Combating Frost Risk in Grapevines: Assessing Microbial Ice Nucleation and Phage-Based Biocontrol

Project description

Frost damage poses a major threat to vineyards in the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, and Riverland regions of South Australia, significantly reducing grape yields. Ice-nucleating bacteria can exacerbate frost damage by increasing the temperature at which ice crystals form within plant tissues. However, the prevalence and diversity of these bacteria in frost-affected vineyards remain poorly understood. This project will identify ice-nucleating bacteria associated with grapevine leaves using microbiological and molecular approaches, including microbial culturing, PCR, and metagenomic sequencing. In addition, bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) will be isolated and characterised as potential biocontrol agents against ice-nucleating bacterial strains.

Co-supervisors

You'll work closely with Emily Grace, a postdoctoral researcher

Further information

For more information about our research, check out our lab website and the FAME group's website

Assumed knowledge

You should have a background in microbiology, molecular biology, microbial ecology, biotechnology, environmental microbiology, or a related field. A basic understanding of bacteria, viruses, microbial growth, and DNA would be useful. We will teach you how to culture bacteria, use sterile technique, and perform DNA extractions, PCR, and ONT sequencing, as well as the subsequent data analysis.

Industry involvement

We're working with viticulturalists to solve a problem plaguing South Australian wine production

Note: You need to register interest in projects from different supervisors (not a number of projects with the one supervisor).
You must also contact each supervisor directly to discuss both the project details and your suitability to undertake the project.