GWAS analysis reveals distinct pathogenicity profiles of Australian Parastagonospora nodorum isolates and identification of marker-trait-associations to septoria nodorum blotch

The fungus Parastagonospora nodorum is the causal agent of septoria nodorum leaf blotch (SNB) and glume blotch which are common in many wheat growing regions in the world. The disease is complex and could be explained by multiple interactions between necrotrophic effectors secreted by the pathogen and matching susceptibility genes in wheat. An Australian P. nodorum population was clustered into five groups with contrasting properties. This study was set to identify their pathogenicity profiles using a diverse wheat panel of 134 accessions which are insensitive to SnToxA and SnTox1 in both in vitro and in vivo conditions. SNB seedling resistance/susceptibility to five representative isolates from the five clusters, responses to crude culture-filtrates (CFs) of three isolates and sensitivity to SnTox3 semi-purified effector together with 11,455 SNP markers have been used for linkage disequilibrium (LD) and association analyses. While quantitative trait loci (QTL) on 1D, 2A, 2B, 4B, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 7D chromosomes were consistently detected across isolates and conditions, distinct patterns and isolate specific QTL were also observed among these isolates. In this study, SnTox3–Snn3-B1 interaction for the first time in Australia and SnTox3–Snn3-D1 interaction for the first time in bread wheat were found active using wild-type isolates. These findings could be due to new SnTox3 haplotype/isoform and exotic CIMMYT/ICARDA and Vavilov germplasm used, respectively. This study could provide useful information for dissecting novel and different SNB disease components, helping to prioritise research targets and contributing valuable information on genetic loci/markers for marker-assisted selection in SNB resistance wheat breeding programme

Social Vulnerabilities Conference 2020: post conference report

The Social Vulnerabilities Research Group represents research carried out across a range of Social Sciences disciplines, in particular members of the Human Geography, Sociology, and Criminology communities. The research group emphasizes the importance and application of interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the challenges facing vulnerable people in different contexts. The 2020 conference, hosted virtually during the pandemic, showcases work from staff and research students working with the Social Vulnerabilities group

Crop Updates 2009 - Cereals

This session covers twenty seven papers from different authors: PLENARY 1. Building soil carbon for productivity and implications for carbon accounting, Jeff Baldock, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, SA 2. Fact or Fiction: Who is telling the truth and how to tell the difference, Doug Edmeades, agKnowledge Ltd, Hamilton 3. Four decades of crop sequence trials in Western Australia, Mark Seymour,Department of Agriculture and Food BREAK CROPS 4. 2008 Break Crops survey Report, Paul Carmody,Development Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food 5. Attitudes of Western Australian wheatbelt growers to ‘Break Crops’, Paul Carmody and Ian Pritchard, Development Officers, Department of Agriculture and Food 6. The value of organic nitrogen from lupins, Alan Meldrum, Pulse Australia 7.The area of break crops on farm: What farmers are doing compared to estimates based on maximising profit, Michael Robertson and Roger Lawes,CSIRO Floreat, Rob Sands,FARMANCO Farm Consultants, Peter White,Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, Felicity Byrne and Andrew Bathgate,Farming Systems Analysis CROP SPECIFIC Breeding 8. Identification of WALAB2014 as a potential albus lupin variety for northern agricultural region of Western Australia, Kedar Adhikari, Department of Agriculture and Food 9. Enhancement of black spot resistance in field pea, Kedar Adhikari, Tanveer Khan, Stuart Morgan and Alan Harris, Department of Agriculture and Food 10. Desi chickpea breeding: Evaluation of advanced line, Khan, TN1, Harris, A1, Gaur, P2, Siddique, KHM3, Clarke, H4, Turner, NC4, MacLeod, W1, Morgan, S1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), 3The University of Western Australia, 4Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture 11. Pulse Breeding Australia-Australian Field Pea Improvement Program (AFPIP), Ian Pritchard1, Chris Veitch1, Stuart Morgan1, Alan Harris1 and Tony Leonforte 2 1 Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2 Department off Primary Industries, Victoria Disease 12. Interaction between wheat varieties and fungicides to control stripe rust for grain and quality, Kith Jayasena, Geoff Thomas, Rob Loughman, Kazue Tanaka and Bill MacLeod, Department of Agriculture and Food 13. Findings of canola disease survey 2008 and its implications for better disease management in 2009, Ravjit Khangura, WJ MacLeod, P White, P Carmody and M Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 14. Combating wheat leaf diseases using genome sequencing and functional genomics, Richard Oliver, Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University 15. Distribution and survival of wheat curl mite (Aceria tosichella), vector of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus, in the WA grainbelt during 2008, Dusty Severtson, Peter Mangano, John Botha and Brenda Coutts, Department of Agriculture and Food 16. Partial resistance to Stagonspora (Septoria) Partial resistance to Stagonospora (Septoria) nodorum blotch and response to fungicide in a severe epidemic scenario, Manisha Shankar1, Richard Oliver2, Kasia Rybak2and Rob Loughman1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University, Western Australia 17. Black pod syndrome in lupins can be reduced by regular insecticide sprays, Peter White and Michael Baker,Department of Agriculture and Food Variety performance 18. Incorporating new herbicide tolerant juncea canola into low rainfall cropping systems in Western Australia, Mohammad Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 19. Varietal differences in germ end staining of barley, Andrea Hills,Department of Agriculture and Food 20. Wheat variety performance in the Central Agricultural Region in 2008, Shahajahan Miyan, Department of Agriculture and Food 21. Barley variety identification using DNA fingerprinting, Peter Portmann, Agriconnect, Perth WA Dr Nicole Rice, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW Prof Robert Henry, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 22. Forecast disease resistance profile for the Western Australian barley crop over the next three years, Jeff J. Russell, Department of Agriculture and Food 23. Malting barley varieties differ in their flowering date and their response to changes in sowing date, BH Paynter and Jeff J. Russell,Department of Agriculture and Food 24. Market development for new barley varieties, Linda Price,Barley Australia 25. Response of wheat varieties to sowing time at Mt Barker, Katanning and Newdegate in 2008, Brenda Shackley and Vicki Scanlan,Department of Agriculture and Food 26. Flowering dates of wheat varieties in 2008 at three locations in Western Australia, Darshan Sharma, Brenda Shackley and Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Food 27. Agronomic responses of new wheat varieties in the norther agricultural region in 2008, Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Foo

Open access to nursing journals: An audit of the 2010 ERA journal list

Objective: To determine the proportion of nursing journals that are fully open access or have some elements of openness, and hence are readily accessible by nurses in clinical settings. Design: A descriptive study, with interpretive analysis of existing data sources. Setting: Access to online journals from the perspective of a nurse as a consumer. Subjects: Nursing specific journals from the 2010 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) list of publications. Main outcome measure: The proportion of nursing journals with unrestricted online open access as of October 2011. Results: Of the 224 journals included in this research, 12% (27/224) had unrestricted open access to all published manuscripts, 39% (88/224) had partial or conditional access and 49% (109/224) had no elements of open access, and required the consumer to have access to a paid subscription. Conclusion: Approximately half (51%) of nursing journals surveyed have all or some articles that are open access. This is higher than other studies of open access research articles globally. However, barriers at an institutional level may need to be addressed to ensure nurses can be informed in their care of patients.Full Tex

Open access to nursing journals: an audit of the 2010 ERA journal list

Objective: To determine the proportion of nursing journals that are fully open access or have some elements of openness, and hence are readily accessible by nurses in clinical settings. Design: A descriptive study, with interpretive analysis of existing

Worldwide trends in volume and quality of published protocols of randomized controlled trials

<div><p>Introduction</p><p>Publishing protocols of randomized controlled trials (RCT) facilitates a more detailed description of study rational, design, and related ethical and safety issues, which should promote transparency. Little is known about how the practice of publishing protocols developed over time. Therefore, this study describes the worldwide trends in volume and methodological quality of published RCT protocols.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A systematic search was performed in PubMed and EMBASE, identifying RCT protocols published over a decade from 1 September 2001. Data were extracted on quality characteristics of RCT protocols. The primary outcome, methodological quality, was assessed by individual methodological characteristics (adequate generation of allocation, concealment of allocation and intention-to-treat analysis). A comparison was made by publication period (First, September 2001- December 2004; Second, January 2005-May 2008; Third, June 2008-September 2011), geographical region and medical specialty.</p><p>Results</p><p>The number of published RCT protocols increased from 69 in the first, to 390 in the third period (<i>p</i><0.0001). Internal medicine and paediatrics were the most common specialty topics. Whereas most published RCT protocols in the first period originated from North America (n = 30, 44%), in the second and third period this was Europe (respectively, n = 65, 47% and n = 190, 48%, <i>p</i> = 0.02). Quality of RCT protocols was higher in Europe and Australasia, compared to North America (OR = 0.63, CI = 0.40–0.99, <i>p</i> = 0.04). Adequate generation of allocation improved with time (44%, 58%, 67%, <i>p</i> = 0.001), as did concealment of allocation (38%, 53%, 55%, <i>p</i> = 0.03). Surgical protocols had the highest quality among the three specialty topics used in this study (OR = 1.94, CI = 1.09–3.45, <i>p</i> = 0.02).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Publishing RCT protocols has become popular, with a five-fold increase in the past decade. The quality of published RCT protocols also improved, although variation between geographical regions and across medical specialties was seen. This emphasizes the importance of international standards of comprehensive training in RCT methodology.</p></div