UQ researchers get funding for plant antiviral

Commercialisation Australia has granted a $50,000 grant to help bring Nexgen – an anti-viral technology for plants developed at The University of Queensland – to market.

Nexgen Plants is a technology for introducing virus resistance into plant breeding lines and varieties by propagating a newly-discovered class of microRNA molecules involved in modulating a plant’s defence response to viruses.

Research indicates that Nexgen can confer virus resistance into existing commercial crops in less than 12 months, and can work for hybrid seed production, making it suitable for current breeding programs.

Preliminary R&D has concentrated on high-value crops including sugarcane, soybean, maize, rice, potato, wheat and cotton.

The technology was developed by UQ associate professor Peer Schenk and his team at the university's Faculty of Science.

University R&D commercialisation body UniQuest helped to secure the grant for the Nexgen technology.

UniQuest managing director David Henderson said the CA funding “to access specialist advice and services means we can work towards raising the capital required to establish a start-up company that will develop virus-resistant varieties of plants for different crop types.”

He said crop losses from viral infections are a multi-billion dollar global problem.

Nexgen will be presented at the 2012 Ag Innovation Showcase, which will run from September 10 to September 12 in the US state of Missouri.