Perth-Wellington MPP and Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson said last week that Australia is very interested in the University of Guelph’s DNA bar coding projects, and is willing to put up cash, too.
Wilkinson was in Arthur on March 14 for the groundbreaking of a new library there, but he is still excited about the prospects from his February trip down under to spread the word about the University of Guelph’s DNA genetic program, called the Bar Code of Life.
That work is being led by University of Guelph’s integrative biology professor Paul Hebert, who accompanied Wilkinson on the trip, and post-doctoral researcher Mehrdad Hajibabaei.
Wilkinson said Australia is particularly interested in the work because, as an island, it is very picky and defensive when it comes to invasive species.
That county learned its lessons about introducing new species well over two centuries ago, with the rabbit. It was introduced in the 1770s, and grew to be such a nuisance that the worlds longest rabbit fence had to be built to help control them. Governments have tried everything but there are still problems with the bunnies.
Wilkinson said when planes land in Australia today, they are fumigated before people can get off, so as to prevent any other new species running amok.
Hebert and Hajibabaei are working on DNA barcoding to protect human health by advancing science’s capacity to identify disease organisms and their transmission pathways. As well, barcoding will help protect biodiversity at a time when it is threatened by climate change. And when all species are catalogued, scanners would identify invasive species.
One of the most practical applications for the DNA barcoding will be to identify species with a quick scan and a hand-held scanner, rather than longer and more inconvenient tests. The work can be done more quickly, too.
For Australian officials, it means being able to scan any incoming plane or ship to ensure there are no new species entering the country.
“They spread powder,” Wilkinson remembered of the workers who boarded his plane before he was allowed to exit.
“For them to be able to identify species would be huge,” he added.
He also said his trip with Hebert took them to four cities in four days, being constantly on the move. The trip was successful in New South Wales, where the government pledged $1.2-million for the barcoding research.
“They’re trying to raise $5-million in total so Australia can become one of the [research] nodes,” Wilkinson said.
That is a plan devised by researchers at the University of Guelph – to have the barcoding and DNA scanning work carried out around the world. There are huge numbers of species that have to have their DNA identified.
“The University of Guelph has a world-wide reputation for its breakthroughs in the DNA barcoding project,” Alastair Summerlee, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guelph, said last month when the province announced a $5-million grant to the school for the research.
Summerlee added the announcement would “send a strong signal to researchers at major institutions around the world that Ontario is home to incredible research infrastructure and a government that supports its scientists and their tremendously valuable work.”
The money will enable researchers at the university to work with over 100 researchers from 25 countries to create the world’s largest reference library of DNA samples – consisting of 500,000 species.
Wilkinson said in Australia, the fundraising is being coordinated by the Royal Australian Museum, which already has a large number of DNA samples available for recording.
“It’s a natural fit for them to participate,” he said.
Wilkinson added that Monash University in Melbourne is also interested, and it has links to another nearby Canadian University. Monash has a new laboratory with an electronic microscope that is one of the most powerful in the world. It is the sister equipment to a microscope at McMaster University in Hamilton.
Wilkinson said the microscope in Australia is so sensitive it has to be vibration free, and is constructed on a huge concrete and isolated pad.
“It’s so powerful you can see atoms with it,” he said.
He added that he is hopeful more grant announcements from Australia with be coming in the future.
Among the applications being done world wide, an Irish researcher recently determined ways of using the barcoding system to identify different species in meats, and a scan can even determine if a single steak comes from a cloned animal.
