Robyn Overall - Biological Sciences
Robyn Overall is a professor in Plant Cell Biology and Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney.
Plants: nature's recyclers
Plants use and modify the land, water and air in the environment to produce biomass. The process of plant growth is critical as plants are not only the sink for carbon but also the ultimate source of food for the human species.
Armed with a toolkit of genetics and molecular biology, plant scientists are making fundamental advances in understanding the basic processes underlying plant growth and behaviour.
The challenge is to understand and predict the ways in which plants are likely to respond to expected environmental changes, and develop approaches for manipulating plant growth to maintain or enhance carbon sequestration and food production.
Professor Overall’s particular research interest is the cellular processes that underpin coordinated growth in plants.
She and her colleagues are studying the role of the cytoskeleton in the production of the cellulosic cell wall, the main carbon sink, and in signalling environmental conditions to the cell.
Her research also examines the minute channels that cross the cell walls to transport water, ions, carbon-based products of photosynthesis and signalling molecules throughout the plant. These channels are the conduits for carbon, which moves from the leaves to other areas of the plant for the purpose of biomass production (of wood, seeds or fruit). She is exploring the cell biological responses that underpin increased wood production under elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Understanding the cellular processes that underpin plant growth is a first step in identifying targets for manipulating carbon sequestration and the loading of sugars and nutrients into food sources such as seeds and fruits.