Crop genome at heart of Melbourne’s La Trobe University research breakthrough

MELBOURNE boffins have made a breakthrough that could mean cheaper medicines, food and even beer.

THE cost of beer, staple foods and even medicinal plants could become cheaper and grown more efficiently using breakthrough germination science being developed in Melbourne.

La Trobe University’s research deciphers how a crop’s genome can control the time a seed wakes up.

Worldwide food and beverage production stands to become more reliable under changing weather conditions using the research.

“Scientists and crop breeders have been interested in seed dormancy and germination for a very long time,” La Trobe University Centre for AgriBioscience’s Dr Mathew Lewsey said.

“They breed carefully to control it in many crops because it affects their yields enormously.”

The research focus is on genome-editing technology to produce new plant cultivars that germinate differently, giving farmers the ability to precisely control when their crops are ready for harvest.

“We want to be able to control when seeds wake up and how quickly they do it,” he said.

The technology offers a chance to provide greater food security in staples such as rice, corn and wheat, La Trobe’s Dr Quentin Gouil said.

“The production of beer and spirits would also benefit from this level of control, along with medicines such as morphine and codeine.”

Using the Arabidopsis plant, widely used as a model organism in flora biology, La Trobe researchers are transferring their findings to barley and rice.

“We will look to generate varieties that have accelerated or slowed-down germination and will study how they control the genetic switches that turn this off and on,” Dr Reena Narsai said.

The study was conducted by La Trobe, Arc Centre and University of Western Australia researchers.