Doctor Robert Sharwood

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Dr Robert Sharwood is a VC Fellow / Senior Lecturer within the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment and affiliated with the School of Science. His research interests centre on developing climate-adapted germplasm through discovering novel heat tolerant and drought resistance mechanisms/traits that contribute to improvements in carbon fixation under future climate scenarios. His program spans from the gene to the protein to alter the biochemistry of photosynthesis through synthetic biology approaches to ultimately tailor crops to the prevailing climate. He focuses on crops such as maize, cotton, wheat, canola and rice and a number of important Eucalypt species including E. camaldulensis and E. globulus.

To mitigate climate variability, he is currently developing a new research program to improve the performance of fruit and vegetable crops within a protected cropping scenario.

Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Chloroplast RNA Biology, Biochemistry of C₃ and C₄ Photosynthesis, Molecular Biology, Plant Physiology, Biotechnology, Phenotyping and Crop Production.

Awards and recognition

• Awarded a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow (Plant Molecular Biology), 2020
• Ranked a Leader in Botany Research within Australia, Higher Education Analysis – Published by the Australian Newspaper, 2018
• Australian Academy of Science: Thomas Davies Research Fund – Project
  titled: Unlocking the diversity of Rubisco catalysis from deep-sea ocean α-cyanobacteria for eventual transplantation into higher plant chloroplasts to improve photosynthetic CO2 assimilation, 2016
• Department of Agriculture and Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Cotton
  Research Development Corporation – “Science and Innovation Award”. Project
  titled - Improved understanding of the underlying physiology contributing to heat tolerance and water use efficiency in cotton, 2013

Editorial Board Memberships

Journal of Experimental Botany, PLOS One, Plant Growth and Regulation.

Grants / Current Projects

Boosting C4 photosynthesis to climate proof yields
Co-Researcher: Oula Ghannoum
Partner/funding body: Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Program
Period: 2023-2024

Automated crop monitoring for protected cropping systems
Co-Researchers: Oula Ghannoum, David Tissue, Chris Cazzonelli, and Zhonghua Chen (SoSc)
Partner/funding body: Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)
Period: 2023-2028

Co-researchers: David Tissue, Oula Ghannoum, and Chris Cazzonelli
Partner/funding body: Future Foods Systems Cooperative Research Centre
Period: 2022-2027

Co-researchers: David Tissue, Oula Ghannoum, and Chris Cazzonelli
Partner/funding body: Innofocus PTY Ltd
Period: 2022-2027

Drought resilient cotton: combining synthetic biology solutions to improve cotton productivity under future water limited and heatwave conditions
Partner/Funding Body: Cotton Research and Development Corporation (HDR scholarship)
Period: 2022-2024

Smart glass film impacts on energy use and productivity in greenhouse lettuce
Co-Researchers: Oula Ghannoum, Chris Cazzonelli, David Tissue, and Zhonghua Chen
Partner/Funding Body: Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre
Period: 2021-2022

Building climate resilience within Australia’s cotton industry by improving CO₂ assimilation
Partner/Funding Body: Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis
Period: 2021

The gatekeeper to photosynthesis: mesophyll conductance and abiotic stress in cotton
Co-Researchers: Demi Sargent
Partner/Funding Body: Cotton Research and Development Corporation and the Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment
Period: 2021

Synthetic biology opportunities in the cotton industry
Co-Researcher: David Tissue
Partner/Funding Body: Cotton Research and Development Corporation
Period: 2021

Climate proofing Australia’s cotton industry through improving crop water use and photosynthetic carbon assimilation (Climate-proof cotton)Co-Researcher: David Tissue
Partner/Funding Body: Cotton Research and Development Corporation
Period: 2021-2023

Adaptive evolution of Eucalyptus trees under future climates
Co-Researchers: David Tissue, Simon Southerton, Gavin Rees, Owen Atkin and Graham Farquhar
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Environmental Trust
Period: 2017-2020

Unlocking the diversity of Rubisco catalysis from deep-sea ocean α-cyanobacteria for eventual transplantation into higher plant chloroplasts to improve photosynthetic CO₂ assimilation
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Academy of Science
Period: 2016-2018

Uncovering the roles of key ribonucleases critical for post-transcriptional control of chloroplast gene expression
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award
Period: 2013-2016

Understanding the biochemistry that underpins Cotton photosynthesis
Partner/Funding Body: Cotton Research and Development Corporation
Period: 2015

Selected Publications

Book Chapters

Whitney, S.M and Sharwood, R.E. Rubisco Engineering by Plastid Transformation and Protocols for Assessing Expression (2021) Maliga P (ed) Chloroplast Biotechnology: Tools for Plastid Genome Engineering. Methods in Molecular Biology, 2nd edn. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, New York (IN PRESS)

Sharwood, R.E., and Long, B.M. Engineering photosynthetic CO2 assimilation to develop new crop varieties to cope with future climates (2020) Advances in Photosynthesis – Accepted.

Whitney, S.M., and Sharwood, R.E., Plastid transformation for Rubisco engineering and protocols for assessing expression. (2014) Methods Mol Biol. 132:245-62.

Sharwood, R.E., and Whitney, S.M. Engineering the sunflower Rubisco subunits into tobacco chloroplasts – New considerations. (2010) Chapter 19 In: The Chloroplast: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Bioengineering: Advances in Photosynthesis. Volume 31, 285-306.

Journal Articles

Badger MR, Sharwood RE, (2023) 'Rubisco, the imperfect winner: it’s all about the base', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.74, no.2, pp 562–580

Carmo-Silva E, Sharwood RE, (2023) 'Rubisco and its regulation-major advances to improve carbon assimilation and productivity', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.74, no.2, pp 507-509

Chen L, Ganguly DR, Shafik SH, Danila F, Grof CPL, Sharwood RE, Furbank RT, (2023) 'The role of SWEET4 proteins in the post-phloem sugar transport pathway of Setaria viridis sink tissues', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.74, no.10, pp 2968-2986

Jahan E, Sharwood RE, Tissue DT, (2023) 'Effects of leaf age during drought and recovery on photosynthesis, mesophyll conductance and leaf anatomy in wheat leaves', Frontiers in Plant Science, vol.14, art no.1091418

Murchie EH, Reynolds M, Slafer GA, Foulkes MJ, Acevedo-Siaca L, McAusland L, Sharwood R, Griffiths S, Flavell RB, Gwyn J, Sawkins M, Carmo-Silva E, (2023) 'A 'wiring diagram' for source strength traits impacting wheat yield potential', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.74, no.1, pp 72-90

Chen L, Ganguly DR, Shafik SH, Ermakova M, Pogson BJ, Grof CPL, Sharwood RE, Furbank RT, (2022) 'Elucidating the role of SWEET13 in phloem loading of the C4 grass Setaria viridis', The Plant Journal, vol.109, no.3, pp 615-632

Sharwood RE, (2022) 'Reconstructing CO₂ fixation from the past: Analysis of Rubisco evolution could inform how to engineer a better enzyme', Science, vol.378, no.6616, pp 137 - 138

Sharwood RE, Quick WP, Sargent D, Estavillo GM, Silva-Perez V, Furbank RT, (2022) 'Mining for allelic gold: finding genetic variation in photosynthetic traits in crops and wild relatives', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.73, no.10, pp 3085-3108

Ermakova M, Osborn H, Groszmann M, Bala S, Bowerman A, McGaughey S, Byrt C, Alonso-Cantabrana H, Tyerman S, Furbank RT, Sharwood RE, von Caemmerer S, (2021) 'Expression of a co₂-permeable aquaporin enhances mesophyll conductance in the c₄ species setaria viridis', eLife, vol.10, Article no.e70095

Furbank RT, Sharwood RE, Estavillo GM, Silva-Perez V, Condon AG, (2020) 'Photons to food: genetic improvement of cereal crop photosynthesis', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.71, no.7, pp 2226-2238

Li XM, Shi W, Broughton K, Smith R, Sharwood R, Payton P, Bange M, Tissue DT, (2020) 'Impacts of growth temperature, water deficit and heatwaves on carbon assimilation and growth of cotton plants (Gossypium hirsutum L.)', Environmental and Experimental Botany, vol.179, Article no.104204

Martin-Avila E, Lim Y, Birch R, Dirk LM, Buck S, Rhodes T, Sharwood RE, Kapralov MV, Whitney SM, (2020) 'Modifying Plant Photosynthesis and Growth via Simultaneous Chloroplast Transformation of Rubisco Large and Small Subunits', The Plant Cell, vol.32, no.9, pp 2898-2916

Salesse-Smith CE, Sharwood RE, Busch FA, Stern DB, (2020) 'Increased Rubisco content in maize mitigates chilling stress and speeds recovery', Plant Biotechnology, vol.18, no.6, p 1409

Sharwood RE, (2020) 'Mix-and-Match Rubisco Subunits', Nature Plants, vol.6, pp 1199-1200

Cano FJ, Sharwood RE, Cousins AB, Ghannoum O, (2019) 'The role of leaf width and conductances to CO₂ in determining water use efficiency in C4 grasses', New Phytologist, vol.223, no.3, pp 1280-1295

Alonso-Cantabrana H, Cousins AB, Danila FR, Ryan T, Sharwood RE, von Caemmerer S, Furbank RT, (2018) 'Diffusion of CO2 across the mesophyll-bundle sheath cell interface in a C4 plant with genetically reduced PEP carboxylase activity', Plant Physiology, vol.178, no.1, pp 72-81

Crous KY, Drake JE, Aspinwall MJ, Sharwood RE, Tjoelker MG, Ghannoum O, (2018) 'Photosynthetic capacity and leaf nitrogen decline along a controlled climate gradient in provenances of two widely distributed Eucalyptus species', Global Change Biology, vol.24, no.10, pp 4626-4644

Ford B, Foo E, Sharwood RE, Karafiatova M, Vrána J, MacMillan C, Nichols D, Steuernagel B, Uauy C, Doležel J, Chandler PM, Spielmeyer W, (2018) 'Rht18 Semi-Dwarfism in Wheat is Due to Increased Expression of GA 2-oxidaseA9 and Lower GA Content', Plant Physiology, vol.177, no.1, pp 168-180

Long BM, Hee WY, Sharwood RE, Rae BD, Kaines S, Lim YL, Nguyen ND, Massey B, Bala S, von Caemmerer S, Badger MR, Price GD, (2018) 'Carboxysome encapsulation of the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco in tobacco chloroplasts', Nature Communications, vol.9, no.1, p 3570

Salesse-Smith CE, Sharwood RE, Busch FA, Kromdijk J, Bardal V, Stern DB (2018) 'Overexpression of Rubisco subunits with RAF1 increases Rubisco content in maize', Nature Plants, vol.4, no.10, pp 802-810

Sonawane BV, Sharwood RE, Whitney S, Ghannoum O, (2018) 'Shade compromises the photosynthetic efficiency of NADP-ME less than that of PEP-CK and NAD-ME C-4 grasses', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.69, no.12, pp 3053-3068

Watson-Lazowski A, Papanicolaou A, Sharwood R, Ghannoum O, (2018) 'Investigating the NAD-ME biochemical pathway within C-₄ grasses using transcript and amino acid variation in C-4 photosynthetic genes', Photosynthesis Research, vol.138, no.2, pp 233-248

Clayton H, Saladié M, Rolland V, Sharwood RE, Macfarlane T, Ludwig M, (2017) 'Loss of the Chloroplast Transit Peptide from an Ancestral C₃ Carbonic Anhydrase Is Associated with C₄ Evolution in the Grass Genus Neurachne', Plant Physiology, vol.173, no.3, pp 1648-1658

Heureux AMC, Young JN, Whitney SM, Eason-Hubbard MR, Lee RBY, Sharwood RE, Rickaby REM, (2017) 'The role of Rubisco kinetics and pyrenoid morphology in shaping the CCM of haptophyte microalgae', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.68, no.14, pp 3959–3969

Salese-Smith CE, Sharwood RE, Sakamoto W, Stern D, (2017) 'The Rubisco Chaperone BSD2 May Regulate Chloroplast Coverage in Maize Bundle Sheath Cells', Plant Physiology, vol.175, no.4, pp 1624-1633

Sharwood R, (2017) 'A step forward to building an algal pyrenoid in higher plants', New Phytologist, vol.214, no.2, pp 496-499

Sharwood RE, Crous KY, Whitney SM, Ellsworth DS, Ghannoum O, (2017) 'Linking photosynthesis and leaf N allocation under future elevated CO₂ and climate warming in Eucalyptus globulus', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.68, no.5, pp 1157-1167

Sonawane BV, Sharwood RE, von Caemmerer S, Whitney SM, Ghannoum O, (2017) 'Short-term thermal photosynthetic responses of C-₄ grasses are independent of the biochemical subtype', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.68, no.20, pp 5583-5597

Young JN, Heureux AMC, Rickaby REM, Morel FMM, Whitney SM, Sharwood RE, (2017) 'Rubisco Extraction and Purification from Diatoms', Bio-Protocols, doi.org/10.21769/ BioProtoc.2191

Osborn HL, Alonso-Cantabrana H, Sharwood RE, Covshoff S, Evans JR, Furbank RT, von Caemmerer S, (016) 'Effects of reduced carbonic anhydrase activity on CO₂ assimilation rates in Setaria viridis: a transgenic analysis', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.68, no.2, pp 299-310

Pinto H, Powell JR, Sharwood RE, Tissue DT, Ghannoum O, (2016) 'Variations in nitrogen use efficiency reflect the biochemical subtype while variations in water use efficiency reflect the evolutionary  lineage of C4 grasses at inter-glacial CO₂', Plant, Cell and Environment, vol.39, no.3, pp 514-526

Sharwood RE, (2016) 'Engineering chloroplasts to improve Rubisco catalysis: prospects for translating improvements into food and fiber crops', Tansley Review - New Phytologist, vol.213, no.2, pp 494-510

Sharwood RE, Ghannoum O, Kapralov MV, Gunn LH, Whitney SM, (2016) 'Temperature responses of Rubisco from Paniceae grasses provide opportunities for improving C 3 photosynthesis', Nature Plants, vol.2, Article no.16186

Sharwood RE, Ghannoum O, Whitney SM, (2016) 'Prospects for improving CO₂ fixation in C₃-crops through understanding C₄-Rubisco biogenesis and catalytic diversity', Current Opinion in Plant Biology, vol.31, pp 135-142

Sharwood RE, Sonawane BV, Ghannoum O, Whitney SM, (2016) 'Improved analysis of C₄ and C₃ photosynthesis via refined in vitro assays of their carbon fixation biochemistry', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.67, no.10, pp 3137-3148

Young JN, Heureux AM, Sharwood RE, Rickaby RE, Morel FM, Whitney SM, (2016) 'Large variation in the Rubisco kinetics of diatoms reveals diversity among their carbon-concentrating mechanisms', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.67, no.11, pp 3445-56

Pinto H, Sharwood RE, Tissue DT, Ghannoum O, (2014) 'Photosynthesis of C₃, C₃-C₄ and C₄ grasses at glacial CO₂', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.65 , no.13 , pp 3669-3681 , Special Issue SI

Sharwood RE, Sonawane BV, Ghannoum O, (2014) 'Photosynthetic flexibility in maize exposed to salinity and shade', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.65, no.13, pp 3715-3724 Special Issue: SI

Sharwood RE, Whitney SM, (2014) 'Correlating Rubisco catalytic and sequence diversity within C₃ plants with changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations', Plant Cell Environment, vol.9, pp 1981-1984

Luro S, Germain A, Sharwood RE, Stern DB, (2013) 'RNase J participates in a pentatricopeptide repeat protein-mediated 5' end maturation of chloroplast mRNAs', Nucleic Acids Research, vol.41, no.19, pp 9141-9151

Sharwood RE, Halpert M, Luro SP, Schuster G, Stern DB, (2011) 'Chloroplast RNase J compensates for inefficient transcription termination by removal of antisense RNA', RNA, vol.17, no.12, pp 2165-2176

Sharwood RE, Hotto AM, Bollenbach TB, Stern DB, (2011) 'Overaccumulation of the chloroplast antisense RNA AS5 is correlated with decreased abundance of 5S rRNA in vivo and inefficient maturation in vitro', RNA, vol.17, no.2, pp 230-243

Whitney SM, Sharwood RE, Orr D, White SJ, Alonso H, Galmes J, (2011) 'Isoleucine 309 acts as a C4 catalytic switch that increases ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rubisco) carboxylation rate in Flaveria', Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol.108, no.35, pp 14688-14693

Bollenbach TJ, Sharwood RE, Gutierrez R, Lerbs-Mache S, Stern DB, (2009) 'The RNA-binding proteins CSP41a and CSP41b may regulate transcription and translation of chloroplast-encoded RNAs in Arabidopsis', Plant Molecular Biology, vol.69, no.5, pp 541-552

Whitney SM, Kane, HJ, Houtz RL, Sharwood RE, (2009) 'Rubisco oligomers composed of small and large subunits assemble in tobacco plastids and have higher affinities for CO₂ and O₂', Plant Physiology, vol.149, no.4, pp 1887-1895

Hendrickson L, Sharwood RE, Ludwig M, Whitney SM, Badger MR, von Caemmerer S, (2008) 'The effects of Rubisco activase on C4 photosynthesis and metabolism at high temperature', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.59, no.7, pp 1789-1798

Sharwood RE, von Caemmerer S, Maliga P, Whitney SM, (2008) 'The catalytic properties of hybrid Rubisco comprising tobacco small and sunflower large subunits mirror the kinetically equivalent source Rubiscos and can support tobacco growth', Plant Physiology, vol.146, no.1, pp 83-96

Whitney SM, Sharwood RE, (2008) 'Improving Rubisco engineering in tobacco chloroplasts', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol.59, no.7, pp 1909-1921

Whitney SM, Sharwood RE, (2007) 'Linked Rubisco subunits can assemble into functional oligomers without impeding catalytic performance', Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol.282, no.6, pp 3809-3818

Baker RT, Catanzariti AM, Karunasekara Y, Soboleva TA, Sharwood R, Whitney S, Board PG, (2005) 'Using deubiquitylating enzymes as research tools', Methods in Enzymology, vol.398, pp 540-554

Sharwood R, Whitney S, Andrews TA, (2001) 'comparison of the effectiveness of the promoters and 5 regions of two plastid genes in directing the synthesis of Rubisco small subunits in tobacco plastids',  International Congress on Photosynthesis (PS 2001), CSLI Publications, Melbourne, pp s16-017