ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls » News

Centre Director on Qantas Biofuels Flight

Emma Drew — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:38:02 +0000

Professor Geoff Fincher, the Director of the Centre of Excellence was one of the lucky few invited to be apart of this test flight.

Read the Qantas release: http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/media-releases/apr-2012/5389/global/en

ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls

Emma Drew — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:01:13 +0000

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls is a seven year collaboration between the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and Queensland in partnership with SA State Government and seven international institutions.

Established in 2011 with $20.5 million funding from the Australian Research Council and $11.5 million from the partner institutions, the Centre is hosted by the University of Adelaide at its Waite Campus and has nodes at both Melbourne and Queensland Universities.

Cheers – a beer to save water

Emma Drew — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:15:08 +0000

ADELAIDE researchers have developed an improved variety of malting barley sure to please beer lovers.

And the improved malting barley could reduce the amount of water involved in brewing beer by up to 40 per cent.

The team, led by Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Wall Biology director Professor Geoff Fincher, developed the not-so-thirsty grain by reducing the thickness of its cell walls after identifying the genes involved in their formation.

[Read the article here]

Immunolabelling Workshop for Transmission Electron Microscopy

Emma Drew — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:35:46 +0000

The workshop was held from Tuesday the 30^ththrough to Wednesday the 31^st August 2011, at Adelaide Microscopy, and was attended by 8 research staff and postgraduate students from the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and the University of South Australia.

The workshop covered a review of the history of the technique; specimen preparation, including fixation, resin and polymerization factors; choice and use of secondary antibodies; specificity and cross reactivity; and the use of Ultra-small gold. Also presented were labelling protocols for single and double-labelling; choice of positive and negative controls; and Troubleshooting, including Background, Signal Intensity, and Antigen Retrieval.

The PowerPoint presentation was followed by a practical hands-on session which was continued and finalised on the second day. The results were then evaluated in the Transmission Electron Microscope.

Australian Sorghum Research Group Meeting (AusSORGM)

Emma Drew — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:34:47 +0000

Geoff Fincher, Riksfardini Ermawar and Natalie Betts attended the 17^th annual Australian Sorghum Research Group Meeting in early August. The conference was well attended by diverse members of the industry.

They heard about recent progress in the fields of plant breeding; molecular biology; genetic techniques; biosecurity; physiological modelling; and pathology.

Dinie gave a well-received talk about manipulating sorghum gene expression to enhance sugar accessibility for biofuel production. Other topics included:

Characterisation of the popular “Stay Green” trait, which conveys drought tolerance, enhanced grain yield and size, and improved standability. This trait maps to at least 5 chromosomal locations, and identifying key genes will occupy researchers for many years to come.
Industrial perspectives on current sorghum production, key opportunities and current concerns.
Improving resource use efficiency in plants, specifically water and nitrogen use. We heard about effects of a warmer, drier climate on plant sizes, and about advances in transpiration measurement.
Proposed feeding trials for humans.
How to keep farms safe from weeds and diseases, and current advances in characterising Fusarium disease species.
A new technique using a camera loaded onto a remote control helicopter to assess canopy size and plant health in sorghum paddocks!