How Can Understanding A Weed Problem In Panama Help The Australian Cane Industry?
A unique study into the reproduction of wild sugarcane is poised to help manage a major weed problem in Panama, Central America, and has provided a bank of environmentally valuable data for the benefit of the Australian sugarcane industry.
The research, conducted last year under a Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship Award, has resulted in a wealth of information on why sugarcane has become a serious weed in Panama but not in north Queensland, and the research is likely to help the Australian industry to safely manage future genetically modified varieties.
The wild cane species, Saccharum spontaneum, (an important species in the make up of sugarcanes widely propagated around the world) is a prolific weed in Panama and is causing significant problems where land has been cleared in the country's central region. The 'weed' is hampering re-forestation attempts and reducing agricultural productivity.
Dr Graham Bonnett a prominent CSIRO Plant Industry researcher and key member of the CRC SIIB Executive and several of its projects, spent five months in Panama working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) with Dr Kristin Saltonstall to understand the features of the wild cane that make it a competitive weed in that environment. On his return home, Dr Bonnett highlighted the benefits that would follow from the Fellowship.
"Our research will not only help to develop strategies to control the weed problem in Panama - it will help fast-track research into understanding the environmental issues that need to be explored before the possible release in Australia of GM sugarcane varieties with valuable new traits, such as the ability to 'grow' bioplastic."
Dr Bonnett said the research established the flowering and seed production patterns of Saccharum spontaneum and how these relate to the local environment conditions and lead to weediness.
The approach included genetic marker tests, seed germination studies under a variety of temperature conditions on seed collected from many Saccharum plants grown at a range of sites, and vegetative studies that looked at the patterns of reproduction arising from the stem of the plant.
"We now have a greater understanding of the mechanisms of spread and establishment of wild sugarcane and the information to help develop control strategies to eliminate the species where it has become a weed in Panama," said Dr Bonnett.
"It has also given us knowledge of the features of sugarcane biology that allow invasion and hence what to test for in genetically modified sugarcane to assess the potential for increased weediness," he said.
According to Dr Bonnett sugarcane is already an efficient producer of sucrose; but the CRC SIIB's research is showing it can produce other valuable products.
"Sugarcane is a preferred feedstock for producing much needed biofuels, plastics and other materials to replace oil-based products for the world," he said.
"These potential advances will be made through developments in biotechnology so we need to have a good understanding of how we would manage the possible release of GM sugarcane plants."
During the regulatory process there is close scrutiny of GM crops, making a rigorous pursuit of identifying any potential hazards and if necessary risk management strategies and practices critical before GM sugarcane is released.
Dr Bonnett said the Fellowship was invaluable in that it allowed him to focus on a single important research issue. "And, the process was most satisfying - hard work doesn't seem like hard work when you are in a very different culture and surroundings."
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