Fungicide Benchmarks

Fungicides are an increasingly important component of disease management in Australian broad-acre crops. It is estimated that $150m pa is spent and this provides ~ $800m worth of control. The majority of the fungicides used are a single mode-of-action group; the DMI's. Such a scenario raises the spectre of fungicide resistance, albeit no unequivocal cases of resistance in board-acre pathogens have been detected. This project lays the foundation of a system for the monitoring of fungicide sensitivity in broad acre pathogens. In collaboration with SARDI, University of Melbourne, DPI Victoria, DPI Queensland and the University of Sydney, we are establishing base-line sensitivities for major pathogens and major fungicides. In the next years we will roll out a monitoring program.

Stagonospora Pathogenicity

Stagonospora nodorum blotch is the major disease of wheat in WA. Control is currently based on cultural practices, fungicides and the use of semi-resistant varieties, but these are costly and ineffective. Research into this area focuses on the identification of genes, gene products and gene function involved in wheat pathogenicity.

Students in this division of research will have the opportunity to develop skills in cytology, molecular biology, metabolomics, proteomics, fungal genetics and genomics.

Plant Genetics in Legumes

Research into this area seeks to characterise resistance genes to necrotrophic pathogens in Medicago truncatula (a model legume suited to map-based cloning) with the ultimate aim of using these genes in plant breeding programs with agricultural applications. Research in this division also aims to comparatively map different legume species to identify syntenic conservation between them.

Students in this division of research will have the opportunity to develop skills in plant pathology, plant breeding, molecular biology and genome mapping.

Further Information

For more information about the current status of research at the ACNFP, please refer to our list of publications.

If you are interested in doing research with the ACNFP please contact Professor Richard Oliver (roliver@murdoch.edu.au).

Honours Scholarships are available to qualified students.

For more information on Postgraduate/Honours study see; http://www.vetbiomed.murdoch.edu.au/research/ACNFP.html

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