Making Green Guard® greener: enhancing the efficacy of a biopesticide. The project aims to identify naturally occurring micro-organisms to increase the effectiveness of Green Guard ®, which is a biopesticide used against the Australian plague locust. The project will use next-generation sequencing and other molecular techniques to potentially identify candidate microbes or combinations of microbes that can be added to Green Guard to enhance locust susceptibility. The project also aims to quantif ....Making Green Guard® greener: enhancing the efficacy of a biopesticide. The project aims to identify naturally occurring micro-organisms to increase the effectiveness of Green Guard ®, which is a biopesticide used against the Australian plague locust. The project will use next-generation sequencing and other molecular techniques to potentially identify candidate microbes or combinations of microbes that can be added to Green Guard to enhance locust susceptibility. The project also aims to quantify the interactive impact of temperature and nutrition on immune function, disease resistance and host-plant quality of plague locusts; and to explore the combined effects of temperature, habitat and Green Guard, in combination with candidate microbes or pathogens, on the behaviour and collective movement of locusts. It is anticipated that this will have implications for management and control strategies.Read moreRead less
MitoGenomics of Key Pathogens - An International Research Co-operative. The national/community benefits are: (1) to develop a long-term, high quality scientific and technological program contributing to national objectives, including the maintenance of a strong capability in basic research, the development of new scientific concepts and the enhancement of international collaborative links; (2) to strengthen the links between basic and applied research; (3) to develop excellence in research by pr ....MitoGenomics of Key Pathogens - An International Research Co-operative. The national/community benefits are: (1) to develop a long-term, high quality scientific and technological program contributing to national objectives, including the maintenance of a strong capability in basic research, the development of new scientific concepts and the enhancement of international collaborative links; (2) to strengthen the links between basic and applied research; (3) to develop excellence in research by promoting collaborative research, resulting in a more efficient use of resources in a national and international context; (4) to enhance the skills-base in biology and biotechnology; (5) to substantially increase global visibility through quality research, leading to an increased investment in Australian science.Read moreRead less
New approaches for screening cereal germplasm for enhanced microbial pathogen resistance and desirable grain texture. The trait of grain hardness (texture) is of significance to the Australian infrastructure, as exports of hard wheat contribute over 5 billion dollars per year on average to the national economy and hard wheats are also important for domestic usage. The genes responsible for grain texture also impart resistance to bacterial and fungal pathogens which can cause extensive damage. ....New approaches for screening cereal germplasm for enhanced microbial pathogen resistance and desirable grain texture. The trait of grain hardness (texture) is of significance to the Australian infrastructure, as exports of hard wheat contribute over 5 billion dollars per year on average to the national economy and hard wheats are also important for domestic usage. The genes responsible for grain texture also impart resistance to bacterial and fungal pathogens which can cause extensive damage. However, the Australian gene pool has very limited genetic diversity in grain textures and thus possibly in pathogen resistance. The project will work out the science behind these two traits and identify lines with new variants of textures and pathogen resistances, thus greatly benefiting the national infrastructure and local primary industries.Read moreRead less
Investigations of Australian Hematodinium species (sp.): a dinoflagellate parasite damaging major crustacean fisheries in Australia and worldwide. The dinoflagellate Hematodinium species (sp.) causes a deadly infection in crustaceans worldwide and a recent outbreak in Shark Bay, WA highlights its importance in Australian waters. This project will provide a first nationwide survey of commercially important crustacean stocks enabling the Australian fisheries authorities to assess the full scale ....Investigations of Australian Hematodinium species (sp.): a dinoflagellate parasite damaging major crustacean fisheries in Australia and worldwide. The dinoflagellate Hematodinium species (sp.) causes a deadly infection in crustaceans worldwide and a recent outbreak in Shark Bay, WA highlights its importance in Australian waters. This project will provide a first nationwide survey of commercially important crustacean stocks enabling the Australian fisheries authorities to assess the full scale of the problem. Also, we will develop a simple, easy-to-use tool for diagnosis and management of Hematodinium sp. This project will expand the diversity of parasites studied in Australia by including this relatively poorly studied but damaging group. This project will also foster interdisciplinary collaborations within Australia, and internationally.Read moreRead less
Are alternative histones important regulators of transcription in Plasmodium falciparum? Malaria parasites depend on tightly controlled expression of their genes for maintaining infection and causing disease. The project will identify mechanisms of gene control used by parasites; these mechanisms may provide targets for malaria therapies.
Investigating why malaria parasites have a unique translocon. This project aims to explore the mechanism that enables malaria parasites to thrive in their host cells. Parasites that cause the disease malaria reside inside erythrocytes, a very basic cell that lacks a vesicular trafficking pathway. To survive and thrive in this environment, the parasite has evolved a completely unique cell biological phenomenon termed PTEX to transport its proteins into the host cell. The aim of this project is to ....Investigating why malaria parasites have a unique translocon. This project aims to explore the mechanism that enables malaria parasites to thrive in their host cells. Parasites that cause the disease malaria reside inside erythrocytes, a very basic cell that lacks a vesicular trafficking pathway. To survive and thrive in this environment, the parasite has evolved a completely unique cell biological phenomenon termed PTEX to transport its proteins into the host cell. The aim of this project is to determine how this novel PTEX machinery exports proteins into erythrocytes and whether PTEX is also required for parasite survival during the initial stages of a host infection when malaria reside in hepatocytes.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100020
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$520,000.00
Summary
Collaborative high bio-containment immunological research facility. Emerging infectious diseases are a serious threat to animals and humans, with most new human infections originating in animals. Our capacity to study these infections and their effects on the immune system is limited. This Facility will provide core equipment for analysis of immune responses to infection at the highest levels of bio-containment.
Evolution of immunoregulatory networks: preventing autoimmunity at the expense of perpetuating chronicity in persistent infections. Chronic pathogens like HIV take advantage of human genes that regulate immune responses, which evolved to prevent autoimmunity, enabling them to evade eradication. This project defines the nature and interplays between these genes and will provide valuable clues as to how immunity can be manipulated to promote clearance of persistent infections.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE200100181
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,050,000.00
Summary
Crossing the biology meso-nanoscale divide by scanning electron microscopy. This project aims to establish complementary scanning electron microscope (SEM) facilities at The University of Melbourne and LaTrobe University to advance research into crops, disease, neurosciences and coral reefs. SEMs are rapidly evolving instruments that permit high resolution imaging of visible size samples such as parts of plants and animals. The potential innovations, applications and benefits to society are far ....Crossing the biology meso-nanoscale divide by scanning electron microscopy. This project aims to establish complementary scanning electron microscope (SEM) facilities at The University of Melbourne and LaTrobe University to advance research into crops, disease, neurosciences and coral reefs. SEMs are rapidly evolving instruments that permit high resolution imaging of visible size samples such as parts of plants and animals. The potential innovations, applications and benefits to society are far reaching, with the facility expected to impact the development of drought and salinity tolerance in crops, production of fibres by plants, resilience of Great Barrier Reef corals to warming, advances in medicinal agriculture, control of important diseases of livestock and humans, and sensory processing and ocular disease.Read moreRead less