Monash University researchers, led by Associate Professor Ros Gleadow, are currently carrying out an experiment at The Plant Accelerator in Adelaide investigating the impacts of dhurrin (a chemical that is toxic to grazing animals) on drought tolerance in sorghum plants.
The experiment is utilising the facility’s new DroughtSpotter, a gravimetric platform with precision irrigation allowing accurate and reproducible water application for drought stress or related experiments to test the drought tolerance of plants bred for low dhurrin content. Plants have been growing under a range of drought stresses and then harvested throughout growth for biomass characterisation and metabolomics and transcriptomic responses.
The DroughtSpotter greenhouse is available to all publicly or commercially funded researchers. For further information, please visit the APPF website or contact Dr Trevor Garnett.
