Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future

¹Centre for Plant Science, School of Environmental and Life Science, University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia

²Centre for Plant Science (QAAFI), School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia

³ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University, Acton ACT 2601, Australia.

⁴ARC COE for Translational Photosynthesis, Australian National University, Acton ACT 2601, Australia.

Email: Joseph.Pegler@uon.edu.au

Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) are now well-established central regulators of gene expression, influencing development, pathogen defence and abiotic stress adaptation. Alterations, directed by molecular modulation or mutation, to the miR396/GROWTH REGULATING FACTOR (GRF) expression module, has produced highly desirable morphological and physiological phenotypes in a range of monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous species. One such phenotype is an enhanced adaptive response to drought stress.

This project aims to utilise traditional and contemporary molecular genetic approaches, to characterise the phenotypic and physiological consequences of altering the miR396/GRF expression module in Setaria viridis, grown under both well-watered and drought stress regimes. More specifically, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation will be used to generate miR396 overexpression and knockdown mutants in S. viridis accession A10. In addition, a collection of Setaria italica ecotypes (≈ 200) sourced from 15 countries scattered across 4 continents, will be screened to identify the extremes of drought susceptible and drought tolerant accessions. A subset of accessions will be further characterised at a molecular level in an attempt to establish linkage(s) between the drought response of each accession and measured changes of the miR396/GRF expression module.