Infochemistry for pest management in plant crops

The development of integrated pest and disease management strategies have been a major research focus for DEEDI in the cropping, horticulture and forestry industries for many years.

Reproduction of World War I portrait of Dr. Nathan Wolf of the 2nd Company of the 1st Landsturm Infantry Regiment Portraits Men

Dr. Nathan Wolf's medals: (bottom left) silver Wound Badge; Iron Cross 2nd Class; Iron Cross 1st Class; Zaehringer Loewe (Baden); (on right) Medal of the Turkish Crescent

Banana Plant Protection Program

Developing a National Banana Plant Protection Program four key strategic areas have been identified which each address a number of key strategic objectives. Taken together they address the key strategic objectives as outlined in the strategic plan. The four key strategic areas of the Plant Protection Program are: 1. Resistant Varieties and Consumer Choice; 2. Safeguarding Production and Markets; 3. Sustainable Production Systems; 4. Building Science and Communication.

Controlling plant and fruit diseases in strawberry fields

Grey mould, powdery mildew and stem-end rot are major diseases affecting the strawberry industry. Some of the chemicals used are ineffective under wet weather, have limits to the number of applications allowed in a season or may become ineffective in the long-term because of the development of resistance in the fungi. We will assess the effectiveness of the chemicals currently used by the strawberry industry and whether the fruit rot fungi are resistant to these fungicides. We will screen other chemicals that are used to control these diseases in related crops. We will also evaluate new chemicals in collaboration with the crop protectant industry. We will also undertake similar work to control nematodes in strawberry fields.

William Niclas standing next to the Oder River Portraits Men

Digital Image

CRC27012 A National Diagnostic Database for Emergency Plant Pests

Development of a national diagnostic database for Emergency Plant Pests which will be web-accessible.

Delivering superior forage oat varieties for sub-tropical Australia

This full application seeks ongoing funding for the Agri-Science Queensland's forage oat breeding program through the Meat and Livestock Australia Partners in Innovation program with Heritage Seeds as the Donor Company and the commercial collaborator. The focus of the breeding program will shift to the use of minor genes that confer partial resistance or adult plant resistance to leaf rust. Accumulation of several minor genes in a single variety should produce a high level of effective field resistance, and better durability of resistance, with less likelihood of a mutational change in the pathogen.

CRC40142 Defining the plant pathogen risk posed by international travellers

This project will define the plant pathogen incursion risk posed by people returning from overseas and interstate travel. This will be achieved through the development of technically sound sample/survey methodologies. The project will initially focus on cereal rusts. An assessment of the current level of human mediated rust entries into Australia will be determined through the sampling of travellers who have been known to have visited grain production regions overseas.

Post Entry Plant Quarantine

The seeds of the majority of commercial crops must be grown for one generation in post-entry plant quarantine on arrival in Australia. Live plants and cuttings must also undergo quarantine screening on arrival, and spend a minimum of three months in quarantine.

205-14 A Monograph of the plant-infecting members of the Order Clavicipitales in

Taxonomic revision of ergots and related fungi in Australia.

Stochastic kinetics of ribosomes: Single motor properties and collective behavior

Syntheses of protein molecules in a cell are carried out by ribosomes.A ribosome can be regarded as a molecular motor which utilizes the input chemical energy to move on a messenger RNA (mRNA) track that also serves as a template for the polymerization of the corresponding protein. The forward movement, however, is characterized by an alternating sequence of translocation and pause. Using a quantitative model, which captures the mechanochemical cycle of an individual ribosome, we derive an exact analytical expression for the distribution of its dwell times at the successive positions on the mRNA track. Inverse of the average dwell time satisfies a Michaelis-Menten-type'' equation and is consistent with the general formula for the average velocity of a molecular motor with an unbranched mechanochemical cycle. Extending this formula appropriately, we also derive the exact force-velocity relation for a ribosome. Often many ribosomes each synthesizes a copy of the same protein. We extend the model of a single ribosome by incorporating steric exclusion of different individuals on the same track. We draw the phase diagram of this model of ribosome traffic in three-dimensional spaces spanned by experimentally controllable parameters. We suggest new experimental tests of our theoretical predictions.

Hierarchical Bayesian modelling of early detection surveillance for plant pest invasions

Early detection surveillance programs aim to find invasions of exotic plant pests and diseases before they are too widespread to eradicate. However, the value of these programs can be difficult to justify when no positive detections are made. To demonstrate the value of pest absence information provided by these programs, we use a hierarchical Bayesian framework to model estimates of incursion extent with and without surveillance. A model for the latent invasion process provides the baseline against which surveillance data are assessed. Ecological knowledge and pest management criteria are introduced into the model using informative priors for invasion parameters. Observation models assimilate information from spatio-temporal presence/absence data to accommodate imperfect detection and generate posterior estimates of pest extent. When applied to an early detection program operating in Queensland, Australia, the framework demonstrates that this typical surveillance regime provides a modest reduction in the estimate that a surveyed district is infested. More importantly, the model suggests that early detection surveillance programs can provide a dramatic reduction in the putative area of incursion and therefore offer a substantial benefit to incursion management. By mapping spatial estimates of the point probability of infestation, the model identifies where future surveillance resources can be most effectively deployed.