William F. Mcdonald

Efficacious Recombinant Influenza Vaccines Produced by High Yield Bacterial Expression: A Solution to Global Pandemic and Seasonal Needs

It is known that physical linkage of TLR ligands and vaccine antigens significantly enhances the immunopotency of the linked antigens. We have used this approach to generate novel influenza vaccines that fuse the globular head domain of the protective hemagglutinin (HA) antigen with the potent TLR5 ligand, flagellin. These fusion proteins are efficiently expressed in standard E. coli fermentation systems and the HA moiety can be faithfully refolded to take on the native conformation of the globular head. In mouse models of influenza infection, the vaccines elicit robust antibody responses that mitigate disease and protect mice from lethal challenge. These immunologically potent vaccines can be efficiently manufactured to support pandemic response, pre-pandemic and seasonal vaccines.

Mapping Biodiversity and Setting Conservation Priorities for SE Queensland’s Rainforests Using DNA Barcoding

Australian rainforests have been fragmented due to past climatic changes and more recently landscape change as a result of clearing for agriculture and urban spread. The subtropical rainforests of South Eastern Queensland are significantly more fragmented than the tropical World Heritage listed northern rainforests and are subject to much greater human population pressures. The Australian rainforest flora is relatively taxonomically rich at the family level, but less so at the species level. Current methods to assess biodiversity based on species numbers fail to adequately capture this richness at higher taxonomic levels. We developed a DNA barcode library for the SE Queensland rainforest flora to support a methodology for biodiversity assessment that incorporates both taxonomic diversity and phylogenetic relationships. We placed our SE Queensland phylogeny based on a three marker DNA barcode within a larger international rainforest barcode library and used this to calculate phylogenetic diversity (PD). We compared phylo- diversity measures, species composition and richness and ecosystem diversity of the SE Queensland rainforest estate to identify which bio subregions contain the greatest rainforest biodiversity, subregion relationships and their level of protection. We identified areas of highest conservation priority. Diversity was not correlated with rainforest area in SE Queensland subregions but PD was correlated with both the percent of the subregion occupied by rainforest and the diversity of regional ecosystems (RE) present. The patterns of species diversity and phylogenetic diversity suggest a strong influence of historical biogeography. Some subregions contain significantly more PD than expected by chance, consistent with the concept of refugia, while others were significantly phylogenetically clustered, consistent with recent range expansions.

Patterns of Phylogenetic Diversity of Subtropical Rainforest of the Great Sandy Region, Australia Indicate Long Term Climatic Refugia

Australia’s Great Sandy Region is of international significance containing two World Heritage areas and patches of rainforest growing on white sand. Previous broad-scale analysis found the Great Sandy biogeographic subregion contained a significantly more phylogenetically even subset of species than expected by chance contrasting with rainforest on white sand in Peru. This study aimed to test the patterns of rainforest diversity and relatedness at a finer scale and to investigate why we may find different patterns of phylogenetic evenness compared with rainforests on white sands in other parts of the world. This study focussed on rainforest sites within the Great Sandy and surrounding areas in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. We undertook field collections, expanded our three-marker DNA barcode library of SEQ rainforest plants and updated the phylogeny to 95% of the SEQ rainforest flora. We sampled species composition of rainforest in fixed area plots from 100 sites. We calculated phylogenetic diversity (PD) measures as well as species richness (SR) for each rainforest community. These combined with site variables such as geology, were used to evaluate patterns and relatedness. We found that many rainforest communities in the Great Sandy area were significantly phylogenetically even at the individual site level consistent with a broader subregion analysis. Sites from adjacent areas were either not significant or were significantly phylogenetically clustered. Some results in the neighbouring areas were consistent with historic range expansions. In contrast with expectations, sites located on the oldest substrates had significantly lower phylogenetic diversity (PD). Fraser Island was once connected to mainland Australia, our results are consistent with a region geologically old enough to have continuously supported rainforest in refugia. The interface of tropical and temperate floras in part also explains the significant phylogenetic evenness and higher than expected phylogenetic diversity.

Comparing Floristic Diversity and Conservation Priorities across South East Queensland Regional Rain Forest Ecosystems Using Phylodiversity Indexes

Premise of research. Rain forest ecosystems globally are synonymous with biodiversity, yet these vegetation communities vary widely in structure and composition. Historical biogeography and environment are thought to have significantly impacted Australian rain forest diversity and composition. Rain forest in Australia is extensively fragmented, and detailed vegetation mapping is used as a tool for conservation and land management planning. In Queensland, a regional ecosystem (RE) vegetation classification scheme is used by land managers. However, there has been no assessment to date of how evenly rain forest RE types are conserved at a regional scale, whether those conserved are the best representatives of biodiversity, and whether there are significantly distinctive RE types that are relatively poorly conserved or not recognized for their significance to biodiversity conservation. Methodology. Our phylogeny for South East Queensland (SEQ) rain forest species, which encompasses 95% of rain forest species based on a unified three-marker DNA barcode, along with species lists were used for assessment of both species richness and phylogenetic diversity of RE types. We mapped the distribution of the most diverse and the most distinctive rain forest ecosystem types. Pivotal results. We found that there is enormous variation in phylogenetic diversity within and among rain forest RE types in SEQ, with some depauperate in species richness. We identified the rain forest RE types in SEQ containing the highest diversity as well as those significantly sampling a wide part of the SEQ rain forest species pool compared with other RE types with similar species richness. Conclusions. This study confirms that different RE types are not equivalent and so should not be considered as such in any conservation planning processes. Conservation assessment of ecosystems needs to take into account distinctiveness and diversity among types in order to gain better representativeness and complementarity across all RE types.