Australia
August 7, 2007
GRDC investment is helping to save important crop species in
Central Asia – the birthplace of many grain crops – and forging
research relationships that will have a long-term benefit for
Australian growers, writes Brad Collis.
Access to potentially vital genetic traits – including increased
tolerance to extreme weather events and resistance to disease
such as rusts – should be the pay-off for Australian growers’
contribution to an international effort to conserve Central
Asia’s genetic resources.
Australia’s Grains Research and
Development Corporation (GRDC) has been one of the first
international crop research bodies to contribute to the new
Global Crop Diversity Trust, recognising that access to
germplasm in the region where many crops, particularly cereals
and legumes, originated will have long-term value.
The Trust is an instrument of the International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, established in 2004
to try to arrest the alarming erosion of plant genetic
resources.
The GRDC’s contribution is $1 million a year for five years,
part of which has been earmarked specifically for Central Asia
and the Caucasus (CAC). This is where valuable genetic resource
collections in countries like Armenia, Turkmenistan and
Kazakhstan are suffering severe deterioration.
 An
ICARDA-based Western
Australian researcher, Dr Ken Street, who is playing a key role
in administering the Trust’s activities in CAC, says there is
considerable genetic material in the region that would be of
immediate relevance to the Australian grains sector.
He says this genetic resource includes seed from wild relatives,
progenitors (more advanced relatives), landraces, and modern
varieties developed under the former USSR crop improvement
programs.
“Despite Central Asia being the centre-of-origin for cereals,
and for most food grains, there is little genetic material from
here in Australian wheat genealogy,” he explains.
“The genetic base of Australian wheat is comparatively narrow,
coming from a Western European lineage. However, this is the
obvious place to look for genes that can confer traits like
frost and drought tolerance, and resistance to diseases such as
stripe and yellow rust,” he says. “In screening Central Asian
material we have found resistance to all rusts – leaf, yellow
and stripe – in wild relatives and landraces.”
Dr Street says Australian help in securing these resources puts
representative bodies such as the GRDC in a prime position for
ongoing access to genetic resources from the region.
“The world is losing irreplaceable seed from these collections
simply because the local people can’t afford to replace water
pumps, or stored seed is being eaten by
mice. This is an absolute tragedy; doubly so because it is
avoidable.”
Dr Street says some of the initial GRDC funding is being used to
secure the world heritage apple and horticultural collections in
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
“These fruit tree gene banks are important to Australian
horticulture, and although they are not grain collections, our
support and involvement becomes important strategically in terms
of our access to other collections.”
He says that regional tensions and politics are an ever-present
backdrop, making relationships such as that being built by GRDC
vital for long-term, mutual benefits.
“In another project, we are making a full inventory of seed
collections throughout Central Asia, and building a database
linked to all the host institutes. When it is finished, plant
breeders in Australia will be able to hook into a central data
hub and find out what genetic resources are available.
“It’s a massive task, logistically and politically, because data
sharing has traditionally been a ‘no-no’ among many countries.
However, it also helps to rationalise genetic resources and
eliminate duplication.
“The benefit to Australia is access to genes that could solve
many current production constraints.”
As part of the overall effort to either rebuild, or add to, gene
banks in Central Asia, Dr Street has in recent years undertaken
a number of cereal and legume seed collection expeditions
looking for ancient relatives, or lost landraces, that are
growing in harsh conditions and which have obvious genetic
strengths.
These expeditions, such as a recent mission in Armenia, are also
used to set up small genetic resource units which provide an
opportunity to train and equip local expertise, and create an
opportunity for young agricultural graduates to begin careers in
genetic resource management. Some of this work has been funded
by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
(ACIAR).
Dr Street says that while the diminution of crop genetic
resources is a global issue, there is an opportunity to derive
from Australia’s participation some competitive advantages in
its own trading arena.
“A four-year head-start, for example, with a trait that gives us
sustainable yields through drought periods or frost episodes,
has huge economic impact,” he points out. “It is also putting
genetic resources firmly on the research and political agenda
and that alone is a significant achievement.”
Dr Ken Street is profiled in FutureCrop, published by the GRDC
to inform debate surrounding the use of biotechnology to deliver
higher-value crops.
FutureCrop can be downloaded from the GRDC website at
http://www.grdc.com.au/director/events/grdcpublications
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