Plant Industry

Dr Richard Richards is leading research to breed higher yielding wheats by better understanding the variation in growth, development and yield of wheat.

Dr Rhonda Foley is studying plant defence regulation to understand how crops can be more effective against pathogens.

Dr Danny Llewellyn specialises in cotton biotechnology research. He has played an important role in developing the insect and herbicide tolerant, genetically modified cotton varieties which currently dominate the cotton industry.

Dr Jean Finnegan leads research into the control of the initiation of flowering and the role of epigenetic regulation in plant development at CSIRO Plant Industry.

Dr Michelle Watt researches how roots grow and take up water from soil, and how they interact with soil microorganisms.

Dr Ming-Bo Wang researches the RNA silencing in plants, in particular the mechanistic and the applied aspects of RNA silencing in plants. 

Plant Industry researchers promote profitable and sustainable agrifood, fibre and horticultural industries, developing new plant products and improving natural resource management.

The Australian Tree Seed Centre (ATSC) is a national facility for source-identified seed of Australia’s trees and shrubs.

The Australian Plant Phenomics Facility provides a knowledge base and facilities for the comprehensive and continuous analysis of plant growth and performance using modern technologies.

The Australian National Herbarium is the national collection of plant specimens that provides a warehouse of information about Australia's native flora.

A pioneering research alliance is on the way to breaking the world's reliance on fish stocks for supply of long chain omega-3.

Research into developing more productive wheat varieties in Australia has been given a major boost following an equity investment in HRZ Wheats Pty Ltd by one of the nation's leading agricultural disease and pest control companies, Dow AgroSciences Australia Ltd.

In collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute, CSIRO is part of a major international food security initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

AUSGRAINZ is an alliance combining the strengths of two internationally recognised plant and food research organisations - Australia’s CSIRO Plant Industry and New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research.

The newest addition to the phenomics technologies is up and running. After almost two years of design and development PlantScan will soon be generating a massive two terabytes of data per day.

CSIRO has developed hairpin RNAi gene silencing – a powerful technology set to deliver the next generation of crop varieties through conventional breeding and genetic modification.

Researchers at the High Resolution Plant Phenomics Centre are using the CSIRO-developed FLECK™ technology to remotely monitor and record environmental conditions and plant performance in field trials.

Cotton managers now have free web access to a new generation of computer extension tools called CottASSIST.

Learn more about gene technology, how it impacts our lives and the research CSIRO is undertaking in this field.

This page provides easy to understand definitions of common biotechnology words and terms.

Genetically modified (GM) technology is just one of several technologies we employ in our research programs which are designed to deliver on this future.

Working within national regulations, researchers have established several trials around Australia to test how genetically modified wheat and barley varieties respond to field conditions.