Nature futures: mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature. Population growth, consumption and trade are direct socio-economic drivers of land use change and climate change, which determine where species can persist. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and national policies acknowledge the dependence of people on nature and the impact of socio-economic drivers on nature. However, few analyses of impacts on nature explicitly incorporate socio-economic drivers. Utilising a novel modelli ....Nature futures: mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature. Population growth, consumption and trade are direct socio-economic drivers of land use change and climate change, which determine where species can persist. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and national policies acknowledge the dependence of people on nature and the impact of socio-economic drivers on nature. However, few analyses of impacts on nature explicitly incorporate socio-economic drivers. Utilising a novel modelling framework and high-performance computing we will integrate economic, land use and biodiversity models to evaluate: (i) policies and incentives for increasing national vegetation cover for carbon sequestration and habitat, and (ii) global risks to nature posed by land use change under future geopolitical scenarios.Read moreRead less
New antiparasitics to protect Australian livestock. There is an urgent need for new antiparasitics to treat multi-drug resistant livestock infections. This project aims to explore the bacteria and fungi present in the microbiomes of heavily infected sheep faeces and pastures, challenging them with environmental cues, including those from associated parasites, to stimulate production of defensive chemicals hidden deep within their genomes. Enabled by an integrated pipeline of high throughput anal ....New antiparasitics to protect Australian livestock. There is an urgent need for new antiparasitics to treat multi-drug resistant livestock infections. This project aims to explore the bacteria and fungi present in the microbiomes of heavily infected sheep faeces and pastures, challenging them with environmental cues, including those from associated parasites, to stimulate production of defensive chemicals hidden deep within their genomes. Enabled by an integrated pipeline of high throughput analytical cultivation, molecular networking, and chemical and biological analyses, expected outcomes include an enhanced ability to explore and exploit valuable chemistry hidden within microbial genomes, leading to the discovery of new classes of natural antiparasitic to safeguard livestock.
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Development of Novel Pesticidal Agents. We have discovered a family of naturally occurring plant proteins called the cyclotides that have potent insecticidal activity against Helicoverpa species, one of the major pests on cotton and corn in Australia and world wide. Preliminary evidence has shown that they also have activity against major pests to livestock in Australia, including sheep blowflies. To develop these proteins as potential pesticidal agents it is necessary to understand the struct ....Development of Novel Pesticidal Agents. We have discovered a family of naturally occurring plant proteins called the cyclotides that have potent insecticidal activity against Helicoverpa species, one of the major pests on cotton and corn in Australia and world wide. Preliminary evidence has shown that they also have activity against major pests to livestock in Australia, including sheep blowflies. To develop these proteins as potential pesticidal agents it is necessary to understand the structural basis for their activity. We will do this by chemically synthesising peptides with selected residues mutated to determine their effects on activity.Read moreRead less
STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS IN PLANT EXTRACTS WITH POTENTIAL FOR THE CONTROL OF OVINE LICE AND PARASITIC WORMS. The control of lice and parasitic worms are two of the major problems currently confronting the Australian sheep industry. Several plant extracts utilized in traditional medicine have shown a remarkable efficacy in the control of these pests in humans. This project will investigate the sheep lousicidal and anthelmintic activity of a number of plants, and identif ....STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS IN PLANT EXTRACTS WITH POTENTIAL FOR THE CONTROL OF OVINE LICE AND PARASITIC WORMS. The control of lice and parasitic worms are two of the major problems currently confronting the Australian sheep industry. Several plant extracts utilized in traditional medicine have shown a remarkable efficacy in the control of these pests in humans. This project will investigate the sheep lousicidal and anthelmintic activity of a number of plants, and identify and chemically characterize the active constituents. This research will lead to the production of more environmentally friendly pest control methods and overcome problems of insecticidal resistance currently facing the industry.Read moreRead less
Development of environmentally-friendly insecticides for the Australian livestock industry. Many insects and other arthropods are serious pests of Australian livestock. Australian farmers spend about $300 million per annum on insecticides and acaricides, while Australian consumers spend more than $100 million annually on insecticides for use on pets and around the home and garden. Unfortunately, many of these arthropod pests have developed resistance to chemical insecticides. This aim of this re ....Development of environmentally-friendly insecticides for the Australian livestock industry. Many insects and other arthropods are serious pests of Australian livestock. Australian farmers spend about $300 million per annum on insecticides and acaricides, while Australian consumers spend more than $100 million annually on insecticides for use on pets and around the home and garden. Unfortunately, many of these arthropod pests have developed resistance to chemical insecticides. This aim of this research program is to develop a new generation of environmentally-friendly natural products that can be used to control arthropod pests on farms and around the home and garden.Read moreRead less
Peptidic spider toxins: a novel paradigm for control of insect pests. Many insects are serious pests of Australian crops, livestock, and pets. Australian farmers spend about $300 million per annum on insecticides and acaricides, while Australian consumers spend more than $100 million annually on insecticides for use around the home and garden, and on pets. Viruses disseminated by insects are also responsible for diseases such as dengue, Japanese encephalitis, and Ross River fever. Unfortunately, ....Peptidic spider toxins: a novel paradigm for control of insect pests. Many insects are serious pests of Australian crops, livestock, and pets. Australian farmers spend about $300 million per annum on insecticides and acaricides, while Australian consumers spend more than $100 million annually on insecticides for use around the home and garden, and on pets. Viruses disseminated by insects are also responsible for diseases such as dengue, Japanese encephalitis, and Ross River fever. Unfortunately, many of these insect pests have developed resistance to chemical insecticides. The aim of this research program is to develop a new generation of environmentally-friendly natural products and insect-resistant crops that can be used to control insect pests on farms and around the home and garden.Read moreRead less
Novel Nano-Pesticides for Animal Healthcare. This project aims to develop a new nano-pesticide with improved safety and performance. Ticks and buffalo fly cause over $400 million each year in economic losses to the Australian livestock industry and are currently treated with highly toxic synthetic pesticides. Spinosad, a naturally derived pesticide with low environmental impact and low toxicity, will be loaded into silica hollow spheres which will improve adhesion to skin or hair and protect aga ....Novel Nano-Pesticides for Animal Healthcare. This project aims to develop a new nano-pesticide with improved safety and performance. Ticks and buffalo fly cause over $400 million each year in economic losses to the Australian livestock industry and are currently treated with highly toxic synthetic pesticides. Spinosad, a naturally derived pesticide with low environmental impact and low toxicity, will be loaded into silica hollow spheres which will improve adhesion to skin or hair and protect against ultraviolet degradation. The nano-spinosad pesticide is expected to have enhanced efficacy and effective duration in field conditions compared to conventional pesticides, significantly reducing the cost of pest control.Read moreRead less
Orally active spider toxins: a novel paradigm for control of insect pests. Many insects and other arthropods are serious pests of Australian crops, livestock, and pets. Australian farmers spend about $300 million per annum on insecticides and acaricides, while Australian consumers spend more than $100 million annually on insecticides for use around the home and garden, and on pets. Viruses disseminated by arthropods are also responsible for diseases such as dengue, Japanese encephalitis, and Ros ....Orally active spider toxins: a novel paradigm for control of insect pests. Many insects and other arthropods are serious pests of Australian crops, livestock, and pets. Australian farmers spend about $300 million per annum on insecticides and acaricides, while Australian consumers spend more than $100 million annually on insecticides for use around the home and garden, and on pets. Viruses disseminated by arthropods are also responsible for diseases such as dengue, Japanese encephalitis, and Ross River fever. Unfortunately, many of these arthropod pests have developed resistance to chemical insecticides. This aim of this research program is to develop a new generation of environmentally-friendly natural products that can be used to control arthropod pests on pets, farms, and around the home and garden.Read moreRead less
Enhancement of plant proteinase inhibitors for the protection of crop plants against insect attack. The aim of this project is to characterise the interactions between various known plant proteinase inhibitors and the major digestive enzymes of insects by structural and dynamic studies and to utilise mutational studies to design new inhibitors that more effectively bind to target proteinases. The outcomes will be the knowledge to design specific inhibitors to give optimal inhibition of specific ....Enhancement of plant proteinase inhibitors for the protection of crop plants against insect attack. The aim of this project is to characterise the interactions between various known plant proteinase inhibitors and the major digestive enzymes of insects by structural and dynamic studies and to utilise mutational studies to design new inhibitors that more effectively bind to target proteinases. The outcomes will be the knowledge to design specific inhibitors to give optimal inhibition of specific insect proteinases. This knowledge will lead to novel approaches to protect economically important crops, such as cotton, from insect pests in Australia - potentially saving tens of millions of dollars per annum in chemical pesticide use and enhancing crop production in Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
Safeguarding Australia against invasive arthropod pests. An increasingly serious public health issue for Australia is the emergence of infectious diseases disseminated by arthropods such as ticks and mosquitoes. Arthropod-borne viruses are already the major human pathogens in Australia, and they disproportionately affect Aboriginal communities. The aim of this research is to develop environmentally-sustainable methods for controlling arthropods that destroy crops or disseminate human and animal ....Safeguarding Australia against invasive arthropod pests. An increasingly serious public health issue for Australia is the emergence of infectious diseases disseminated by arthropods such as ticks and mosquitoes. Arthropod-borne viruses are already the major human pathogens in Australia, and they disproportionately affect Aboriginal communities. The aim of this research is to develop environmentally-sustainable methods for controlling arthropods that destroy crops or disseminate human and animal disease. These insecticides will not only provide benefits within Australian territories, but will be useful to our defence forces when operating in overseas locations where arthropod pests are a problem (e.g., malarial regions of Iraq).Read moreRead less