Faculty of Science wins $8.9m of Marsden funding

Dr Soledad Perez Santangelo, a plant molecular biologist in the School of Biological Sciences, and her international team will investigate how legumes adjust their daily cycles in response to changing temperatures.

By  identifying key genes, the research aims to inform breeding and genetic-modification strategies that can be used to produce climate-resilient crops.

Legumes such as lentils, peas and chickpeas feature in the manufacture of plant-based food products. 

The circadian clock pathway of a legume known as barrelclover, often used in research, will be studied to understand how variations in clock function impact the plant’s physiology and behaviour under different temperature regimes.

She'll be working in collaboration with researchers in Switzerland and Argentina. 

The research is an example of a string of projects from the faculty which were each awarded $941,000. Another was a project led by Associate Professor Michael Rowe, of the School of Environment, investigating the potential for the metal gallium to reveal traces of ancient life in rock samples. 

Contrary to popular belief, traces of the most primitive life forms are not fossils. Instead, they may be found as elevated levels of rare elements within minerals. If gallium is a reliable indicator for microbes in geothermal systems, the hunt is on for ancient life in rock samples from around the world, Mars and other extra-terrestrial bodies.

Scientists across the schools of Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Computer Sciences and Environment, and the departments of Mathematics and Physics received funding.

Topic areas included global linguistic diversity, drivers of extreme heat events in estuaries, the diversity of Pacific ferns, the development of sustainable catalysts, and ultrashort light generation.

The full list of researchers at the University awarded Marsden funding is in this article.