Bringing together research and ideas from across the Waite campus and beyond. Stay tuned for our fortnightly schedule of industry leaders and speakers on a wide range of topics.
Upcoming speakers
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Dr Sarah McKim, University of Dundee
Beyond Face Value: epidermal specialisations in cereals
In my seminar, I will describe our recent discovery of a genetic network in barley controlling multiple epidermal specialisations, including cuticle deposition and stomatal patterning. I will also introduce a major new project on epidermal features which evaluates mechanistic connections, conservation in wheat and impacts on crop performance. In addition, I will summarise our recent findings on regulatory pathways controlling barley grain development. All our work is anchored by exploitation and generation of enabling technologies for barley, many of which were developed at the James Hutton Institute, where my lab is located and the site of a newly opened Crop Innovation Centre and headquarters of the international Barley Hub (https://barleyhub.org). Altogether, our research delivers significant advances in understanding and controlling traits important for resiliency and yield.
Past speakers
Prof. Caitlin Byrt
24 October 2024
Redirecting critical resource flow
Future food, energy and water security requires circular reuse of critical nutrient, metal, mineral and water resources. The value of critical resources commonly depends on the purity of the resource, and it is challenging to separate pure resources from the complex mixtures of molecules found in industrial wastes and in natural deposits…
Prof. Alex Johnson
21 October 2024
Genetic strategies for iron biofortification of cereal crops
Alex Johnson is a teaching and research academic at the University of Melbourne specializing in agricultural biotechnology. He has strong interests in “biofortified” wheat, rice, and other crops that enrich human diets with essential micronutrients such as iron and zinc.
Dr. Han Weng
10 October 2024
Probing the Nature of Soil Organic Matter
A better understanding of how soil organic carbon behaves can enable optimisation of predictive carbon modelling and facilitate a paradigm shift in the way we manage our grain-producing systems for storing soil organic carbon and improving soil health.
Dr. Matthieu Bogard
01 October 2024
Arvalis Institut du Vegetal is a non-profit organization, since 1959 and is largely founded by the grain industry. Its missions include gaining technical references in agronomy and circulating this knowledge toward the farmers to improve crop production, reduce the environmental impact and eventually increase farmer’s margins.
Dr. Yuling Jiao
01 July 2024
Grass inflorescence morphology is highly diversified among species and is a key determinate to crop yield. To understand how the developmental morpho-dynamics affects inflorescence architecture, we analyzed early inflorescence development in bread wheat and rice.
Dr. Chema Flores
14 June 2024
Chloride is an essential micro-nutrient that has traditionally been considered not only of little relevance for agriculture, but also a potentially toxic saline anion for important crops like citrus and grapevines. However, higher plants accumulate this nutrient at concentrations that are typical of a macronutrient, which requires a significant amount of metabolic energy…
Dr Nieves Capote
12 June 2024
Species of the Botryo-sphaeriaceae family are the causal agent of Botryosphaeria dieback, a fungal disease that threatens many economically important woody crops, including almond. These fungi produce latent infections, allowing them to easily pass undetected by phytosanitary systems in nurseries and traded living plants, as well as in plants in the field.
Dr Chalermchai Wongs-Aree
08 May 2024
He has been working on Postharvest Technology and Logistics of Agricultural Commodities for over twenty years since joining King Monkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. The research fields of interest include analyzing the colour and aroma of fresh produce and the proper storage systems for tropical fruits.
RELATED NEWS & EVENTS
News Article: Functionality of a grapevine transport protein defined
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered that a protein which mediates the transport of alkali metal ions, such as potassium, and halides ions across plant membranes acts similarly to a protein found in animals.
2024 WRI Symposium success
An excellent day of sharing research stories and innovation was had at the yearly symposium!
Position available: Institute manager at the WRI
The Institute Manager will contribute to formulating and implementing the strategic direction of the WRI, provide co-ordination around the delivery of major research programs and assist in the management of stakeholders and clients, both internal and external.