The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) aims to develop technologies and resources for the production of new cereal varieties that allow sustainable farming to generate economic, social and environmental benefits to Australia.
ACPFG was established in December 2002 after it was granted $27 million from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and the South Australian Government.
Peter Langridge, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia…
Laboratory-based genetic modification is relatively new when you consider the centuries of selective breeding that precedes it.
IRRI Photos/Flickr
Peter Langridge, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
Welcome to GM in Australia, a series looking at the facts, ethics, regulations and research into genetically modified crops. In this first instalment, Peter Langridge describes two GM techniques: selective…
The food Australia produces - including wheat - contributes to the diets of 60 million people.
Jim Champion
Peter Langridge, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and Simon Prasad, Office of the Chief Scientist
Food production in Australia is challenging. Why? Because our soils are largely ancient and infertile, and our climate is variable and frequently harsh. Many food producing regions are degraded through…
Overuse of nitrogen fertiliser can have nasty environmental consequences.
eutrophication&hypoxia/Flickr
Planet Earth has boundaries for its biophysical subsystems. By 2009, we had already exceeded three of the boundaries – climate change, biodiversity loss, and the nitrogen cycle. Climate change is a top-of-mind…
The carpet of sludge and debris left by 2011’s tsunami wreaked havoc on paddyfields.
AAP
Darren Plett, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
Japan’s tsunami of March 11 2011 brought a wall of water laden with debris up to 5 kilometres inland from the sea. After the surge receded, the surrounding farming area was left covered in debris and a…
Iron-rich rice helps feed the poor: could we do it without patenting?
Jane Rawson
Michael Gilbert, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
Rice is the primary source of food for roughly half the world’s population. But it falls well short of providing enough iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements. Iron deficiency…