The inaugural Ian and Janet McConachie Macadamia
Conservation Grant has been awarded to Dr Albert Wong for his project: Tissue
culture in the Tool-Kit to conserve Australia’s rarest Macadamia.
The grant will fund the extension of the QAAFI tissue
culture project (reported on in the Spring 2024 AMS News Bulletin) to develop a
specific tissue culture protocol for M. jansenii, a critically
endangered, non-commercial species of macadamia.
The project was vetted by the scientific research committee
of the Australian Flora Foundation, and funding approved for a total of $60,000
over three years.
Macadamia seeds, like most seeds of rainforest species, are
not suitable for seed banking due to their intolerance to the drying and
freezing steps involved. Tissue culture
offers an alternative solution to maintaining and storing living germplasm of
this rare species and complements MCT’s other conservation projects for M.
jansenii.
This grant recognises the significant and ongoing
contribution to macadamia conservation made by Ian and Janet McConachie.