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We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge.

Strobilurin fungicides are some of the most heavily used antifungal chemicals in agriculture. However, little is known of their fate in the environment. We have identified bacteria that slowly transform strobilurin fungicides via hydrolysis of a methyl ester group in the toxophore, rendering them non-fungicidal. A carboxypeptidase (subtilisin Carlsberg) was found to have this activity, albeit with low specific activity (2.4 ×× 10−−2 nmol s−−1 mg−−1), and to possess specificity towards an analog of the fungicidal isomer of commercial strobilurins. Substrate-docking studies using the known structure for subtilisin Carlsberg revealed a plausible explanation for both the activity and isomer specificity of this class of hydrolase. These findings suggest that the promiscuous strobilurin methyl esterase activity of the subtilisin-like carboxypeptidases may have a role in the environmental fate of the strobilurin fungicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]