Marine biodiversity offers potential for agrichemical breakthroughs

How marine biodiscovery programmes are leading to breakthroughs in new agrichemicals will be discussed at the University of Waikato’s stakeholder breakfast being held during the Agricultural Fieldays next week.

Waikato University is into its fifth year as a strategic partner of Fieldays and as part of that partnership, holds stakeholder events and public seminars.

The University of Waikato’s Chair in Coastal Science Professor Chris Battershill says marine organisms have developed complex biochemical machinery to protect themselves and cope with changing environments. Scientists are using the findings to generate innovative biomedicinal and agrichemical leads.

“It’s all about joined-up science. If you look at a coastal ecosystem at all levels – from the ranges to the reef, from examining the effects of land run-off down to understanding how organisms protect themselves at the molecular level – you can come up with new ideas,” he says.

“It might be ameliorating the effects of pollution or identifying how to harness the resilience of organisms. By looking at how marine organisms cope with environmental pressures, there can be innovative outcomes both in the discovery of drug leads as well as for the agricultural industry.”

Professor Battershill says while there may be 250,000 marine species identified globally, there are likely to be around 750,000 species still to discover, all carrying an enormous wealth of genetic material.

“Every new dive discovers new species which represents enormous genetic diversity. It also represents a source of novel chemistry as it is through biochemical defence that marine organisms survive.

“As by far the majority of drugs in use today have come from nature rather than synthetic chemicals, exploring natural bioactive chemistry is where future discoveries will be made. This is also the case for modern agrichemical discovery.” he says.

He says protecting our marine diversity is therefore critical as we continue to lose marine species at an alarming rate through invasive species threatening marine life and sedimentation of the seabed which significantly impacts marine habitats.

The University’s Chair in Coastal Science is a new position established in partnership with Bay of Plenty Regional Council to focus on the marine environment in the Bay of Plenty. In his role Professor Battershill will work with students to conduct studies into the Bay’s marine systems to understand the significant changes taking place in our coastal environment.

“The Bay of Plenty hasn’t yet been sampled for biodiscovery but its diverse marine environments offer considerable research opportunities,” he says.

Professor Battershill will speak on Friday 17 June.

This year the University of Waikato has two sites at Fieldays – a site located in the Premier Feature area and an outdoor exhibit site. The Premier Feature stand will feature the university’s research and consultancy contributions to land-based industries while the outdoor exhibit site will showcase what Waikato has to offer potential students as well as host the seminar series.