Plant health and diagnostics

SARDI's plant health and diagnostic science program provides disease management, biosecurity, molecular diagnostics, and soil solutions for plant industries.

Our work is collaborative, with a research network that extends nationally and internationally.

Research areas

We conduct targeted research into:

  • cereal
  • pulse
  • oilseed
  • horticulture
  • viticulture
  • soil biology
  • disease surveillance
  • diagnostics for soil-borne organisms.

Our scientific expertise delivers a range of services, including:

Plant health and diagnostics has 6 subprograms.

Cereal pathology

We provide management strategies for diseases in South Australian cereal crops. This is backed by biology and agronomic research.

We inform the incidence and control of relevant fungal diseases, communicating through:

  • our online newsletter Crop Watch
  • media reports
  • extension activities such as:
    • sample diagnostics
    • industry enquiries
    • fact sheets
    • grower and consultant talks.

Research

Our research focuses on:

  • improving durability and scald resistance in barley (Rhynchosporium commune), through:
    • resistance sources for seedlings and adult plants
    • transfer into elite germplasm for breeding programs
  • monitoring the virulence of disease populations, as they affect commercial varieties and elite breeding lines
  • developing crown rot resistance in durum germplasm to support Australian wheat breeding programs
  • controlling eyespot and white grain in wheat, through studying:
    • fungicides and variety resistance
    • inoculum properties of pathogens.

Horticulture and viticulture pathology

We provide horticultural and viticultural crop disease solutions. Our applied research includes:

  • plant disease diagnostics
  • virus testing for potato seed certification through the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA)
  • fungicide evaluation and resistance.

Services

We offer these services:

  • DNA tests for soil-borne potato pathogens, helping growers to:
    • reduce disease impact
    • improve productivity
  • soil-borne onion disease research, developing:
    • options for stunt and other soil-borne diseases
    • predictive testing of pre-plant soil samples
    • best practice manuals for growers
  • grapevine trunk disease research, to:
    • investigate eutypa and botryosphaeria dieback
    • develop fungicide treatments for pruning wound protection
    • control affected vineyards
    • determine spore dispersal patterns, wound susceptibility, and the critical time for applying wound protectants
    • evaluate disease resistance and the effects of water stress
  • improved fungicide resistance, through:
    • analysing powdery mildew, downy mildew and botrytis bunch rot
    • managing the incidence and severity of the 3 main foliar diseases in viticulture
  • integrated almond disease control, by:
    • conducting surveys across Vic, SA and NSW to determine the impact of endemic diseases
    • undertaking trials to tailor cultural, biological and chemical practices for trunk diseases
    • developing guidelines for significant almond diseases in Australia.

Pulse and oilseed pathology

Our management strategies for plant diseases impact South Australian pulse and canola crops. We investigate:

  • resistance screening with Pulse Breeding Australia national programs, for:
    • ascochyta blight
    • chocolate spot
    • cercospora leaf spot of faba beans
    • downy mildew and powdery mildew of field peas
  • pathotype changes of fungal species in the cropping season, such as:
    • Ascochyta fabae
    • A. lentis
    • A. rabiei
  • the incidence and severity of field mould and quality issues of faba bean grain
  • factors that influence seed staining, such as:
    • plant genotype
    • interactions with crop management practices
    • crop topping and windrowing
  • technologies for alarms, warning and reporting, such as:
    • wireless sensor networks
    • remote telemetry
    • digital image transmission
    • web-based technologies
    • smart phones.

Services

We relay information to growers, advisors and breeding programs, helping with crop variety selections. Our services include:

  • advice packages from active field surveillance of fungal, bacterial and viral diseases
  • Crop Watch reports for response to emerging disease outbreaks, in coordination with cereal pathology.

Our work develops tools for pest and disease surveillance in the grains industry, using:

  • smart spore and insect traps
  • aerial and ground based mobile spore traps
  • hyperspectral imaging.

Molecular diagnostics

The Molecular Diagnostic Centre has world-leading expertise, delivering DNA-based tests for quantifying:

  • fungal and nematode pathogens
  • weed seeds
  • beneficial soil microflora
  • plant roots in soil.

The technology has been commercialised for grain growers in Australia as the Predicta B root disease test. This measures levels of soil-borne pathogens of cereal and pulse crops.

The core technology has been modified to measure key soil-borne pathogens that impact on the potato and wine grape industries – Predicta Pt.

We also develop fungicide technologies for the Australian grains industry, including strategic placement for managing rhizoctonia and fusarium crown rot.

Laboratory capabilities

Our diagnostic laboratory is equipped with robotic pipetting stations and high throughput capability. We extract DNA from samples (up to 500g) of:

  • soil
  • sediments
  • plant root systems
  • other environmental samples.

We are accredited to receive international samples with appropriate permits and can process up to 200 samples per day.

Projects

Our research projects include:

  • training and diagnostics for managing soil-borne diseases – Grains Research and Development Corporation
  • DNA tests for nematode community analysis – Grains Research and Development Corporation
  • DNA assays for stubble-borne pathogens of cereals – SA Grain Industry Trust Fund
  • diagnostic tests for soil-borne pathogens, with international collaboration as part of the Australian Potato Research Program – Horticulture Innovation Australia
  • reducing the impact of parasitic root lesion nematode on cereal crops – led by Lincoln University, New Zealand
  • sampling strategies for cost-effective detection of phylloxera, quantifying area freedom status – led by Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board of SA, with Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and Australian Grape and Wine Authority.

Soil microbiology

Rhizobium symbiosis

We specialise in applied aspects of legume symbioses. This involves selecting inoculant strains and plant genotypes for improved nitrogen fixation.

The program focuses on limitations to the symbiotic performance of field pea in southern cropping systems.

Pasture soil-borne pathogens

We have completed projects to:

  • understand disease constraints of pasture legumes
  • develop tolerant legume genotypes.

Medic lines with powdery mildew tolerance have shown outstanding field performance. These will likely lead to the release of a commercial cultivar.

Bio-inoculants

Our projects evaluate bio-inoculants for soil-borne pathogens in cereals, such as:

  • rhizoctonia
  • root lesion nematode.

We study the microbiology of disease suppressive soils in broadacre cropping systems.

Practical outcomes for industry

We curate a collection of more than 1,500 strains of root nodule bacteria, which is available to legume agronomists across Australia.

Varied laboratory, greenhouse and field methods are used to understand symbiotic interactions between:

  • legume species
  • rhizobia present in most soils.

Our research has produced commercial inoculant strains for pasture legumes, such as serradella, lucerne, and sulla. Further releases are planned.

See our Predicta rNod service.

Biosecurity surveillance

We develop and evaluate solutions for monitoring pests and diseases. Our research focuses on robust systems applied in-field, that benefit end-users in:

  • government
  • industry
  • education.

Our outcomes integrate traditional approaches with emerging solutions in automation, IoT, and digital technologies. Research includes:

  • leading the collaborative iMapPESTS: Sentinel Surveillance for Agriculture program
  • studying spore dispersal patterns of grains, viticulture, and horticulture crop pathogens using smart spore traps
  • developing unique pest and pathogen surveillance tools to detect endemic and exotic threats.

Our outputs are delivered through both public and private partnerships, including the international research groups Rothamsted Research and Agri Samplers Ltd. (UK).

Our research facilities are based in the Plant Research Centre at the Waite precinct, within the Crop Sciences group.

Contact

Dr Nicole Thompson – Program Leader
Plant health and diagnostics, SARDI
Phone: (08) 8429 0915
Email: nicole.thompson@sa.gov.au

Dr Tara Garrard – Cereal pathology
Phone: (08) 8429 2247
Email: tara.garrard@sa.gov.au

Dr Mark Sosnowski – Horticulture and viticulture pathology
Phone: (08) 8429 2281
Email: mark.sosnowski@sa.gov.au

Sara Blake – Pulse and oilseed pathology
Phone: (08) 8429 2248
Email: sara.blake@sa.gov.au

Dr Daniele Giblot-Ducray – Molecular diagnostics
Phone: (08) 8429 2229
Email: daniele.giblot-ducray@sa.gov.au

Dr Liz Farquharson – Soil microbiology and nitrogen fixation
Phone: (08) 8429 2243
Email: liz.farquharson@sa.gov.au

Dr Rohan Kimber – Biosecurity surveillance
Phone: (08) 8429 2219
Email: rohan.kimber@sa.gov.au

Page last reviewed: 22 Dec 2022

 


Top of page