Completed projects and reports

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Sugarcane compositional analysis to enable food safety assessment of modified varieties
(2013) Rae, A; Bonnett, G
An important component of demonstrating that the products of GM sugarcane varieties are substantially equivalent to conventional varieties is whether the nutritional composition falls within the range of compositions that are currently found in production. For sugarcane, the food safety assessment will focus on the stalk, as the plant part that provides the food product, and the nutritional components that will be assessed are the proximates (comprising moisture content, crude fibre, protein, fat, ash and N-free extractives) and the soluble sugars. For feed purposes, information on the proportions of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) will also be required. Although some components such as sugars are routinely measured in sugarcane stalks, there was a lack of information on most of the nutritional components. The aim of this project was to determine the range of nutritional compositions found in Australian sugarcane varieties under normal agronomic practices
Understanding the reproductive biology and ecology of sugarcane to manage the safe release of genetically modified cultivars
(2010) Bonnett, G; Olivares-Villegas; Berding, N; Morgan, T; Collins, P
This project set out to obtain basic and previously unavailable information on the ecology and sexual reproduction of sugarcane primarily so advances in sugarcane biotechnology can be utilised to the benefit of the Australian sugarcane industry and the broader Australian economy. The production and commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) sugarcane has attracted increased international interest in recent years, and this has been exemplified by significant, sustained investment in sugarcane biotechnology by large national and international companies. To commercialise GM sugarcane, the proposed cane has to undergo rigorous regulatory assessment including safety to humans and the environment. A significant part of this assessment relates to how a given sugarcane clone functions in the environment (s) where it will be grown, and the likelihood and impact of transfer of the modified trait to other commercial sugarcane or other sympatric sexually compatible species. While such assessments are performed for each proposed GM sugarcane cultivar under consideration, general information about the sexual reproduction and ecology of sugarcane is also important to help understand potential hazards. For sugarcane, this basic information is scant, largely because the stalk not the seed is the harvested product (i.e. sugarcane is vegetatively propagated) and so the sexual reproduction process have not previously been studied in commercially grown sugarcane. This project undertook a series of studies to help fill the ‘information void’ on sugarcane. The project involved several surveys and experiments using cane in farmers’ fields to understand the level of flowering and viable seed production under commercial production. Species that could be sexually compatible with sugarcane were determined through analysis of the breeding literature to see what crosses had been achieved with human intervention. This was followed by comparison with botanical records to determine which of the potential species were present in sugar growing regions.
Facilitating the commercialisation of products from GM sugarcane : communications plan
(2007)
This project addresses the knowledge gap of how management affects soil biological processes. This is important because management has to maximise soil health and nutrient relations. Knowledge of soil biology in context of management strategies will allow optimising economic and environmental outcomes for the sugar industry. The project assessed how management options of the ‘new sugarcane farming system’ (reduced tillage, legume break crop, trash blanketing, and reduced nitrogen (N) fertiliser application), impact soil biology. We examined the functional groups and activity of soil microbes in context of soil N availability and gaseous emissions. Sugarcane soils in North and Southern Queensland, including the Yield Decline Joint Venture site in Ingham and two commercial farms with contrasting management practices in Bundaberg, were used for this research. A suite of well established and new methods were applied to analyse soil biological processes. A focus on soil microbiological processes is justified because microbes are the main drivers of N turnover in soil. Microbes supply N to crops by breaking down complex organic matter and soil-bound N, but also c This document has been developed by the Sugarcane Gene Technology Group (GTG) with assistance from Cox Inall Communications. The document provides a five year Strategic overview to guide communications across the sugar industry supply chain while GM cane technology is being developed for commercialisation. The document also provides a detailed two year Communications Plan to guide communications to engage stakeholders and raise industry awareness of GM issues and industry capacity to support GM cane commercialisation. The Sugarcane GTG is mindful of the commercialisation issues facing other agricultural industries, in particular the grains industry, and of the work of the Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PMIC) as it works towards facilitating a framework to enable commercialisation of products from GM technologies. There is a clear need for the establishment of a framework on an industry-by-industry basis. The Sugarcane GTG is working to develop such a framework for the sugar industry, and this document also assists in the communications of this endeavour.ompete with plants for more easily-accessible N. Microbes convert N into easily leachable nitrate and gaseous N forms and are drivers of carbon (C) turnover in the soil. These microbial processes have not been comprehensively studied in sugarcane soils with different management. A special focus of this study was the development and application of novel molecular techniques to monitor soil microbial gene expression. This approach allows microbial functional analysis by treating soil as a “super organism” rather than deducing function from the presence of particular microbial taxa which is biased towards known microbial taxa.

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