Australia
March 8, 2007
More accurate assessments of the
environmental risks associated with the release of
disease-resistant plants are now possible following CSIRO’s
development of a new framework that identifies potential weed
pests.
CSIRO Plant Industry
scientist, Dr Bob Godfree, says knowing the risks is crucial to
ensuring both natural and agricultural environments are
protected against the threat of plants which could become
invasive.
“The new framework is a very exciting development,” Dr Godfree
says. “It will allow us to capture information that has been
difficult to obtain previously and it has major positive
implications for both the agricultural and natural resource
management industries.”
“The framework has been used to assess the ‘weediness’ of white
clover resistant to the disease Clover Yellow Vein Potyvirus in
a variety of environments and accurately predicted where the
plants would most successfully establish.”He says disease is
sometimes the major natural factor keeping certain plants from
eventually dominating a particular environment.
“If that limiting factor is removed, plants bred for
agricultural purposes can very quickly spread and reduce
biological diversity in the natural environments of an area. It
is therefore really important that such plants undergo trials to
determine if they pose a threat.”
The conceptual framework developed by Dr Godfree provides an
accurate picture of the risk presented by a particular plant to
a particular environment.
“Plants will respond differently given different environmental
conditions and we have found we can identify environments where
disease-resistant plants have a better chance of over-running
local plant populations.”
The framework has been used to assess the ‘weediness’ of white
clover resistant to the disease Clover Yellow Vein Potyvirus in
a variety of environments and accurately predicted where the
plants would most successfully establish.
“From this information we are able to formulate strategies to
manage the release of plants and prevent them from becoming
invasive pests in natural environments,” Dr Godfree says.
His findings were published recently in the respected science
journal, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. The research was supported by
Dairy Australia.
Enemy release after introduction of disease-resistant
genotypes into plant–pathogen systems
ReferencesRobert C. Godfree*,, Peter H. Thrall, and Andrew G.
Young
Published online before print February 13, 2007,
10.1073/pnas.0608356104 PNAS | February 20, 2007 | vol. 104 |
no. 8 | 2756-2760 |
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