Dr Eric Ober

Research interests

The focus is on understanding the physiological limitations to yield formation and the adaptations of plants to abiotic stresses such as drought. An aim is to identify superior germplasm and trait combinations under field conditions using advanced phenotyping techniques. The current research emphasis is on wheat, although past work involved maize, oats, sugar beet and tropical legumes. New information and tools are needed to increase the sustainable production of food and the effective use of water and nutrients such as nitrogen.

One key research area is understanding the genetic control of root system architecture, and how to select root systems optimized to the target environment. A related topic is how to exploit and improve the beneficial interactions between crop plants and the rhizosphere microbiome using a combination of physiology, HT phenotyping, genetics and microbial metagenomics. Work is also underway developing a research platform to evaluate novel and enhanced efficiency fertilisers.

Research is initiated in response to issues facing the agriculture industry, and most work is done in close collaboration with commercial plant breeders and farmers.

Earlier work involved studying the role of drought-induced abscisic acid (ABA) in regulating maize endosperm development and cell division, kernel growth, and genes for carbohydrate metabolism and storage proteins.

Further studies were on the role of ABA in regulating maize root growth maintenance, osmotic adjustment, and signalling changes in rhizosphere water availability at the cell membrane level. Root tissue O2 relations were also studied by inventing an O2 microsensor. Expertise is in the areas of crop physiology, field phenotyping, plant water relations, regulation of growth and grain development during water deficit, and hormonal regulation of root growth and osmotic adjustment.

Full publication list on Google Scholar, ORCID, Scopus, ResearchGate

Eric on LinkedIn