AHRI Snapshots

In this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with an international guest. Dr Juan Vorster is an Associate Professor in Plant and Soil Sciences from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.Juan is studying herbicide resistance mechanisms in weeds and the development of effective management strategies for these weeds.He’s currently in Perth for a conference, so it’s a great opportunity to have a chat and learn more about his research. To learn more about Juan's research, visit the University...

In this AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with Principal Research fellow, Dr Qin Yu about her latest paper on glyphosate resistance in goosegrass. This paper was published in Nature Communications in August 2023, which is an impressive achievement. This paper is complicated, but essentially the researchers have found a hot spot on the genome of goosegrass that is a herbicide resistance generator.In this research, the team found that in glyphosate-resistant goosegrass the EPSPS gene was tr...

Over the last few years, the AHRI agronomy team has done extensive work looking at crop competition in hybrid and open-pollinated canola.Project lead, Dr Mike Ashworth, joins us on this podcast to discuss the findings on ideal seeding rate, variety, row spacing and seed size.Herbicides are currently working quite well in canola. We know that herbicide resistance is a real threat though, so we discuss what the current trends are in herbicide use in canola crops and what growers need to do to m...

In this episode, we catch up with visiting Associate Professor Todd Gaines. Todd is from Colorado State University and is currently working from UWA with AHRI. In September, he’ll be at the International Plant and Animal Genome Australia conference in Perth city, where he’s organising a two-hour session of invited talks. Todd is also organising a subsequent workshop at UWA on September 22nd, which will have the theme “We have weed genomes, but what do we do now?” While herbici...

Blue lupins are notorious for being difficult to control and plants produce prolific seed banks. Blue lupins are closely related to the domesticated narrow-leaf lupin, also known as the white lupin, so whichever herbicide is survived by white lupins is also survived by blue lupins. This is problematic as they look alike. This is where a team of researchers from AHRI and the Centre for Applied Bioinformatics at the University of Western Australia, led by UWA PhD candidate and Forres...

In this interview we chat with AHRI Research Officer Roberto Lujan Rocha about the survey work he has conducted on the quality of water sourced on farm for spray application. This project is a collaboration between University of Western Australia, AHRI and the Centre for Water & Spatial Science. The team looked at water from bores, dams, desalinated water, rainwater tanks and scheme water. Roberto surveyed water sources in the mid to south West Australian wheatbelt in Sept...

As reliance on pre-emergent herbicides for both broadleaf and grass species is increasing, it’s essential to understand the dynamics of weed-herbicide interactions in the field. Dr Mahima Krishnan and her colleagues from University of Adelaide are in the process of studying populations of summer weeds to help predict and then mitigate any future resistance that maybe develop by implementing appropriate herbicide application strategies. This is a project funded by GRDC and in collaboratio...

On this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with former AHRI master’s student Geide Figueiredo (also known as JD) who worked alongside AHRI researcher Roberto Busi to try and break the herbicide cinmethylin, commercially known as Luximax. Fortunately, they weren't able to break it, which is great news for farmers and agronomists because it means that this herbicide is still working and resistance hasn’t developed. However, it’s always important to remember there’s no guara...

In this interview, AHRI's Jessica Strauss chats with Dr Aimone Porri, who is the Laboratory Head for Herbicide Target and Weed Resistance Research at BASF, based in Germany. Aimone's work spans across several fields in the weeds resistance research space, including working as a Geneticist, Molecular Biologist, and Plant Biologist. At the time of this chat, he was in Australia visiting AHRI. Aimone has collaborated with AHRI for several years. We talk about some of the significant work h...

In our first episode back for AHRI Snapshots this year, we chat with Dr Hira Shaukat, who previously was an AHRI PhD candidate. Hira worked on 3D mapping of soil moisture throughout her PhD. Part of her work involved looking at how farmers could utilise degraded land affected by salinity. This involved figuring out what soil conditions would be suit the plant Leptospermum nitens. Nectar from this plant is a source of high-value medicinal honey production and can provide income from agri...