Forget Mars: What's life like inside a sorghum grain?

Event Details

Date:

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Time:

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Room:

Large Seminar Room, Level 3

UQ Location:

Queensland Bioscience Precinct (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.qaafi.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=224147

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Let me take you on a journey, a journey to a landscape so foreign, it will make the surface of Mars look as familiar as Winton in a drought. We're going on a sightseeing tour through space and time. The space is very small, and the time is from anthesis to maturity. I will take you to the inside of a sorghum grain. You won't believe this place, Inhospitable, Dark, an apparent wasteland of dead cells. Hitherto somewhat indigestible (note this is not good for a cereal), but at least there's more water than on Mars (or Winton). With genomics, proteomics, transgenics, cereal chemistry and imaging we have been changing our understanding of how the sorghum grain works. And as part of this journey you will gain insights as to how we are making sorghum a better grain for humans, animals and bio-industrial applications.