Cereal blueprints for a water-limited world (2019-2024)
Abstract
This Project aims to demonstrate that key developmental genes in cereals can be manipulated to design plant architecture for specific resource-limited environments. This addresses one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today - producing more food with less water. This Project expects to increase understanding of how shoot and root systems can be uncoupled to enhance crop adaptation in water-limited environments using an accelerated genome editing approach. An expected outcome of this Project is enhanced drought adaptation for cereals in a dry world. This should provide significant benefits to farmers and consumers in Australia and worldwide.