Understanding Biotechnology

What is Biotechnology

Overview of Biotechnology

History of Biotechnology

Why do we do biotechnology?

Biotechnology for the environment

Biotechnology for food and agriculture

Changing our natural ecosystems for uses such as farming, recreation, industry or housing changes or destroys the habitats of many species.

Many of the species introduced into Australia not only prey on native animals and plants, but also compete with native animals for food, shelter, and territory, or destroy the habitat of native plants.

The best method of protecting threatened animals or plants is to conserve their habitat and to control introduced invasive species. Breeding programs in zoos and botanical gardens can preserve genetically-varied populations of animals and plants. Some of the organisms bred in this way may even be reintroduced to areas where the populations have disappeared.

The release of an endangered marsupial, the chuditch (western quoll) in Western Australia, is an example of such a successful program.

The Frozen Ark

The Frozen Ark is the world's first DNA bank that attempts to preserve threatened animals by keeping their genetic material for future scientific research.

The Frozen Ark is collecting DNA samples from all kinds of species and storing them in liquid nitrogen at –196 degrees Celsius, where they should survive intact for many hundreds, and possibly thousands of years.

Priority is given to species most in danger of extinction. The first seriously threatened animals to enter the Frozen Ark were the yellow seahorse, scimitar-horned oryx, Socorro dove and polynesian tree snails. The Ark currently contains samples from 119 species, including those listed as vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered and extinct in the wild.

The Frozen Ark is supported by the Natural History Museum UK, the Zoological Society of London and the Institute of Genetics at the University of Nottingham, UK and has links with institutions around the world.

Wombat goes onboard the Ark

By the late 1960s, the only remaining population of the great northern hairy-nosed wombat was found in 16 square kilometres in Epping Forest in central Queensland. This is still the only known population, now contained within an area of only three square kilometres. It is estimated that about 113 animals are left and it is feared that if a fire went through the forest, they would become extinct overnight.

Researchers have frozen 40 cells from 40 animals. They are now looking at the reproductive biology of the common wombat and wondering if they could perhaps clone tissue from the great northern hairy-nosed wombat, to eventually — over three or four generations — reproduce the threatened animal.

This procedure has already been done in America. Cells from an extinct cow species (gaur) were implanted into a common cow to produce a gaur calf. This was a difficult and costly process and the calf did not survive, highlighting that there is no guarantee of success.

Many conservationists are concerned that cloning may be seen as the easy way out, compared with attempting to solve the problems caused by increasing human population and the destruction of native plant and animal habitats.

Others say that there is no point cloning native species, if there is no habitat to return them into. Most acknowledge that cloning is not a replacement for maintaining habitats, but it can be seen as a supportive measure.

Regardless of cloning, the collection of the animal and plant genetic material forms a useful knowledge store. The benefits will no doubt be seen in the future.

Seed banks

Reasons for making such a collection include:

• building up stocks of rare and threatened species to ensure they do not become extinct
• preserving local stocks of seeds well-adapted to Queensland conditions
• researching seed biology to address current environmental problems
• identifying the optimum:
  • time for collecting high quality seed
  • post-harvest handling and storage practices
  • germination protocols
  • dormancy-breaking techniques.

With this information, seeds and plants could be quickly employed to rejuvenate mine sites, assist floriculture and help with forest and other ecological restoration projects in less than ideal conditions.

Read more about The Millennium Seed Bank at: http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/msbp/

Read more about Seeds for Life, Australia’s contribution with a 'seed bank' for arid zone native plants: http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=6264

The Bilby: a case study

They are remarkable burrowers, using their strong forelimbs and claws to dig extensive tunnels. One bilby may make up to twelve burrows within its home range to use for shelter. They are active at night, sheltering in their burrows during the daytime. They have long slender tongues and eat a specialised diet of seeds, insects, bulbs, fruit and fungi.

Bilbies breed throughout the year and the females usually have two young in their pouch at any time. Bilbies stay in the pouch for about 80 days after they are born, and continue to be suckled by the mother for another two weeks after they become too big for the pouch.

Where are they found?

The bilby is unique to Australia. A hundred years ago, bilbies were common in many places throughout Australia. Changes to bilby habitats have seen their numbers greatly reduced. Today, they are only found in small populations in the:

• Tanami Desert of the Northern Territory
• Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, and the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia
• Mitchell Grasslands of southwest Queensland.

What are the threats?

Scientists generally agree that bilby populations have been reduced by a combination of:

• predation by introduced foxes and cats
• changes to bilby habitat caused by farming and land clearing
• competition for food from cattle, sheep and rabbits
• competition for burrows from rabbits
• changes in fire regimes (both Indigenous and European).

What is happening?

The bilby is now protected throughout Australia wherever it occurs. A national recovery plan is being developed to ensure the bilby's survival. Key actions include:

• managing the remaining habitat of the bilby
• captive breeding programs
• monitoring existing populations
• re-establishing bilbies in areas where they previously occurred.

The ‘Save the Bilby’ project, based in Charleville in Queensland, is building a predator-proof enclosure surrounding part of a national park, and reintroducing bilbies into far western Queensland. Other activities are recorded throughout Australia.

Read more about the Save the Bilby project with the Australian Bilby Appreciation Society at: http://members.optusnet.com.au/bilbies/Bilby_Saving.htm

Restoring the Bilby population would help to show that our efforts to reduce the impact of introduced species and past farming practices have had some success.

Wollemi pine

A dinosaur plant

When it was discovered in 1994, Professor Carrick Chambers, of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, said: “The discovery of the Wollemi pine is the equivalent of finding a small dinosaur on Earth.”

The Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis, Family Araucariaceae) is one of the world's oldest and rarest trees. Its relatives are the kauri, Norfolk Island, hoop, bunya and monkey puzzle pines.

The tree was discovered by David Noble, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Officer and avid bushwalker, in a rainforest gorge within the 500,000 hectare Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, 200 kilometres west of Sydney.

Fossil evidence of this tree dates back 90 million years. As there are also fossil records of dinosaurs in Australia at that time (before they became extinct globally around 65 million years ago) palaeontologists say the pine may well have provided food for dinosaurs.

The Wollemi pine has attractive, unusual dark green foliage and bubbly bark. It sprouts multiple trunks and is fast growing with sufficient light. It favours acid soils and temperatures from minus 5–45 degrees Celsius.

The largest wild Wollemi pine in the rainforest gorge is 40 m tall and its main trunk is 1.2 m wide. The wild population of mature trees is less than 100.

Since its discovery in 1994, conservationists, horticulturalists and ecologists have developed a range of measures to protect the lone and threatened wild population of Wollemi pines near Sydney's Blue Mountains, as well as preserve its genetic stock.

The Wollemi pine is protected by the New South Wales (NSW) Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. It is listed as endangered at a national level under the Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and is on the directory of Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (RoTAP).

As of December 2000, the Wollemi National Park (where the Wollemi Pines are located) was added to the World Heritage list as part of the Greater Blue Mountains Area.

See the Wollemi Pine in the wild: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1371627.htm

A dinosaur plant for Christmas

Threats to the trees' survival in the wild include inadvertent wildfires, the introduction of weeds and plant disease. Its greatest threat is humans. It's well known that once any species is labelled as rare and exotic, people want to see them, and some will even pay a great deal to own them.

The exact location of the Wollemi pines in the wild is a secret. A recovery plan is in place to monitor the site and guard against unwanted visits and illegal removal.

In anticipation of demand for the plants, the pine was cultivated and released worldwide in 2006. Royalties from sales fund the conservation of the Wollemi pine and other rare and threatened species.