Professor Christopher Preston

Professor Christopher Preston
 Position Professor
 Org Unit Agricultural Science
 Email christopher.preston@adelaide.edu.au
 Telephone +61 8 8313 7237
 Location Floor/Room GN ,  Waite ,   Waite

  • Research Interests

    Weed Science group page

    https://sciences.adelaide.edu.au/agriculture-food-wine/research/agricultural-science/weed-science-research-group

    The Weed Science lab has a range of interests in weed management issues. These include the evolution, biochemical mechanisms and management of herbicide resistant weeds, ecology and biology and management of emerging weeds in agriculture, gene flow from herbicide tolerant crops and its implications for farm management, risk assessment for weeds and herbicide tolerant crops and patterns of genetic diversity in weed populations. Current projects include:

    • Mechanisms, evolution and inheritance of resistance

    • Understanding herbicide resistance to 2,4-D in common sowthistle: improving activity on resistant populations 

    • Evolution and management of group J and K resistance in annual ryegrass

    • Characterisation and management of glyphosate resistant barley grass

    • Herbicide resistance in winter grass and its management

    • Surveillance for herbicide resistant weeds

    • Weed management in Australia's southern region mixed farming systems: strategies to combat herbicide resistance

    • Herbicide-resistant common sowthistle and prickly lettuce: dispersal, seed biology and management in lentils

    • Crop competition for weed management and maintenance of crop yield

    • Management of annual ryegrass in the high rainfall zone (HRZ)

    • Seed-bank biology of emerging weeds in Australia

    • Effect of ecological and genetic factors on seed germination of ryegrass and brome grass

    • New uses of existing chemistry to manage brome grass and barley grass

    • Novel herbicide tolerance in pulse crops

  • Publications

    Some interesting publications:

    Powles, S.B., Lorraine-Colwill, D.F., Dellow, J.J. and Preston, C. 1998. Evolved resistance to glyphosate in rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) in Australia. Weed Science 46: 604-607.

    Rieger, M.A., Lamond, M., Preston, C., Powles, S.B. and Roush, R.T. 2002. Pollen-mediated movement of herbicide resistance between commercial canola fields. Science 296: 2386-2388.

    Gaines, T.A., Zhang, W.L., Wang, D.F., Bukun, B., Chisholm, S.T., Shaner, D.L., Nissen, S.J., Patzoldt, W.L., Tranel, P.J., Culpepper, A.S., Grey, T.L., Webster, T.M., Vencill, W.K., Sammons, R.D., Jiang, J.M., Preston, C., Leach, J.E. and Westra, P. 2010. Gene amplification confers glyphosate resistance in Amaranthus palmeri. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 107: 1029-1034.

    Powles, S.B. and Preston, C. 2006. Evolved glyphosate resistance in plants: biochemical and genetic basis of resistance. Weed Technology 20: 282-289.

    Preston, C., Tardif, F.J., Christopher, J.T. and Powles, S.B. 1996. Multiple resistance to dissimilar herbicide chemistries in a biotype of Lolium rigidum due to enhanced activity of several herbicide degrading enzymes. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology 54: 123-134.

    Lorraine-Colwill, D.F., Powles, S.B., Hawkes, T.R., Hollinshead, P.H., Warner, S.A.J. and Preston, C. 2002. Investigations into the mechanism of glyphosate resistance in Lolium rigidum. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology 74: 62-72.

    Wakelin, A.M. and Preston, C. 2006. A target‐site mutation is present in a glyphosate‐resistant Lolium rigidumpopulation. Weed Research 46: 432-440.

    Chauhan, B.S., Gill, G.S. and Preston, C. 2006. Tillage system effects on weed ecology, herbicide activity and persistence: a review. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46: 1557-1570.

    Christopher, J.T., Preston, C. and Powles, S.B. 1994. Malathion antagonizes metabolism-based chlorsulfuron resistance in Lolium rigidum. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology 49: 172-182.

    Wakelin, A.M., Lorraine‐Colwill, D.F. and Preston, C. 2004. Glyphosate resistance in four different populations of Lolium rigidum is associated with reduced translocation of glyphosate to meristematic zones. Weed Research 44: 453-459.

    Preston, C., Wakelin, A.M., Dolman, F.C., Bostamam, Y. and Boutsalis, P. 2009. A decade of glyphosate-resistant Lolium around the World: mechanisms, genes, fitness, and agronomic management. Weed Science 57, 435-441.

    Chauhan, B.S., Gill, G. and Preston, C. 2006. Influence of tillage systems on vertical distribution, seedling recruitment and persistence of rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) seed bank. Weed Science 54: 669-676.

    Preston, C. and Wakelin, A.M. 2008. Resistance to glyphosate from altered herbicide translocation patterns. Pest Management Science 64, 372-376.

    Preston, C. 2004. Herbicide resistance in weeds endowed by enhanced detoxification: complications for management. Weed Science 52: 448-453.

    Preston, C. and Powles, S.B. 2002. Evolution of herbicide resistance in weeds: initial frequency of target site-based resistance to acetolactate synthase-inhibiting herbicides in Lolium rigidum. Heredity 88: 8-13.

    Boutsalis, P., Gill, G.S. and Preston, C. 2012. Incidence of herbicide resistance in rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) across south-eastern Australia. Weed Technology 26: 391-398.

    Lorraine-Colwill, D.F., Powles, S.B., Hawkes, T.R. and Preston, C. 2001. Inheritance of evolved glyphosate resistance in Lolium rigidum (Gaud.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics 102: 545-550.

    Ge, X., d'Avignon, D.A., Ackerman, J.J.H, Collavo, A., Sattin, M., Ostrander, E. L., Hall, E.L., Sammons, R.D., and Preston, C. 2012. Vacuolar glyphosate-sequestration correlates with glyphosate resistance in ryegrass (Lolium spp.) from Australia, South America and Europe: a 31P-NMR investigation. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 60: 1243-1250.

    Gaines, T.A., Shaner, D.L., Ward, S.M., Leach, J.E., Preston, C. and Westra, P. 2011. Mechanism of resistance of evolved glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 59, 5886-5889.

    Rieger, M.A., Potter, T.D., Preston, C. and Powles, S.B. 2001. Hybridisation between Brassica napus L. and Raphanus raphanistrum L. under agronomic field conditions. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 103: 555-560.

    Preston, C., Belles, D.S., Westra, P.H., Nissen, S.J. and Ward, S.M.  2009.  Inheritance of resistance to the auxinic herbicide dicamba in kochia (Kochia scoparia).  Weed Science 57, 43-47.

    Gaines, T.A., Ward, S.M., Bukun, B., Preston, C., Leach, J.E. and Westra, P. 2012. Interspecific hybridization transfers a previously unknown glyphosate resistance mechanism in Amaranthus species. Evolutionary Applications 5: 29-38.

    Malone, J.M., Boutsalis, P., Baker, J., and Preston, C. 2014. Distribution of herbicide‐resistant acetyl‐coenzyme A carboxylase alleles in Lolium rigidum across grain cropping areas of South Australia. Weed Research 54: 78-86.

    Boutsalis, P., Gill, G.S., and Preston, C. 2014. Control of rigid ryegrass in Australian wheat production with pyroxasulfone. Weed Technology 28: 332-339.

    Kleemann, S.G., Preston, C., and Gill, G. S. 2014. Influence of seeding system disturbance on preplant incorporated herbicide control of rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) in wheat in Southern Australia. Weed Technology 28: 323-331.

    Malone, J.M., Morran, S., Shirley, N., Boutsalis, P. and Preston, C. 2016. EPSPS gene amplification in glyphosate‐resistant Bromus diandrus. Pest Management Science 72: 81-88.

    Preston, C. and Malone, J.M. 2014. Inheritance of resistance to 2,4‐D and chlorsulfuron in a multiple‐resistant population of Sisymbrium orientale. Pest Management Science 71: 1523-1528.

    Vila_Aiub, M.M., Gundel, P.E. and Preston, C. 2015. Experimental methods for estimation of plant fitness costs associated with herbicide-resistance genes. Weed Science 62S: 203-216.

  • Media Expertise
    CategoriesAgriculture & Farming
    ExpertiseCrop protection (weed management, herbicides, herbicide resistance); crop protection (resistance); weeds (management and control); Genetically modified crops
    NotesAlt phone: (08) 8303 8149
    Mobile0488 404 120

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Entry last updated: Thursday, 12 Jan 2023

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