LCAFS Christmas Party Photos

Excellence award winners. L-R Tim Forrest, Kaye Basford, Bhesh Bhandari and Mark Turner (absent Peter Kopittke)	The historic Foundation Building on the UQ Gatton campus
Travellers on the LCAF Gatton facilities bus tour

Bhesh Bhandari

Bhesh Bhandari visited Zhejiang University, Hangzhou in October. The visit was intended to foster collaborations between the two institutions. Bhesh observed the research infrastructure in the School of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science and discussed various possibilities for research collaborations. During that time he presented a seminar on "microencapsulation of food ingredients".

Prof. Ye Xinggian presenting the Visiting Professor Certificate to Bhesh	Bhesh and academic staff members and PhD students at the School of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hanzhou	Special lunch at Zhejiang University: Wine dipped with snake (wine bottle held by Bhesh), cooked turtle (on the plate- grey colour) and ducks' tongues (on the plate next to turtle)

Jacqueline Batley awarded an ARC QEII fellowship

Jacqueline Batley has been awarded a prestigious ARC QEII fellowship in the latest ARC funding round. She will use this fellowship to study/research blackleg disease of canola caused by the fungus Leptospheria maculans. Blackleg is the most important disease of Brassica crops world-wide. Jacqueline will use the newly available genome sequence for Brassica and L. maculans to study the co-evolution of the pathogen and host plant. An understanding of the co-evolution of genes responsible for virulence and resistance will lead to improved plant protection strategies for Brassica canola and provide a model to understand plant-pathogen interactions in other major Australian crops.

We also congratulate her and husband Dave Edwards on the birth of their daughter, Amelia (see new arrivals towards the end of this edition).

LCAFS embarks on Next Generation Metagenomics

The majority of life on this planet is microbial and cannot easily be cultured or studied, however, these microbes are essential for human health, agriculture and the environment. Metagenomics is the study of these microbial communities by DNA sequencing. The current bottleneck in metagenomics is the ability to analyse the vast amount of DNA sequence data produced by the latest advances in DNA sequencing technology. David Edwards has been awarded an ARC linkage grant to develop software and algorithms for metagenomic sequence data analysis. Together with Biomatters Ltd, producers of the popular Geneious software package, they will develop methods for the analysis of whole microbial communities and integrate these methods within a user friendly software package.

Mike Imelfort's 3 minute thesis competition success

Competing against the whole of UQ through several rounds, ACPFG funded PhD student Michael Imelfort won a competition to present his research in under 3 minutes using a single slide. His slide shows a jigsaw puzzle box and he explains his project, to develop a method to assemble genome sequences from vast numbers of short sequence reads, as being like the ultimate jigsaw problem. As well as a prize of $5000 travel funds and a watch, he gained much publicity including an article in The Australian. 'Three minutes to unravel DNA data' His presentation, recorded at the award ceremony, is available on youtube.

David Farrell attends The World's Poultry Congress

The Congress is held every four years. This year it was in Brisbane. At these meetings a few poultry people are elected to the International Poultry Hall of Fame. David was one of five elected in 2008, and only the second Australian to receive the award. The award was not only for his research and scientific publications, articles and book chapters (over 400) but for his work in developing countries for over 25 years, and his supervision of over 40 postgraduate students. He was also the chair of the recent Scientific and Technical Program Committee of the XXXIII Congress.

Spotlight on LCAFS PhD Students

Shu Hwa Ong is supervised by Dr. Bruce D'Arcy. She completed her Bachelor of Applied Science in Food Science and Nutrition at UQ in 2004. After graduating, Shu completed a basic patisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School, London.

In 2007, Shu completed her masters in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Wollongong. Shu's strong interest in clinical nutrition and food product development will be developed further during the course of her PhD research.

Shu's PhD research topic compares the eating patterns related to mealtime behaviours of children aged 5-15 years with and without Asperger Syndrome (AS) in Queensland and aims to i) investigate the eating patterns and nutritional status among children with AS and to compare them with typically developing children, and ii) determine whether families with AS children and typical developing children adopt different eating patterns.

Shu's research will also target the development of new healthy food products for children with AS, after gaining an understanding of their current eating habits, nutritional status, and food sensitivities.

The study runs for three years. If you are a caregiver of children with AS aged 5-15 years, or a caregiver of typically developing children aged 5-15 years, and would like to participate in the study, please do not hesitate to contact Shu or Bruce by email: s.ong@uq.edu.au / b.darcy@uq.edu.au. or by telephone 3346 9548 / 3346 9190.

Marcelo Paytas is supervised by Shu Fukai. His PhD project began in 2006 in cotton physiology, addressing the important issue of imbalances of resources (assimilates and nutrients), demand for high fruit retention and limited supply capacity of the relatively small shoot of Bt cotton in the field, thus limiting the high yield potential of irrigated cotton in Australia.

Most of his experiments were done in Gatton at the Horticulture Station where he used the new UQ rainout shelter which protects the crop from rain, thus allowing him to observe real early water stress within the cotton.

Marcel is conducting his final experiments at UQ Gatton campus and ACRI Narrabri this summer.

The past two years of experiments in the field have shown increases in fruit retention and final yield in Bt cotton crops with early inputs of water during pre-flowering compared with the traditional irrigation programs in Australia. Marcel presented some of his results at the last World Cotton Conference in Texas, USA, in 2007, and at the Australian Agronomy Conference in Adelaide this year.

Marcelo completed a degree in Agricultural Engineering in Argentina and has been working for the National Institute of Agriculture Technology (INTA) who assist his research in Australia as well as the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC, Australia.

Marcelo was recently awarded a Graduate School Research Travel Grant and last September visited a number of sites in Turkey, collaborating with a team of scientists at Dicle University and The Anatolia Agricultural Research Institute in Diyarbakir to work on cotton physiology related to water management and irrigation systems. Other sites visited, were the Soil-Water Resources and Agricultural Research Institute in Sanliurfa, and Cukurova University, Ziraat Fakultesi, in Adana.

Researchers at Dicle University and The Anatolia Agricultural Research Institute in Diyarbakir, Turkey	At Soil-Water Resources and Agricultural Research Institute in Sanliurfa, located in the south-east of Turkey	Water stress experiments in conventional cotton at Cukurova University, Ziraat Fakultesi, in Adana, Turkey

Aussie Colours Update

Since Aussie Colours Pty Ltd was launched in September 2007 with the release of three cultivars of Ptilotus nobilis under the brand name Outback Princess® more than 60,000 of these new generation drought-hardy Australian native plants have been sold. The Aussie Colours company has been set up to commercialize new products that have been developed through the LCAFS' Centre for Native Floriculture. Aussie Colours interim CEO, Brian Ruddle, Uniquest's Cameron Turner and CNF Director, Daryl Joyce and his team have worked together to turn Aussie Colours from a concept to an operating company.

Outback Princess® plants ready for sale..

The future of Aussie Colours has now been secured by a significant investment by local investor group Brisbane Angels and the Queensland Government-owned teQstart, a company established to invest in very early stage, knowledge-intensive companies in Queensland. This deal was negotiated with UniQuest's support.

The Brisbane Angels / teQstart investment follows a series of milestone achievements for Aussie Colours: a COMET grant of $64,000; sales in Queensland, NSW and Victoria; trials in the USA; and the commercial release of two new Australian native varieties, including the world's first yellow rice flower, Gold Dust^®.

Aussie Colours' latest release, Gold Dust®

Aussie Colours is supported by wholesale nursery partners Pohlmans Nursery (Qld), Colourwise Nursery (NSW) and Humphris Nursery (Vic), which grow and distribute the Outback Princess^® products.

Australian gardening enthusiasts can purchase their stock of Outback Princess^® plants from major retail stores, hardware, nursery groups and garden centres.

John Schiller, Honorary Research Consultant with LCAFS, reflects on our historic links with Northeast Thailand

Many of us have developed links with Thailand, either through visits (often holiday visits) to Thailand or through associations with the many Thai who have studied here at UQ, both in the past and in more recent times. Perhaps not everyone is aware of the long and close historical links that have existed between the Faculty of Natural Resources, Agriculture and Veterinary Science and Northeast Thailand, particularly with the Faculty of Agriculture at the oldest and largest university in Northeast Thailand, Khon Kaen University (KKU). My own recollection of these links go back to 1973 when, while serving as a young agronomist in an Australian government supported agricultural project in Northern Thailand, I was invited by Professor Ross Humphreys to join a visit to the Northeast by himself and another still current member of the Faculty, Associate Professor Max Shelton. Ross and Max have left a legacy in this region of Thailand in the form of Townsville Stylo. It was through this project with UQ that they worked in collaboration with KKU in undertaking the first research and on-farm, farmer participatory seed multiplication of Townsville stylo in the Northeast. Townsville stylo is now 'part of the forages and livestock scene' in the region. The level of interest in Townsville stylo is expressed in the photograph below which featured in a 1975 Australian Embassy (of Thailand) publication describing the collaborative links between Australia and Thailand.

Successful Townsville stylo crop at Khon Kaen (L to R): Max Shelton, Alan Robertson (also a UQ graduate), Mr Johnston (Aust Ambassador to Thailand in 1975, and Dr Kavi Chutikul (Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Khon Kaen University in 1975)

The links between KKU and Northeast Thailand with UQ are still being maintained. In March of this year, an ACIAR (Australian Center for International Agricultural Research) supported project was initiated in collaboration with the Faculty of Agriculture of KKU and the World Vision Foundation of Thailand (WVFT), the project having as its aim, the improvement of rice and livestock farming systems in the rain-fed lowland environment in part of the region. Among the advisors to the project is Dr Werner Stur, a former PhD student of Ross Humphreys here at UQ in the period 1981-85. Werner is now a Senior Scientist working on Forage and Livestock Systems in Asia, being based with the regional office of CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) in Vientiane, Laos. Werner is working with Thai colleagues in introducing and studying the management of a range of other tropical forages including Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), Mulato (Brachiaria hybrid), Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and Pangola grass (Digitaria eriantha). Although my formal association with UQ is more recent (since mid 2001), I am also involved in providing technical inputs on improving rice yields, in the same project as Werner Stur.

The wish to maintain strong links with UQ by the Faculty of Agriculture at KKU was recently manifest by a visit to UQ by the faculty representative responsible for international programs, Dr Yupa Hanboonsong. Dr Hanboonsong's visit to UQ was initiated and supported by KKU, with the purpose of discussing opportunities for further international links and cooperation between the two institutions. Several current staff members attached to the Faculty of Agriculture at KKU, obtained their higher degrees at UQ and the memories they have of their time here remain strong and positive. The purpose of Dr Hanboonsong's recent visit to UQ was to discuss the possibility for further KKU staff to take their PhD degrees at UQ, and to also discuss the potential for non-Thai international students studying at KKU, to fulfil part of their degree requirements through participation in the course options available at UQ.

Our faculty has had a long association with Southeast Asia, and the high regard with which it is held reflects the acknowledged commitment of its staff to its students, particularly to its overseas students.

Congratulations to Vic Galea who received an NRAVS Faculty Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for creating and facilitating a quality learning experience for students using authentic cases based on current industry practices and problems.

Congratulations to Stephanie.Sinclair who won the 2008 Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Australian Agricultural Industries Young Innovators and Scientist Award in Animal Welfare. Stephanie will use her award to investigate the application of a topical anaesthetic and antiseptic for pain relief in northern beef cattle during dehorning.

L-R: Dr Conall O'Connell, Secretary, Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, Stephanie Sinclair, and The Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister, Department of Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry.	L-R: Ms Jane Speechley - Communications, Product Integrity, Animal & Plant Health (PIAPH), Australian Animal Welfare Strategy, Mr James Sinclair, Myself, Mr Scott Turner, Product Integrity, Animal & Plant Health (PIAPH), Australian Animal Welfare Strategy, Ms Linda Walker - Product Integrity, Animal & Plant Health (PIAPH), Australian Animal Welfare Strategy

Congratulations to the winners of the 2008 Bell Memorial and 2008 W.W. Bryan Memorial Medals Rachel Archbald and Kiersten Jones respectively. Congratulations also to the awards finalists Cassie Duggan and Joseph O'Reagain.

Congratulations

David and Tara Appleton on the birth of Darcy Ann, born 23 June and weighing 2.9 kg (6 lbs) and 31 cm (12 ins) long.
 

Jacqueline Batley and Dave Edwards on the birth of Amelia, born 17 November and weighing 2.1 kg (5 lbs) after an emergency caesarean. A georgeous baby sister for Caleb.
 

Higher Degree Research Students

LCAFS welcomes the following new research higher degree students:

Kimngov Cheth (Mphil), Principal Supervisor Shu Fukai, Optimizing Legume Growth in Rice-based Cropping Systems in the Rainfed Lowland Environment in Cambodia.

Janine Conway (PhD), Principal Supervisor James Hanan, Effect of pruning on Macadamia architecture, photosynthesis and flowering.

Alison Devereux (PhD), Principal Supervisor Shu Fukai, Water extraction and root growth of maize and cotton and their implication in maize-cotton rotation.

Shu Hwa Ong (Phd), Principal Supervisor Dr Bruce D'Arcy, Comparing the Food Preferences, Factors Affecting Food Selectivity, and the Nutritional Ecology of Children With and Without Asperger's Syndrome.

Congratulations…to the following students who have accepted UQ grants:

Australian Postgraduate Award Robyn Cave Lee Hickey Australian Postgrad Award Industry Margaret Jewell Endeavour IPRS Dongjie Wang UQ International Research Award Mohammad Mobashwer Alam Sushil Dhital Ikramullah Khan

UQ Research Scholarship Mohammad Mobashwer Alam Sushil Dhital Ikramullah Khan Anneline Padayachee William Smith Leigh Vial Dongjie Wang Graduate School Research Travel Grant Thi Lan Thi Nguyen Marcelo Paytas

Congratulations to the following students who have been awarded their doctorate or masters degree:

Gemma Hoyle (PhD), Physiological Dormancy of Australian Native Asteraceae and Goodeniaceae Seeds.

Hae, Kim (Phd), Modelling genetic and environmental control of tillering in Sorghum.

Jitka Kochanek (PhD), Parental growth environment modulates seed longevity: Investigations using Australian native species.

Peter Masasso (MPhil), Mechanised intercropping and double cropping in Southern Queensland.

Elizabeth Meier (PhD), The availability of nitrogen in GCTB soils in the wet tropics and its impact on productivity/profitability: A systems analysis.

David Oag (MPhil), Nitrogen uptake and partitioning in relation to the annual pattern of root growth of Thompson seedless vines in a subtropical environment.

Rarmezan Rezazadeh (PhD), Somatic hybridization of mango (Mangifera indica L..)

Amanda Twomey (PhD), Physiological and biochemical response of four Melaleuca species exposed to varying salinity regimes.

Zhi Ling Zeng (PhD), Assessment and understanding of Copper speciation and Phytoavailability/toxicity in Acidic Waters and Soils.

These theses are available for borrowing. Email your request to lcafs@uq.edu.au.

New Grants

Dave Edwards, $2,659,638, Development of molecular markers for application in Australian Canola breeding.

Mike Gidley, $1,557,093, Nutritional properties of mango fruits: linking plant genomics to cellular bioactivities.

Jacqui Batley, Dave Edwards, and R Delourme, $880,000, Co-evolution of the host pathogen interaction between Leptosphaeria maculans and Brassica species. Jacqui has been awarded a QEII Fellowship as part of this project.

Mike Gidley, Bob Gilbert and Patrice Castignolles, $600,000, Establishing the relations between starch nono- and mesostructure and macroscopic physical properties.

A V Nguyen, Z Xu, and Longbin Huang, $510,000, Tailoring nano-crystal suspensions for extended ion supply to hydrophobic and hydrophilic leaf surfaces.

Dave Edwards, $399,000, Next generation metagenomics.

Bernie Carroll, $345,000, Genetic and molecular analysis of long-distance gene silencing in Arabidopsis.

Ian Godwin and Bob Gilbert, $320,000, Factors controlling higher-level starch structure.

Hilton Deeth, $308,000, Thermal and non-thermal preservation technologies.

S Balasubramanian, Graeme Hammer, R M Clark, and D R Jordan, $220,000, Mechanistic characterisation of genotype x environment interactions in sorghum and Arabidopsis,

P Marschner, Richard Burns, P Rengasamy, and J Schimel, $210,000, How are microorganisms and nutrient cycling in saline soils affected by soil matric potential? Richard is collaborating with the University of Adelaide in this project.

Madan Gupt, $122,540, Improving latex extraction technology by debarking guayule.

Neal Menzies, $27,280, Mass balance of nitrogen applied in the intensive horticultural industry of the Lockyer Valley.

Doug George, $11,000, Improving reliability of maize production in marginal rainfall environments of the North East Region.

Longbin Huang and Anh Nguyen, $2,032, Structural and chemical mechanisms controlling inorganic phosphorus reaction in soil for improving P recovery efficiency by crops.