The past three years as a postdoc in the Brodribb Lab at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) have been a transformative chapter. After completing my studies in Spain—from undergrad through to PhD—I was lucky to receive a mobility grant from the Spanish government, which launched me into a new adventure overseas. Not only did I relocate geographically, but I also made a significant shift in research focus: from plant ecology to the fascinating world of plant physiology.
The Centre has played a key role in making that transition possible. Thanks to an ECR Capacity Building Grant, I had the chance to attend the 6th Xylem International Meeting last March. This is one of the top global conferences in plant hydraulics, and I was thrilled to present research I’d done the previous year—which, coincidentally, was published around the same time in Plant Physiology.
With the guidance of Chief Investigator Tim Brodribb and the expertise of Postdoctoral Research Fellow Ibrahim Bourbia, our study explored how polyploidy—having multiple sets of chromosomes—affects whole-plant water relations. We used Dianthus broteri, a species complex where ploidy level correlates with water availability, as a model to study how plants manage water uptake, transport, and use. We found that higher ploidy levels were associated with greater biomass allocation to roots and xylem, which led to higher hydraulic efficiency and stomatal conductance. This setup can be advantageous in plants vulnerable to embolism, as it allows water to move efficiently at low xylem tensions. Interestingly, though, this investment wasn’t matched by a proportional increase in leaf area.
While polyploidy is often linked to increased physiological plasticity and potential fitness benefits, our results suggest that further rounds of genome duplication in high polyploids might actually lead to suboptimal tissue allocation and less efficient plant–environment interactions. This trade-off could influence how diploids and polyploids compete, and ultimately shape the evolutionary trajectory of new polyploid lineages in a changing climate.
Functional changes tied to polyploidy are clearly central to understanding the evolutionary success of this widespread phenomenon in plants. The cutting-edge methods developed in the Brodribb group for tracking real-time water dynamics are opening up exciting new paths to explore that complexity. Reflecting on this journey so far, I’m genuinely excited to keep playing my small part in it!
Javier Lopez Jurado
Associate Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Tasmania
