Research Seminar - Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

Seminar title: Combining Electrophysiology, Molecular Biology, and Systems Modelling for Research in Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Plant abiotic stress including salinity, drought, cold and many other extreme conditions hamper crop productivity and have countless negative impacts on our environment and society. This talk summarises some of our relevant research work in the area of drought and salinity stress tolerance.

The inter-disciplinary research collaborations between our teams of plant physiologists, breeders, biophysicists, molecular biologists and systems modellers have resulted in some significant advancement in understanding the underlying mechanisms of the signal transduction of drought hormone ABA, membrane transport regulated stomatal behaviour, regulation of potassium and anion channels, and salinity tolerance and genetic diversity in barley.

This talk will also highlight a few cell biology techniques such as microelectrode ion flux measurement (MIFE), voltage clamp, patch clamp, and transgene expression with bicistronic vectors, which are not usually used by plant and animal ecologists and microbiologists in the HIE.

Dr Zhong-Hua Chen is an early-career research lecturer with expertise in plant cell physiology and molecular biology. He graduated from Zhejiang University with a bachelor of Agricultural Science in 2002 and gained his PhD in Plant Physiology and Biophysics from University of Tasmania in 2008.

Dr Chen has published 2 book chapters and 25 research articles in some leading Plant Sciences and Agriculture journals. Further information on HIE Seminars can be found at: http://www.uws.edu.au/hie/events_and_seminars

No RSVP is required - all welcome.