Associate Professor Jaquie Mitchell

Associate Professor in Agronomy

School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
Faculty of Science
jaquie.mitchell@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 51494

Overview

A/Prof Jaquie Mitchell's activities are focused around two core themes.Jaquie has worked on various Research for Development (R4D) projects based in South-East Asia with the aim of improving productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Currently she leads two R4D projects one focused on developing an integrated weed management package for mechanised and broadcast lowland crop production systems in Laos and Cambodia. While the other is a first of its kind, public private partnership between ACIAR and a private agribusiness company, aiming to establish a highly productive, sustainable, traceable, quality-assured value chain for rice in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, benefiting rice-farming households and meeting the market requirements of SunRice’s established global customers.

The second research theme includes examining genetic variation for resistance to abiotic stress, such as high and low-temperature tolerance at the reproductive stage in rice, the advantage of reduced-tillering gene in wheat grown under terminal drought, the effect of salinity and water-deficit on production of volatile compounds in aromatic rice. In close collaboration with the Australian rice industry, Jaquie currently leads two AgriFutures funded pre-breeding projects aimed to improve lodging resistance, cold tolerance and aerobic adaptation for high water productivity rice. In addition to exploring genetic variation in physiological traits and genomic regions of importance to improved water productivity, genomic tools are under development to improve breeding efficiency for the Riverina. Based at The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, Jaquie provides specialist guidance and assistance to undergraduate and postgraduate research students within crop physiology and agronomy with extensive experience conducting research projects focused on abiotic stress, pre-breeding and rice cropping systems research.

Research Interests

  • Physiological traits of importance for rice production under aerobic conditions
    Aerobic rice in southern Australia is a potential new system, and as such little research has been conducted on the identification of donor varieties with specific adaptation to aerobic conditions, nor the physiological mechanisms underlying the requirements for aerobic varieties.This project aims to develop screening methods to identify donor varieties and evaluate genetic variation in key traits that contribute to aerobic adaptation. The project will link phenotype to genotype and identified traits to genomic regions for the direct incorporation into the Australian rice breeding program to maximize productivity of rice adapted to a new reduced water input system.
  • Cropping intensification & diversification in SE Asia
    ACIAR project in SE Asia (2014-19) was focused on mechanization and value adding for diversification of lowland cropping systems in Lao PDR and Cambodia. Also focused on improved agronomic management in lowland rice-based cropping systems in Laos and Cambodia, including non-rice crops such as maize, peanuts, soybean and mungbean to predominantly rice based cropping systems.
  • Cold tolerance in rice
    A RIRDC funded rice project (2012-2018) 'Cold tolerant traits and QTLs for improved efficiency of rice breeding program' where we examined low temperature tolerance in rice, mostly targeting the NSW rice industry. The major objective of the project was to improve understanding of cold tolerance in terms of underlying physiological mechanisms and the molecular basis (genomics) of traits involved in the maintenance of cold tolerance.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Masters (Coursework), The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Agricultural Science, The University of Queensland

Publications

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Grants

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Available Projects

  • There are a number of opportunities to conduct short term or long term experiment in relation to lodging resistance in field (Gatton) experiments. Lodging is when the stems bend or fall over which makes harvesting a challenge and inefficient, leading to significant yield losses. In this study, we'll identify genotypic variation in lodging and identify physiological and morphological traits related to lodging resistance in rice.

    Depending on your needs experiments may be able to be tailored to fit into your course plans ranging from short duration experiments (6-8 weeks) or longer term (4 to 5 months; plants grown to maturity) or alternatively higher degree research opportunities may exist.

    Suitable for students studying or interested in plant biology, agricultural science (crop physiology, agronomy or quantitative genetics). If you are interested in this or similar projects contact us to explore where your skills and interests can be applied.

  • There are a number of opportunities to conduct short term experiments in relation to trait dissection for aerobic rice in the field (Gatton) and dry-lab experiments.

    Aerobic rice production system is a promising technology to maximise water productivity. It is hypothesised that traits such as improved rooting system and maintenance of cooler canopies through higher stomatal conductance are key for aerobic rice adaptation. Using a set of diverse populations segregating for root (angle and depth) and canopy traits, this study will explore the relationships among these traits and identify associated genomic regions through linkage and association mapping.

    Depending on your needs experiments may be able to be tailored to fit into your course plans ranging from short duration experiments (6-8 weeks) or longer term (4 to 5 months; plants grown to maturity) or alternatively higher degree research opportunities may exist.

    Suitable for students studying or interested in plant biology, agricultural science (crop physiology, agronomy or quantitative genetics). If you are interested in this or similar projects contact us to explore where your skills and interests can be applied.

  • There are a number of opportunities to conduct experiments in relation to aerobic adaption in the field (Gatton).

    The use of UAV phenotyping is relatively new in Australia aerobic rice production but has been widely used in other cereal crops. This project aims to ground-truth UAV phenotyping with several canopy traits such as chlorophyl content and stomatal conductance.

    Depending on your needs experiments may be able to be tailored to fit into your course plans ranging from short duration experiments (6-8 weeks) or longer term (4 to 5 months; plants grown to maturity) or alternatively higher degree research opportunities may exist.

    Suitable for students studying or interested in plant biology, agricultural science (crop physiology, agronomy or quantitative genetics). If you are interested in this or similar projects contact us to explore where your skills and interests can be applied.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • There are a number of opportunities to conduct short term or long term experiment in relation to lodging resistance in field (Gatton) experiments. Lodging is when the stems bend or fall over which makes harvesting a challenge and inefficient, leading to significant yield losses. In this study, we'll identify genotypic variation in lodging and identify physiological and morphological traits related to lodging resistance in rice.

    Depending on your needs experiments may be able to be tailored to fit into your course plans ranging from short duration experiments (6-8 weeks) or longer term (4 to 5 months; plants grown to maturity) or alternatively higher degree research opportunities may exist.

    Suitable for students studying or interested in plant biology, agricultural science (crop physiology, agronomy or quantitative genetics). If you are interested in this or similar projects contact us to explore where your skills and interests can be applied.

  • There are a number of opportunities to conduct short term experiments in relation to trait dissection for aerobic rice in the field (Gatton) and dry-lab experiments.

    Aerobic rice production system is a promising technology to maximise water productivity. It is hypothesised that traits such as improved rooting system and maintenance of cooler canopies through higher stomatal conductance are key for aerobic rice adaptation. Using a set of diverse populations segregating for root (angle and depth) and canopy traits, this study will explore the relationships among these traits and identify associated genomic regions through linkage and association mapping.

    Depending on your needs experiments may be able to be tailored to fit into your course plans ranging from short duration experiments (6-8 weeks) or longer term (4 to 5 months; plants grown to maturity) or alternatively higher degree research opportunities may exist.

    Suitable for students studying or interested in plant biology, agricultural science (crop physiology, agronomy or quantitative genetics). If you are interested in this or similar projects contact us to explore where your skills and interests can be applied.

  • There are a number of opportunities to conduct experiments in relation to aerobic adaption in the field (Gatton).

    The use of UAV phenotyping is relatively new in Australia aerobic rice production but has been widely used in other cereal crops. This project aims to ground-truth UAV phenotyping with several canopy traits such as chlorophyl content and stomatal conductance.

    Depending on your needs experiments may be able to be tailored to fit into your course plans ranging from short duration experiments (6-8 weeks) or longer term (4 to 5 months; plants grown to maturity) or alternatively higher degree research opportunities may exist.

    Suitable for students studying or interested in plant biology, agricultural science (crop physiology, agronomy or quantitative genetics). If you are interested in this or similar projects contact us to explore where your skills and interests can be applied.