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You could be forgiven for thinking that the world has suddenly become very concerned about burping sheep. Certainly at UWA two young researchers with links not only to Australia but also to India, Japan and China are working hard to find ways to reduce the amount of methane gas that sheep burp into the atmosphere as they graze.

India-born Dr Parwinder Kaur (31) from the Centre for Legumes In Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) is currently at the Kazusa DNA Research Institute about an hour’s drive from Tokyo. She is there for a two-month collaboration which aims to sequence parts, or produce a scaffold, of the subterranean clover genome.

Funded by the Australian Research Council, UWA and the WA Department of Agriculture and Food, Dr Kaur’s work is important because subterranean clover is the most widely sown pasture legume species in Australia.

Covering about 29 million hectares nation-wide, subterranean clover is valued by sheep and cattle producers because it is highly nutritious. Its nitrogen-fixing qualities also improve the soil, leading to better yields when cereal crops are grown on clover paddocks on alternate years.

Dr Kaur and her colleagues, including CLIMA Director Winthrop Professor William Erskine , want to lower the large amounts of methane emitted by Australia’s 74 million sheep. (Agriculture contributes 17 per cent of our greenhouse gases.) In doing so, they also hope to improve the amount of energy sheep receive from subterranean clover, much of which is currently wasted in gas.

In Japan, Dr Kaur is working 12-hour days and most of her weekends testing the most promising lines identified earlier this year from the world germplasm collection of subterranean clover, to pinpoint the gene or genes responsible for methane production. Japanese scientists are interested in this project because they will be able to adapt Dr Kaur’s findings for the red clover grown for pasture on Japanese farms.

Once Dr Kaur identifies the culprit gene, it will open exciting avenues for agriculture to reduce its carbon footprint and a very efficient marker-assisted breeding for subclover in future.

“Genome-sequencing is a wonderful tool which produces enormous amounts of data,” she said. “But there’s no use having a lot of data unless you can interpret it. And that’s what I’m learning to do here in Japan.

“I’ll be able to share the knowledge gained here from the team of bio-informatics world experts with other colleagues at UWA and teach students at UWA when I get back. The skills that I’m acquiring here aren’t just valuable for agriculture. They can be used to interpret sequences in plants and animals and have a range of applications, including in medicine.”

Meanwhile, PhD student Xixi Li (27) is investigating the possibility of using an Australian native plant, tarbush, as a pasture plant which will greatly reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions.

Tarbush, or Eremophila glabra, has been used by Aboriginal people for thousands of years to cure fevers and colds. It also has the potential to kill internal parasites that reduce meat, wool and milk production. These parasites are developing resistance to chemical treatments.

Xixi, who is from China, was on hand at our Future Farm near Pingelly in September when a delegation from China’s Zheziang Province visited to examine UWA’s latest agricultural research. Shi Jixi, Zheziang’s Director-General of Agriculture, was impressed.

“It creates a deep impression and has given me new ideas for combining production and environmental management while also looking after the lifestyle of the farmers,” he said. “We want to learn from your methods and approach to research to help our future development in agriculture.”

Xixi said she hoped to help build a bridge between Australia and China’s livestock industry and research institutions.

“In China we have a huge population with increasing demands on animal production,” she said. “With a few years’ experience in Australia and a PhD research background, I am capable of working in multi-cultural environments and want to be part of the process to achieve win-win situations in international cooperation.”

Xixi said she was enjoying being at UWA, where she was growing from ‘a baby scientist’ into a serious researcher.

“If it weren’t for my supervisors’ support and encouragement I wouldn’t have got this far,” she said. “My supervisors are Associate Professor Phil Vercoe , Animal Production Systems Manager at the UWA Institute of Agriculture; Assistant Professor Zoey Durmic in the School of Animal Biology; and Research Professor Shimin Liu, from Animal Biology, who is also Chinese Relations Coordinator.

“The lovely part of my research is working with sheep,” Xixi said. “When I take care of them they love me back in their own way!”

Published in UWA News , 29 October 2012