Plant science

Plant & Food Research scientists have particular expertise in fruit and vegetable physiology and specific areas such as carbon metabolism, water relations, and secondary metabolism and nutrition of horticulture and field crop plants. Much of our research targets plant response to biotic (pest and disease) and abiotic stress and is strongly backed by genomics, proteomic and metabolomic technologies, and modelling and biometrics.

Our University researchers in plant molecular science, work in the disciplines of gene expression and development. Our research investigates the genes that control flowering time in plants and the early events in auxin signalling using molecular and cellular biology techniques, genetics and genomics. We also study plant peptide signalling and gene regulation, root system architecture and nutrient uptake, and legume rhizobium symbiosis and biological nitrogen fixation.