Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 24
resolution. “The camera resolution has improved massively.
Cameras like hyperspectral cameras used to be prohibitively
expensive, but they are becoming something that, as a national facility, we can offer to our users,” Bettina says.
“Those landmark milestones were really challenging
at the time, but now they seem easy,” Jason says. “In the
last 20-odd years, we have developed the technology to sequence whole genomes within a matter of weeks, for some
of the smaller plant genomes. So now research scientists in
this area could theoretically pump out genome sequences monthly. It is amazingly cost-effective too, compared to
when the technology was first developed.”
Accessible x-ray scanners have also changed the game.
“In the past, researchers wanting to use x-ray technology
mostly had to go to hospitals or medical facilities. We’ve
now got one in our building to scan wheat and barley
spikes and to look at roots,” she says.
These are the technologies that are now carrying plant
breeding into the future. Associate Professor Bettina Berger, Scientific Director of the Plant Accelerator, part of the
University of Adelaide’s Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, works in plant phenotyping, which is “pretty much
measuring the characteristics of plants,” she says.
Still, there are some elements of the job that remain the
same – such as the interaction with plants and soil. “You
still have to grow plants and you have to grow them well,”
Bettina says. “The fanciest cameras and equipment aren’t
going to make up for poorly grown plants or a trial that’s
impacted by a severe heat or drought event.”
“That can be done using very traditional methods –
with a ruler, or just by visual scoring – but it can also be
done using cameras, sensors, automation and even robots,” Bettina explains. Whether you collect very simple
measurements or high-dimensional sensor data, they carry
important implications.
Looking into the next 100 years, Jason believes we’re
heading towards an exciting future.
“Many of the low-hanging traits are easily bred for
now, through the sophisticated breeding programs
that are run publicly or
privately,” he says. “What
needs further research and
development are those traits
that are less visible and far
more complex or controlled
by multiple genes.”
“If you want to assess
whether a particular genetic combination is beneficial, you still need to phenotype the plants to know
whether they will be more
disease tolerant or whether
they will be better adapted
to compacted soils or saline soils, and whether they
will be high yielding and so
on,” Bettina says.
The environment can
have a profound impact on
the performance of any one
genotype. This equation of
genetics and environmental
interaction has always been
challenging for breeders.
While genotyping has
become fast and relatively
cheap, Bettina says phenotyping is still very expensive.
“What we’re trying to do is
come up with methods that
are either faster or cheaper
or more precise than current
methods,” she says.
“By undertaking more
fundamental research and
development in areas that
look at the interaction of
many genes or proteins
with the environment, we
will eventually bridge this
gap,” Jason says.
The German-born Bettina came to the Waite
with an academic history
as a “gene jockey”, she
says, working only “with a particular gene”. But she
knew she wanted more from her career. She called the
supervisor from her Masters project at Cambridge, Professor Mark Tester, who had since moved to Waite. “I
asked whether he had something different for me, and he
was planning the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility at
the time,” Bettina says.
He believes advanced
mathematical modelling,
algorithm design, artificial intelligence, machine learning
and complex decision frameworks will all become part of
a breeder’s repertoire. Jason also predicts that more attention will be given to understanding plant stress memory
and utilising that knowledge in plant breeding. Synthetic
breeding by genome design could become a reality. “If de
novo breeding eventuates, it would certainly create significant opportunity for plant breeding as we know it,” he says.
She originally came to the campus on a Humboldt
Research Fellowship in 2008, but at the opening of the
Plant Accelerator, in 2010, she says she “moved in with the
furniture”. At the Plant Accelerator, Bettina has witnessed
technological advances progress in leaps and bounds. “We
primarily started with just greenhouse-based phenotyping.
Now, field phenotyping is becoming more and more
important and feasible,” she says.
Above all, sector-wide communication is key.
“Being able to speak to a broad range of stakeholders
– whether they be scientists, fellow breeders, primary
producers, private agronomists, investment agencies, the
general public, and government, for example – and the
ability to package information that is easily digestible for
all is important,” Jason says.“This ensures the economic,
socio-cultural, legal, and ethical hurdles for any new variety
that’s created is communicated, and communicated well.”
Drones allow the team to collect data quickly from above,
and ground-based vehicles capture closer images at high
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