The Development of Microbial Inoculants as Biofertilisers for Rice, Wheat and Turf-Grass. Plant-microbial interactions can increase vegetative growth and crop yield. These PGPR effects result from improved N and P nutrition, stimulation of root growth, disease control, altered environmental conditions and, most importantly, positive interactions between all these. This project aims to develop plant growth promoting bacteria and fungi as commercial products. By matching microbes to plants and soi ....The Development of Microbial Inoculants as Biofertilisers for Rice, Wheat and Turf-Grass. Plant-microbial interactions can increase vegetative growth and crop yield. These PGPR effects result from improved N and P nutrition, stimulation of root growth, disease control, altered environmental conditions and, most importantly, positive interactions between all these. This project aims to develop plant growth promoting bacteria and fungi as commercial products. By matching microbes to plants and soil environments, a set of peat-based inoculants will be optimised for application as biofertilisers to field crops and turfgrass.
Potential applications are both rural and urban.
The outcomes will be proven commercial products able to promote plant growth and rapid recovery from adverse conditions.Read moreRead less
Biofertiliser technology for improved yields and environmental sustainability of rice and wheat crops. Australia faces the double challenge of improving the efficiency of its crop production while minimising the agricultural impact on its fragile biodiversity. Our project will meet this challenge by providing the technology for using natural biofertilisers in cereal crops. This will reduce our heavy reliance on chemical fertilisers - with associated soil loss, salinity and acidity, and high dema ....Biofertiliser technology for improved yields and environmental sustainability of rice and wheat crops. Australia faces the double challenge of improving the efficiency of its crop production while minimising the agricultural impact on its fragile biodiversity. Our project will meet this challenge by providing the technology for using natural biofertilisers in cereal crops. This will reduce our heavy reliance on chemical fertilisers - with associated soil loss, salinity and acidity, and high demand on scarce water resources - and significantly increase our crop yields. Our advances will help Australian farmers to reduce the costs and increase the productivity of our substantial export crops while improving their environmental sustainability.Read moreRead less
A Novel Phosphate Fertiliser Enhanced by Biofertiliser Technology. This project will deliver efficient use of the limited supplies of high quality phosphorus minerals as fertiliser-P, simultaneously acting to reverse and prevent soil acidification. These cost-effective benefits from utilising Australia's microbial biodiversity will have major economic and environmental impacts in rural Australia,increasing the profitability of farming and reducing the potential for contamination of aquatic syste ....A Novel Phosphate Fertiliser Enhanced by Biofertiliser Technology. This project will deliver efficient use of the limited supplies of high quality phosphorus minerals as fertiliser-P, simultaneously acting to reverse and prevent soil acidification. These cost-effective benefits from utilising Australia's microbial biodiversity will have major economic and environmental impacts in rural Australia,increasing the profitability of farming and reducing the potential for contamination of aquatic systems and groundwater with nutrients causing algal blooms. By solving needs for fertiliser-P while preventing acidification of soil, farmers are expected to welcome this novel fertiliser technology.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989147
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$950,000.00
Summary
Advanced high throughput genomics facility for biological, medical, agricultural, environmental and evolutionary research. Infrastructure requested will expand the capacity of researchers in NSW/NT to undertake environmental, medical and evolutionary studies using state-of-the-art technologies based on the recent advances in DNA sequencing analyses. It will ensure the retention of leading researchers in the exciting areas of genomics and Systems Biology and make a significant contribution to bi ....Advanced high throughput genomics facility for biological, medical, agricultural, environmental and evolutionary research. Infrastructure requested will expand the capacity of researchers in NSW/NT to undertake environmental, medical and evolutionary studies using state-of-the-art technologies based on the recent advances in DNA sequencing analyses. It will ensure the retention of leading researchers in the exciting areas of genomics and Systems Biology and make a significant contribution to biomolecular research in medicine, agriculture and environmental biology, thereby providing major benefits to the wider community. The application will enhance existing genomic technologies by substantially increasing the scope of experiments that can be performed leading to important advances in gene discovery.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0452977
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$329,504.00
Summary
Upgrade and expansion of Newcastle Plant Growth Facility. The project will upgrade and expand the Newcastle Plant Growth Facility. The upgrades will improve glasshouse environments for the production of high quality plant material. This outcome will be achieved through increasing solar transmittance and more effective temperature control. Expansion will address unmet demand for standard and PC2 plant growth space. Together the infrastructure additions will enhance productivity and excellence ....Upgrade and expansion of Newcastle Plant Growth Facility. The project will upgrade and expand the Newcastle Plant Growth Facility. The upgrades will improve glasshouse environments for the production of high quality plant material. This outcome will be achieved through increasing solar transmittance and more effective temperature control. Expansion will address unmet demand for standard and PC2 plant growth space. Together the infrastructure additions will enhance productivity and excellence of core areas of plant biology research at Newcastle in nutrient transport, cell development as well as environment management and rehabilitation . In addition, they will underpin new collaborative initiatives at the interfaces between plant biology with transgenic delivery of reproductive vaccines and phytoremediation.Read moreRead less
Fruit fly pests in northwestern Australia: invasion, hybridisation or evolution? In northwestern Australia, recent events suggest that a new and serious fruit fly pest is now present, wher previously none existed. Due to difficulties in accurate identification, we do not know whether these new pest fruit flies are endemic fruit flies that have changed their behaviour, invasions of Queensland fruit fly, or hybrids between them. This project will use DNA microsatellites to distinguish between th ....Fruit fly pests in northwestern Australia: invasion, hybridisation or evolution? In northwestern Australia, recent events suggest that a new and serious fruit fly pest is now present, wher previously none existed. Due to difficulties in accurate identification, we do not know whether these new pest fruit flies are endemic fruit flies that have changed their behaviour, invasions of Queensland fruit fly, or hybrids between them. This project will use DNA microsatellites to distinguish between these possibilities. It will also establish whether the different species involved are actually different species, or should be regarded merely as different races. Such distinctions are important both scientifically and for export quarantine purposes.Read moreRead less
Novel insecticidal neurotoxins from Australian spider venoms. Insecticidal toxins have considerable potential as novel biopesticides to combat the evolution of widespread insect resistance to classical chemical pesticides. This problem is increasing both in Australia and internationally. This study aims to isolate and pharmacologically characterise potent and selective insecticidal neurotoxins from Australian arachnids. Our laboratories will isolate neurotoxins from spider venoms, determine thei ....Novel insecticidal neurotoxins from Australian spider venoms. Insecticidal toxins have considerable potential as novel biopesticides to combat the evolution of widespread insect resistance to classical chemical pesticides. This problem is increasing both in Australia and internationally. This study aims to isolate and pharmacologically characterise potent and selective insecticidal neurotoxins from Australian arachnids. Our laboratories will isolate neurotoxins from spider venoms, determine their selectivity in insect and mammal bioassays, determine their primary and tertiary structures, and investigate their structure-function relationships by electrophysiological techniques. These functional and structural data will allow the future engineering, by molecular or synthetic procedures, of viral biopesticide analogues with increased potency, stability and selectivity.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100130
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$850,000.00
Summary
Systems biology: New generation DNA sequencing to functional analysis. The technique of DNA sequencing (or 'reading' the lines of the four repeating letters that make up the genetic code) illustrates how technological developments have become the main drivers in exploring the roles of genetic factors across a spectrum of research activities. Funding provided through this ARC grant will allow the purchase of the latest DNA sequencing platform, the Illumina Solexa, as well as equipment that will b ....Systems biology: New generation DNA sequencing to functional analysis. The technique of DNA sequencing (or 'reading' the lines of the four repeating letters that make up the genetic code) illustrates how technological developments have become the main drivers in exploring the roles of genetic factors across a spectrum of research activities. Funding provided through this ARC grant will allow the purchase of the latest DNA sequencing platform, the Illumina Solexa, as well as equipment that will be used to understand the biological function of the DNA sequencing results that are obtained. The equipment will allow Australian researchers to compete on an equal footing with the international leaders in understanding the roles played by genes in plants, microorganisms, animals and humans.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100107
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$400,000.00
Summary
Purchase of a multi-purpose Schottky field emission gun scanning electron microscope. Scanning electron microscopy is a basic analytical tool for imaging surfaces of natural and synthetic materials and identification of nanometre-scale features and their compositions. At the University of Tasmania, it supports four of our six designated priority research themes: Antarctic and Marine Studies, Environment, Frontier Technologies, and Sustainable Primary Production. Our research depending on this te ....Purchase of a multi-purpose Schottky field emission gun scanning electron microscope. Scanning electron microscopy is a basic analytical tool for imaging surfaces of natural and synthetic materials and identification of nanometre-scale features and their compositions. At the University of Tasmania, it supports four of our six designated priority research themes: Antarctic and Marine Studies, Environment, Frontier Technologies, and Sustainable Primary Production. Our research depending on this technique includes many fundamental and applied topics from a wide range of disciplines, such as developing portable detection devices for explosives, finding more efficient and sustainable ways to explore for ore, investigating the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems and improving salinity and drought tolerance of crops.Read moreRead less