Welcome to Plant Energy Biology

Vacation and Honours Scholarships

Vacation Scholarships available now!

About to finish your science degree? Interested in undertaking an exciting PAID project over the summer break?

Applications for vacation scholarships at Plant Energy Biology are now invited from undergraduate students enrolled in a full-time science degree at the University of Western Australia and the University of Adelaide.

The Scholarship stipend is $250 per week tax free for 6 to 8 weeks. Applications must be received by 4pm on the last Friday in October, in any given year.

Application forms are available here.

Honours scholarships available now!

About to finish your science degree? Thinking of undertaking a year of scientific discovery at the University of Western Australia or the University of Adelaide?

Plant Energy Biology has several $6000 scholarships up for grabs to help get you through your Honours year in plant energy biology. Never before has plant energy biology been so important, as world energy resources dry up and our food supplies fail to match growing populations. There are many great projects which you can undertake in the Centre, which are outlined in the 2011 Honours Booklet

For more information, visit our Scholarships page.

Eureka Moment for Steve Smith

Eureka! Chief Investigator Steve Smith is one of 3 finalists in 2011 Annual Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Environmental Research. Steve was nominated by the University of Western Australia for his ongoing environmental research which is providing exciting new avenues for restoration ecology and understanding plant tolerance to stress. The Eureka Prizes are highly prestigious awards in Australia and reward excellence in the fields of scientific research and innovation, science leadership, school science, science journalism and science communication.

More info about the Eureka Dinner

Western Australia's Mysterious Underground Orchid Revealed

[click image for slideshow]

View of the Rhizanthella gardneri capitulum with its shoot emerging from the deeply buried bulb.

Close up of the individual flowers in a dark Rhizanthella gardneri capitulum.

Close up of the individual flowers in a white Rhizanthella gardneri capitulum.

partially closed Rhizanthella gardneri capitulums right after their discovery.

fully open Rhizanthella gardneri capitulum at the base of a Melaleuca uncinata trunk.

purification of genomic DNA from Rhizanthella gardneri

Another view of the Rhizanthella gardneri capitulum with its shoot emerging from the deeply buried bulb

Rhizanthella gardneri plastid genome. Exons are displayed as blue arrows, introns as lines joining exons. tRNAs as black triangles, rRNAs in red. inverted repeats as yellow arrows and fragments or pseudogenes in orange. Ψ: pseudogenes. frag: fragment.

Rhizanthella gardneri is a cute, quirky and critically endangered orchid that lives all its life underground. It even blooms underground, making it virtually unique amongst plants. Last year, using radioactive tracers, scientists at The University of Western Australia showed that the orchid gets all its nutrients by parasitising fungi associated with the roots of broom bush, a woody shrub of the WA outback. Now, with less than 50 individuals left in the wild, Plant Energy Biology scientists have made a timely and remarkable discovery about its genome.

Publication:

Sota Fujii Awarded:

Plant Energy Biology Research Associate Dr Sota Fujii is off to a terrific start in 2011. Following on from his recent publication (Full Text) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), he has won both a Japanese research award and a fellowship to continue his valuable work in plant genetics.

Dr Fujii was selected from 300 agricultural scientists for the position of "Super Postdoctoral Fellow" by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The fellowship is funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture.

I will do my best to use this precious money from Japanese Taxpayers to contribute to the advancement of life science at global level, like my hero Dr. Barbara McClintock,

Dr Fujii's research on restorer to fertility genes in plants has also earned him a Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists. This prize for early career scientists highlights the great work being done by this promising young researcher.

Kai Xun Chan and family during the graduation ceremony in December [click to expand image (2.3MB)]

TWO IN A ROW - TOP HONOURS PRIZE TO PEB STUDENT

Following on from Peter Crisp's success in 2009, Kai Xun Chan has won the College of Medicine, Biology and Environment Prize for the most outstanding honours thesis 2010.

This prize is sponsored by the India Australia Association and is awarded each year to the Australian National University student who achieved the most outstanding Honours result.

Kai Xun's honours thesis was titled: "Investigating PAP regulation and metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana during drought."

The study is an excellent extension and application of Peter Crisp's honours research. Peter found a signalling molecule called PAP that coordinated a new line of communication between the chloroplast and the nucleus during plant stress response.

Kai Xun's application of this discovery was to study how plants regulate the abundance of this molecular signal (PAP) during drought. "For my Honours thesis, I investigated how key plant hormones such as abscisic acid (ABA) control PAP production during drought" said Kai Xun." I also studied how plant cells accumulate PAP. Intriguingly, I found that PAP production is controlled by both ABA-dependent and ABA-independent pathways. This challenges conventional theory that these two pathways are distinct, and places PAP at the crossroads between different molecular highways in the plant cell."

Words of wisdom can be found from this young student who is now working towards his PhD in the Pogson lab: I attribute my success to self-belief and persistence when things go wrong, humility when things go right, a large slice of good luck, and above all great supervisors coupled with the fantastic resources of the centre. Congratulations Kai Xun!

Center research papers recently recommended reading by the Faculty of 1000

• Arabidopsis has a cytosolic fumarase required for the massive allocation of photosynthate into fumaric acid and for rapid plant growth on high nitrogen.
• Regulation of carotenoid composition and shoot branching in Arabidopsis by a chromatin modifying histone methyltransferase, SDG8.
• Mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase lowers leaf respiration and alters photorespiration and plant growth in Arabidopsis.

New mechanism for acclimation to stress discovered

Scientists from Plant Energy Biology have discovered a new molecular mechanism by which plants deal with stress. These findings have been published as the September 28 cover-page article by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (www.aaas.org) in their marquee journal, Science Signaling.

"We found that when plants are stressed they respond by increasing their sensitivity to a steroid growth hormone called brassinosteroid. This provides a way for them to step up to the challenge of growth in harsh conditions," Professor Steve Smith said.

Read the full story here

The ARC Centre for Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (PEB) will host five new "Super Science Fellows" under the Australian Government's $27.2 million Super Science Fellowships scheme, aimed at attracting the world's best early career researchers.

The University of Western Australia was awarded three fellowships in biotechnology. The fellows, who will be based at PEB, will investigate the interaction between rice plants and phosphate fertilisers. Crop plants require the addition of phosphate fertilisers in nutrient poor Australian soils. All types of phosphates are not equal, and it is estimated that billions of dollars worth of phosphate from previous fertiliser applications lie in our soils in forms unusable to plants. Due to the fact that phosphate deposits worldwide are dwindling, it is critical that we find out how to breed crop plants that use these limited supplies more efficiently.

• For the full news story click here
• UWA Media Release