Within minutes of exposure to salt, cell expansion, leaf expansion, photosynthesis, transpiration and tillering are reduced. When salts accumulate to toxic concentrations [...]
Growing rice faster – uncovering the triggers behind early canopy closure
By combining high-resolution image-based phenotyping with functional mapping and genome prediction, a new study has provided insights into the complex genetic architecture and molecular mechanisms underlying early shoot growth dynamics [...]
A step closer to salt tolerant chickpea crops
A recent study has collected phenotypic data of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) which can now be linked with the genotypic data of these lines. This will enable genome-wide association mapping [...]
Taking the kinks out of curves
In a recent paper, researchers have developed a methodology suitable for analysing the growth curves of a large number of plants from multiple families. The corrected curves accurately account for [...]
Getting to the root of plant zinc health
Sunlight and water are two obvious requirements essential for healthy growth of plants, but did you know that zinc is also a vital ingredient? Zinc is a critical nutrient in [...]
A better way to tackle environmental variation in your greenhouse research
Statistics prove the smart way to deal with variation in your controlled environment greenhouse. Plant phenomics allows the measurement of plant growth with unprecedented precision. As a result, the question [...]
Sun protection and diversity could be key to more productive rice crops
With a rapidly growing population, improving the yield of global food staples such as rice has become an urgent focus for plant scientists. In a recent study published on Plant [...]
Delicious potential: The genome of quinoa decoded
Scientists have successfully decoded the genome of quinoa, one of the world's most nutritious and resilient crops. The study, published online this week in Nature, was an international collaboration led [...]
More salad please!
With indoor-vertical farming on the rise, lettuce production can be customised more than ever, by choosing the right varieties, temperature, lighting and nutrient supply to produce the leaves consumers want. [...]
Accurate field canopy temperature measured in seconds
A method for cost-effective, reliable and scalable airborne thermography has been developed, resolving a number of challenges surrounding accurate high-throughput phenotyping of canopy temperature (CT) in the field, such as [...]