Maternal control of seed properties: evolutionary considerations, mechanisms, and agricultural implications

Date

17 September 2018, Monday

Time and Venues

Venues	Local Time	Time Zone
Armidale – B55-FG-R00-Small	12:30 pm	AEST
Brisbane St Lucia QBP – Level 3 South telepresence room (3.323)	12:30 pm	AEST
Canberra Black Mountain – Discovery Lecture Theatre; Crace – Bld44- Meeting Room 3	12:30 pm	AEST
Narrabri Myall Vale – Conference Room	12:30 pm	AEST
Perth Floreat – B1b Boardroom	10:30 am	AWST
Hobart Sandy Bay – River View Room	12:30 pm	AEST
Toowoomba – Meeting Room	12:30 pm	AEST
Waite (SA): B101-FG-R00-BoardWICWest (alternative is SmallWICWest)	12:00 pm	ACST
Werribee (Melbourne) – Peacock Room	12:30 pm	AEST

Speaker

Synopsis

Plants use bet-hedging strategies in which mothers generate cohorts of seeds with different properties, spreading germination in time and place. Our research investigates the mechanisms underlying these strategies, the most important of which is the use of noisy environmental temperature information which we have shown is sensed by the mother and transduced to developing seeds. We will discuss the implications for agricultural systems, including on crop yield and quality.

About the speaker

Steven Penfield completed his PhD at the John Innes Centre in 2001, before postdoctoral work in the group of Professor Ian Graham at the University of York UK. He worked as an independent research fellow at the University of York and the University of Exeter, UK, before taking his current position as Professor of Crop Science at the John Innes Centre in 2014. Steven Penfield’s work considers how seasonal changes in temperature affect plant reproductive traits, including seed yield, seed dormancy and seed quality.