New Developments
New species
We offer our research and development services to establish DArT for any plant species. We are also in the process of developing R&D capability in other systems (animals, microorganisms, complex DNA samples).
The framework of interaction for the development of our technology for a new species is very flexible. We have a good track record of productive interactions with different organisations, including non-profit international agricultural research centres, professional organisations of the Australian agricultural industries, and the for-profit private sector.
Animals
We are currently developing DArT for two animal species of agricultural importance: cattle and sheep. These efforts are building upon the initial proof-of-concept work on the mouse genome (D. Jaccoud, PhD thesis). Large differences in genome organisation between plants and animals demand a significant change in the way complexity reduction is performed on these genomes. Fortunately, the complete genomic sequences and large SNP databases available for a few animal species provide an opportunity to support this work by "in silico DArT".
Microorganisms
Microorganisms, including fungi and bacteria, represent the most significant biotic stresses for crop production, but are also beneficial components of agro-ecological systems. The ability to genetically characterise microorganisms is as important as characterising crops affected by them. Genetic fingerprints of microbial isolates may help to predict their virulence or beneficial effects on plant growth.
We initiated work on DArT for microbial genomes several years ago, initially in the context of detecting the presence of microbial DNA in plant DNA extracts (Jaccoud et al, 2001). Next, Andrew Craig, a visitor from the South Australian Research and Development Institute, applied DArT to characterise diversity patterns of fungal pathogens of barley (netblotch, scald). Alexander Wittenberg, a visitor from Plant Research International applied DArT as a high-density mapping tool for Mycosphaerella Graminicola (Gert H. J. Kema et al.). The work on specific microbial isolates has been a useful entry point into applying DArT to complex DNA samples, such as DNA extracted from soil or water.
New services
Detection of Association between markers and traits
The identification of markers linked to useful properties in plants is the first step for applying molecular markers to the accelerated breeding of new improved varieties. In partnership with National ICT Australia we have developed and are now using a novel, machine-learning based software to identify association between markers and traits (Bedo J. et al.).
