Abiotic stresses
such as extreme temperatures, low water availability, high
salt and mineral deficiencies or toxicities severely diminish
productivity of cereal crops, particularly in Australia's
severe agricultural environment. They are also increasingly
important globally because of the declining availability
of good quality water, land degradation and community pressures
to move away from chemical intervention in agriculture. Interconnected
signal transduction pathways that lead to multiple responses
to abiotic stresses have been difficult to study using traditional
approaches because of their complexity and the large number
of genes and gene products involved in the various defensive
and developmental responses of the plant.
The Technology
Emerging functional genomics technologies now allow a "systems" approach
to be taken to abiotic stress responses in wheat and barley,
and in grasses adapted to extreme environments, through which
networks of stress perception, signal transduction and defensive
responses will be examined from gene transcription, through
protein complements of cells, to the metabolite profiles of
stressed tissues. We have assembled a team with the critical
mass, range of expertise, and facilities to implement this
systems approach. Furthermore, major, existing functional genomics
infrastructure in Australia is formally linked into the Centre.
Centre Features
A key distinguishing feature of this Centre is the availability
of a wide range of adapted and non-adapted germplasm for
comparative studies on the stress response networks in
plants. For example,
drought-tolerant cereals and their wild relatives are available
through existing international linkages, together with lines
that exhibit adaptation to mineral deficiencies and toxicities.
Corresponding mapping populations and other genetic resources
are also available. We have already isolated genes imparting
tolerance to extreme cold and salt stresses from adapted
exotic and Australian native grasses such as Antarctic
Hair-grass
and Salt-blown grass.
Benefits
Detailed knowledge of the mechanisms for adaptation to
abiotic stress will be applied in new strategies for enhancing
stress
tolerance in cereals, to develop plants tolerant to multiple
stresses and to identify mechanisms for extending stress
tolerance of commercially-valuable cereals crops well beyond
that seen
in existing germplasm. Benefits will include the generation
of abiotic stress-tolerance markers for selection of adapted
lines in conventional breeding programs, and the development
of transgenic cereal lines carrying adaptive genes from
other species. Another key feature of the Centre is that
it will
be uniquely placed to rapidly deliver enhanced cereal lines
to Australian producers, through large wheat and barley
breeding programs already linked with the research team,
and internationally
through strategic alliances with biotechnology companies.
The early engagement of a suitable commercial partner will not
only strengthen routes to market for diagnostic products
and new varieties, but also will ensure that market signals
flow into the Centre and that IP issues are managed in a commercial context.
Economic benefits in the rural and related food and manufacturing
industries immediately produce social benefits throughout
Australia, given the scale of our cereals industries. Agricultural
practice has the potential to become more sustainable if
fertiliser applications can be reduced, and pressure on the
environment could be substantially eased if water-use efficiency,
tolerance to salinity, and mineral-use efficiency could be
enhanced in major cereal crops. Additional social benefits
will flow from the education activities, which will extend
from school and community programs to training programs for
scientists. The education program will be focused on attracting
young people into careers in modern biological sciences,
to provide multidisciplinary training for scientists, and
to enhance understanding in the community on social and ethical
issues associated with biotechnology.
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