Projects | Ag-Genomics

Chickpea Ascochyta Blight

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This project is part of the GRDC National Chickpea Ascochyta investments (GRI2007-001RTX & GRI2407-001RTX) aiming to uncover the molecular interactions in crop-pathogen pathosystems, understand the genomic drivers of pathogen adaptation, virulence and/or aggressiveness and monitor Ascochyta rabiei population structures.

As part of this project, I developed and implemented the Ascochyta Dashboard – an interactive online dashboard that provides tabular and visual summary of the data collected and generated within the project, to allow research partners and industry to develop data-driven informed disease management strategies.

The findings and outputs of this project are then translated for the development of applied tools for pathogen diagnostics and surveillance to inform sustainable disease management practices.

Papaya Flavour Genetics

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This project is part of a Hort Innovation Frontiers Fund titled “Genetics of fruit sensory preferences” (AS19003), aiming to uncover the molecular mechanisms and genetics of flavour-related metabolites in papaya.

Whithin this project, our team, primarily PhD students Josh Lomax & Ziwei Zhou, characterised the flavour profiles in papaya varieties and breeding lines and created models to predict fruit liking based on several key metabolites (Linalool oxide, sulcatone and Brix). Josh Lomax also developed and implemented the Papaya liking predictor – an interactive tool that demonstrates the use of the model to predict papaya flavour, which can be used by the papaya industry to make informed decisions for fruit breeding and grading.

Crop Genomics

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Crop genomics projects, including the genomic, matabolomic and sensory characterisation of flavour profiles in papaya, and genomics and transcriptomics analyses to identify genes and markers for disease resistance in chilli, rice, lentil and chickpea.

Diagnostics

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Development and evaluation of diagnostics assays for plant pathogens.

Aquaculture Genomics

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Genomics and transcriptomics studies on aquaculture species, such as fish (tuna, my PhD project, kingfish, grouper), molluscs (oysters, abalone) and crustaceans.

Mollusc Genomics

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

These Mollusc Genomics project include several collaorative projects with Dr Carmel McDougall and QLD DPI, such as “Genetic identification of Queensland oyster species”, “Genome and transcriptome analysis of Queensland unknown (QX) disease”, “Transcriptomic investigation into the gonad maturation of abalone”, etc.

Marine Genomics

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Various projects on genomic and transcriptomic analyses of marine species (humpback whales, coralline algae)