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Crop and livestock production is being revolutionised in Australia using modern gene technology to improve the efficiency and accuracy of plant and animal breeding.
 Among the agencies at the forefront of this gene technology revolution is the Murdoch University-based State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (SABC) -- which was recently awarded $350,000 from the WA Department of Commerce and Trade's Centres Of Excellence Programme to continue its groundbreaking work and construct a new 24-place laboratory. An additional $100,000 is being provided by the University.
SABC Director Professor Mike Jones said the Centre provided world-class facilities, expertise, training, research and development.
"The SABC laboratories house 48 resident researchers and provide access to equipment for a further 50 non-resident researchers, and up to 16 Agriculture WA staff in the associated AGWA Biotechnology Laboratory," said Professor Jones.
Professor Jones said the SABC's researchers were working on the genetic engineering of crop plants for resistance to pests and diseases ranging from nematodes, (the animal parasites of plants), to viral and fungal diseases.
He said researchers had already developed the first molecular marker for noodle starch quality in wheat, molecular diagnostic tests for animal parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, and plant pathogens such as cucumber mosaic virus and lupin anthracnose.
"One of the Centre's long-term aims is to produce animal and human vaccines in plants," said Professor Jones.
"For example, by introducing a viral vaccine into a banana it would be theoretically possible to inoculate Third World populations against viral diseases like hepatitis."
In its research, the SABC is supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and the Pig Research and Development Corporation (PRDC).
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| "By introducing a sterility gene into the rabbits' food supply, a significant reduction in rabbit numbers could be achieved." |
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Support is also provided by the CRC for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA), Adelaide's CRC for Molecular Plant Breeding and industry (e.g. Biowest Australia and Smithkline Beacham).
"We are also working very closely with barley, wheat and lupin breeders and other scientists at Agriculture WA and CLIMA," said Professor Jones.
Study on animal viruses, parasitology and bacterial infection is also being carried out at the Centre.
"The same sort of pathogens that attack plants can also infect animals, but animal study usually focuses more on the pathogens themselves, and does not involve transgenics," he said.
A revolutionary project combining animal and plant research currently being undertaken by the SABC (in association with CLIMA and the CRC for Vertebrate Biocontrol) is aimed at reducing the Australian rabbit population.
"By introducing a sterility gene into the rabbits' food supply, a significant reduction in rabbit numbers could be achieved," said Professor Jones.
Being at the cutting edge of science also means the latest scientific information can flow on to students and researchers at all levels.
"This is the only agricultural biotechnology Centre of its kind in the State," Professor Jones said.
"That's pretty important when you consider WA produces 50 per cent of the nation's grain, and plant and animal agricultural produce worth a total of $5 billion per year."
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