The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics is one of the largest crop genomics centres in the Southern Hemisphere, employing more than 110 staff.

The ACPFG's headquarters are at the University of Adelaide's Waite Campus with research nodes at the University of Melbourne, Department of Primary Industries at Latrobe University and the University of Queensland.

The University of Adelaide

The largest node of ACPFG is located at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide. The Waite Campus is Australia’s largest centre for crop research and supports activities including teaching and fundamental research through to active breeding programs.

The close links to barley and wheat breeding programs have been important in accessing key germplasm and in providing delivery mechanisms for research outcomes. The Adelaide node of the ACPFG has extensive facilities for plant production and screening.

The key activities at the Adelaide node include wheat, barely, rice, Arabidopsis and Physcomitrella transformation, germplasm screening and evaluation, genetic analysis, protein expression and structural analysis, antibody production and the construction and screening of large insert libraries.

The University of Melbourne

The ACPFG node at the University of Melbourne provides access to current technology platforms for functional genomics through the Victorian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (VCPFG). These technologies include proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics and the bioinformatics needed to support high throughput analysis.

The ACPFG research team at the University of Melbourne is applying these core techniques to explain the mechanisms that lead to boron tolerance and salt stress in cereals and to study abiotic stresses in native and exotic grasses.

DPI at La Trobe University

The ACPFG node in the Plant Biotechnology Centre (PBC) at La Trobe University in Melbourne shares facilities with nodes of the Victorian Microarray Technology Consortium and the Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium (VBC) for the agrifood industry in Victoria. This gives ACPFG scientists access to an integrated suite of key platform technologies for plant functional genomics.

These platforms for genomics, transcriptomics and computational biology include a state-ofthe- art capacity in biorobotics, ultra high throughput (ultra-HTP) DNA sequencing and genotyping, microarray and DNA technology and powerful computational tools for data analysis.

A large-scale gene discovery program has created a proprietary database for functional genomics analyses. The database contains information on 20,000 DNA sequences from native and exotic grasses with unique modes of adaptation to stresses such as high salt, low soil fertility, drought, extreme low temperatures and acidic aluminiumtoxic soils

The University of Queensland

The ACPFG node at the University of Queensland (UQ) concentrates on database architecture, data warehousing and data mining.

Researchers employed jointly by the ACPFG and the Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre (MPBCRC) have been focusing on a scoping study on database management and warehousing issues. The final aim is to develop an integrated genetic and genomic bioinformatics system for the ACPFG and MPBCRC.

Supporting this study has been an investigation into the functionality of information management required by ACPFG researchers. Various data types are being used to test a prototype information management system, which is installed on a Citrix server at UQ.

The Plant Genomics Centre

The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics headquarters are located at the Waite Campus, Adelaide, South Australia.

A new $9.2 million building, the Plant Genomics Centre, has been built to house the ACPFG and commercial bioscience partners, including the Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre (MPB CRC), BioInnovationSA, Lifeprint Australia, South Australian Research and Development and the Agricultural node of the Australian Genome Research Facility.

The new building was largely funded by the SA Government.

The Centre is designed to have a range of environmentally friendly and energy saving features such as a carefully orientated position (to minimise heat loads and to maximise air flow) and specialised drainage and stormwater systems that will enable rainwater to be collected and used for irrigation.