The project will be laboratory based and will use different ecotypes of the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana.
It is the most closely related genus containing C 4 species to Arabidopsis.
Ms Collins has cloned eucalyptus homologues of genes that control flower induction in Arabidopsis.
However, Arabidopsis plants modified in the metabolic pathway leading to lignin formation produced abnormal lignin that was associated with severe fungal attacks.
The research will use Arabidopsis as a model for species which primarily accumulate Ca in the palisade and spongy mesophyll.
