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Research Thesis Topic

How do different mycorrhizal fungi affect plant defences against insect herbivores?


Topic ID:
399

Thesis Topic/Title:
How do different mycorrhizal fungi affect plant defences against insect herbivores?

Description

Most plants on land associate with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (subphylum: Glomeromycotina). These fungi can provide plants with access to important resources (i.e. phosphorus) while the plants provide the fungi with carbon. In both natural and managed ecosystems, plants are attacked by at least one, if not many, insect herbivores. For crop production, this can mean significant impacts on yield.
The prophylactic application and reliance on many pesticides and fertilisers is unsustainable. As crop production must increase its sustainability the symbiosis between AM fungi and crop plants offers vast potential to increase plant growth, nutreint uptake and resistance to pests. This project will investigate how AM fungal community assemblage relates to plant defences against insect herbivores.
This project will incorporate field-based (soil and root sampling), controlled-environment experimentation (glasshouse experiments) and lab-based analyses (amplicon sequencing) to disentangle how different AM fungi impact the defences of important Australian crop species.


Principal Supervisor

Associate Supervisors

Research Affiliations
  • Centre for Crop Health

Field of Research
  • Crop and Pasture Production
  • Ecology
  • Plant Biology

Available Academic Programs
  • Doctor of Philosophy (DPHD)

Application Open Date
09/03/2020

Application Close Date
31/12/2022

USQ Scholarship Applications

Pre-approved for Ethics
Not Applicable

Admission Requirements

Please review the admission requirements for the academic program associated with this Thesis Topic

Please review the admission requirements for the academic program associated with this Thesis Topic





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