High-tech UQ facility enables precision plant research

A high-tech facility with rooms to mimic environments from rainforests to deserts is set to help Australian plant scientists and industry improve crop productivity and secure future food supplies.

Construction of The University of Queensland’s (UQ) $65 Plant Futures Facility started at the St Lucia campus in late 2021, with the first seeds brought into the facility last month after a rigorous commissioning period. The facility is fitted out with technology to finely control temperature, light intensity, light quality, humidity and CO₂ concentration, allowing researchers to better predict plant responses to future climates.

“This facility is an important national asset and reinforces the position of Australia, Queensland and UQ as a leader in plant science research,” said UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry AC, who claimed the six-storey building is unique in both scale and precision in the Southern Hemisphere.

“Being able to accurately control every aspect of the growing environment opens up opportunities for precision plant science and to fast-track experiments.”

As plants grow within the facility, cameras and sensors will capture images and data for analysis. Nine rooftop glasshouses — four for temperate plants and five for tropical plants — will meanwhile help restore some of the capacity lost in the 2022 Brisbane River flood. In addition to the grow rooms, greenhouses and laboratories, there are also levels containing mechanical and computer equipment.

Professor Christine Beveridge, Director of the UQ-led ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture, said experiments in the facility will expand knowledge about the relationship between a plant’s genome and the environment.

“We can now expose the same genetic material to slightly different temperatures or to lighting that simulates different day lengths to see how it responds while keeping everything else about the environment the same,” Beveridge said.

“This level of control was not possible before the construction of this specialised building and the technology it contains.

“The more we understand the interplay between genetics and the environment, the more we can predict what will happen to plants in a future with climate change.”

Adam Fennessy PSM, Secretary of the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), said that research facilities like the Plant Futures Facility are essential.

“Adaptation to climatic changes requires continued investment in research and development, with sustainability credentials in food systems increasingly demanded by governments, investors and consumers globally,” Fennessy said.

“Working with industries, governments and research institutions is important to ensure our policy and program solutions promote productivity growth, secure improved access to international markets, and safeguard our animal and plant health status.

“Research facilities such as The University of Queensland Plant Futures Facility are critical to be able to do research onshore to deliver these outcomes for Australian agriculture.”

Image caption: The Plant Futures Facility at UQ’s St Lucia campus.