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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 5 Nov 05 | |
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ARTICLE
BIOINFORMATICS: Bioinformatics Lifts Agribusiness
By David Horwood
Improvements in agricultural productivity used to depend on the expert eyes of plant and animal breeders to identify elite individuals. Breeders have long been aided by developments in genetics and statistics, but more recently we have seen a huge increase in the value these sciences bring. Today, as science delves deeper and deeper into the mechanics of life to understand the functions of individual genes, there is a need to crunch through vast amounts of data to pick out useful new knowledge. Life-science researchers today, aided by high-throughput analytical devices, generate more data in a single day than used to be acquired in a lifetime. Consequently a new discipline has emerged to handle the load. Bioinformatics is a marriage of mathematics, statistics and computer science. The challenge accepted by scientists such as Dr David Lovell and his team at CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences is to translate advances in bioinformatics into real economic benefits for agribusiness. “Now we’re seeing those methods unlocking the genomes of agricultural species like rice, cows and sheep.” Bioinformatics is already helping Australian agriculture develop an important competitive edge in global markets by identifying specific value-adding genes for more productive breeds and faster-growing crops. In commercial research partnerships with a number of organisations, Dr Lovell’s group is helping biologists and breeders make better sense of the data they have collected. Dr Lovell highlights a crowning achievement for bioinformatics: mapping the human genome: “The Human Genome Project depended on bioinformatics tools to piece together the blueprint of our species,” he explains. “It was a stunning feat. “Now we’re seeing those methods unlocking the genomes of agricultural species like rice, cows and sheep.” Examples of CSIRO’s bioinformatics partnerships include fast-tracking the breeding of disease-resistant salmon, detecting and exploiting genes for salt tolerance in crop and pasture plants, selecting wheat for improved bread quality and analysing morphine-free poppies. “This is a hot area,” Dr Lovell says. “As new measurement platforms come on line, biologists are having to deal with even more data. The three Bs – bioinformatics, biostatistics and biomathematics – are crucial to getting these analyses right.” Dr Lovell says that without bioinformatics, a lot of biological research would stall: “Bioinformatics helps researchers pinpoint and understand genes that add agricultural value, and helps breeders find the individual plants or animals carrying these genes.” All this leads to new varieties that excel by bigger margins and reach the market faster, to help keep Australian agribusiness competitive.
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