Issue 3 2006 - acpfg
Issue 3 2006 - acpfg
Issue 3 2006 - acpfg
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ACPFG vector<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> 3 – Autumn <strong>2006</strong><br />
Salt tolerance grant (Page 11) Beta-glucan breakthrough (Page 2) Lifeprint Australia launched (Page 4)<br />
T h e m a g a z i n e o f t h e A u s t r a l i a n C e n t r e f o r P l a n t F u n c t i o n a l G e n o m i c s
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
Cover: Emeritus Professor Bruce<br />
Stone, Dr Rachel Burton, her son<br />
Callum and Professor Geoff Fincher<br />
celebrating the gene discovery<br />
Pictured: Professor Geoff Fincher, Dr<br />
Rachel Burton and Emeritus Professor<br />
Bruce Stone, with a barley plant<br />
In this issue: Pg<br />
Lifeprint launch 4<br />
Salt: roots to shoots 6<br />
Antibody encounters 8<br />
Nitrogen use 10<br />
French collaboration 11<br />
Lorne Genome Conference 12<br />
New home at La Trobe 14<br />
Getting graduates 15<br />
GIG in Queensland 16<br />
Student in spotlight 17<br />
New faces 18<br />
Enhanced grains possible thanks<br />
to beta-glucan breakthrough<br />
“...we now have the opportunity to modify<br />
beta-glucan levels in cereals, developing<br />
specialty cereals for different industries...”<br />
By Cobi Smith<br />
Dr Rachel Burton, Professor Geoff Fincher<br />
and a team of scientists associated with<br />
the ACPFG have solved a puzzle that<br />
researchers have been working on for<br />
more than thirty years. Their beta-glucan<br />
breakthrough was published in the March<br />
31 issue of Science.<br />
The scientists have identified<br />
a gene family, CslF, implicated<br />
in the synthesis of (1,3;1,4)-β-<br />
D-glucans in cereals like wheat<br />
and barley. These beta-glucans<br />
are an important component of<br />
dietary fibre, and impact human<br />
and animal health, as well as the<br />
production of beer and spirits.<br />
“This discovery means we<br />
now have the opportunity to<br />
modify beta-glucan levels in<br />
cereals, developing specialty<br />
cereals for different industries,”<br />
Dr Burton said.<br />
“Beta-glucan is good for human<br />
health, so we can increase the<br />
levels in wheat and barley for<br />
human consumption. We can also<br />
develop low beta-glucan varieties<br />
for animal feed, because pigs and<br />
chickens can’t cope with too much<br />
beta-glucan,” she said.<br />
The low varieties should<br />
also prove popular with breweries,<br />
because beta-glucan<br />
causes filtration problems<br />
in beer production.<br />
Beta-glucan helps prevent and<br />
treat human health conditions<br />
like colorectal cancer, obesity,<br />
non-insulin-dependent diabetes,<br />
high serum cholesterol and cardiovascular<br />
disease.<br />
When the news of the discovery<br />
was made public, the media<br />
were particularly interested<br />
in the potential for enhanced<br />
cereal products to alleviate these<br />
medical problems.<br />
Another possible outcome is<br />
cereal waste better suited for use<br />
as biofuel. Straw with higher betaglucan<br />
content and less cellulose<br />
may be easier to process, reducing<br />
the cost of producing fuel.<br />
The gene discovery has not<br />
been an overnight success story.<br />
Emeritus Professor Bruce Stone<br />
from La Trobe University can<br />
attest to this.<br />
“We first published on the<br />
biosynthesis of beta-glucan in<br />
1973, but the biochemical route to<br />
the enzyme proved to be frustratingly<br />
difficult. Now, a generation<br />
later, using the tools of molecular<br />
genetics and gene transfer, the<br />
ACPFG team have made the<br />
breakthrough,” he said.<br />
Professor Geoff Fincher of<br />
the University of Adelaide, and<br />
Professor Tony Bacic and Dr Ed<br />
Newbigin of the University of<br />
Melbourne, received funding<br />
from the Grains Research and<br />
Development Corporation in<br />
2000 to apply emerging functional<br />
genomics technologies to the<br />
problem of identifying the betaglucan<br />
synthase genes in cereals.<br />
Dr Burton began working on the<br />
project then, following on from her<br />
work on cellulose biosynthesis.<br />
The eventual breakthrough<br />
involved comparative genomics.<br />
Dr Andrew Harvey compared a<br />
chromosomal region in barley<br />
linked to high levels of beta-glucan<br />
to the completed rice genome,<br />
identifying the CslF gene family<br />
as the most likely candidates for<br />
beta-glucan synthesis in cereals.<br />
To test whether the CslF genes<br />
were implicated, Dr Burton built<br />
vectors containing the rice CslF<br />
genes for transformation into<br />
Arabidopsis plants.<br />
Research officer Melissa<br />
Pickering transformed the plants,<br />
some of which started producing<br />
beta-glucan in their cell<br />
“...the potential for<br />
enhanced cereal<br />
products to alleviate<br />
these medical problems”<br />
walls, which does not normally<br />
happen in dicotyledonous plants<br />
like Arabidopsis.<br />
Dr Sarah Wilson at the<br />
University of Melbourne used<br />
transmission electron microscopy<br />
to locate the beta-glucan<br />
in the walls of the transformed<br />
Arabidopsis plants, using a<br />
gold-labelled monoclonal<br />
antibody generated in Professor<br />
Stone’s laboratory more than a<br />
decade ago.<br />
“This work has been a fantastic<br />
team effort by staff in South<br />
Australia and Victoria, with great<br />
synergy between the different<br />
groups,” Dr Burton said.<br />
Dr Burton is now working on<br />
altering the levels of beta-glucan<br />
in barley plants by manipulating<br />
the CslF genes, aiming to develop<br />
grains that will be the forerunners<br />
of specialty cereals.<br />
2<br />
3
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
Stephen Fletcher and Dr Andrew Milligan will test for traces of GM soybean<br />
Cover: The scientists with some DNA samples ready for analysis<br />
DNA can be extracted from grain and even from highly processed food like crackers<br />
Lifeprint launches into European market<br />
The ACPFG’s first spinout company has<br />
been launched, in partnership with German<br />
company, Lifeprint GmbH. The new company,<br />
Lifeprint Australia Pty Ltd, is developing scientific<br />
techniques for genetic modification<br />
(GM) testing in Europe.<br />
Cobi Smith asked Lifeprint Australia’s<br />
Research and Development (R&D) Manager<br />
Dr Andrew Milligan about what to expect<br />
from the new company.<br />
What led to the establishment<br />
of Lifeprint Australia<br />
In mid-2005 the ACPFG identified a<br />
German company, Lifeprint GmbH,<br />
which has developed a strong<br />
position in Europe doing tests on<br />
food and related products. Lifeprint<br />
GmbH had identified some new<br />
market opportunities in the field of<br />
testing for the presence of genetically<br />
modified organisms (GMOs),<br />
but the company has no research<br />
capability of its own. These<br />
opportunities could be realised<br />
with the addition of the scientific<br />
skills available at the ACPFG.<br />
In the course of our negotiations,<br />
we could clearly see the<br />
synergy between the two organisations:<br />
Lifeprint GmbH, with its<br />
marketing capability within<br />
Europe and skill in delivering<br />
testing services to a ready market;<br />
and ACPFG, with our expertise in<br />
plant molecular biology and first<br />
class research facilities. And so<br />
Lifeprint Australia was born, with<br />
the broad aim of developing new<br />
technologies for GMO testing of<br />
grain and food.<br />
Why did the ACPFG decide to<br />
collaborate with Lifeprint GmbH<br />
First of all, the collaboration<br />
appeared attractive from a commercial<br />
point of view: it presented<br />
a path for the ACPFG to enter<br />
the food testing industry, which<br />
is worth a billion dollars worldwide.<br />
In terms of GMO testing,<br />
Europe is the biggest market, and<br />
Lifeprint GmbH has five years<br />
experience operating under the<br />
complicated legislative framework<br />
imposed by the European Union.<br />
Lifeprint GmbH is therefore in an<br />
ideal situation to identify opportunities<br />
and help deliver new<br />
products to the market.<br />
The ACPFG also saw that a<br />
successful Lifeprint Australia<br />
could contribute to the delivery<br />
pipeline of genetically modified<br />
“...the presence of<br />
GM canola in the<br />
commercial Australian<br />
canola crop highlighted<br />
the need for accurate<br />
testing services...”<br />
(GM) crops in Australia. ACPFG<br />
researchers are using genetic<br />
modification technology to<br />
develop stress-tolerant cereals,<br />
and Lifeprint Australia can help<br />
in the tracking and monitoring of<br />
these GM varieties, providing as<br />
much information as possible to<br />
farmers and consumers.<br />
Where is the market for this research<br />
The market is mainly in Europe,<br />
where there is a lot of consumer<br />
concern about GMOs in food<br />
and there are rigorous guidelines f<br />
or labelling. We are also keeping<br />
one eye on the Australian<br />
market – the recent discovery of<br />
GM canola in the commercial<br />
Australian canola crop highlighted<br />
the need for accurate testing<br />
services here. I feel that we are<br />
very well positioned to provide<br />
valuable input into the Australian<br />
industry in the future, particularly<br />
if GM crops come to be grown<br />
and accepted here.<br />
Why is testing for GM in foods important<br />
It’s really important that consumers<br />
are able to make an informed<br />
choice about what they eat. This<br />
reflects on biotechnology companies<br />
like the ACPFG – we have to<br />
be seen to be acting transparently<br />
and responsibly.<br />
What progress has been made so far, in<br />
terms of research and development<br />
Currently, all the testing labs in<br />
Europe and America use a single<br />
technique for GMO analysis: realtime<br />
polymerase chain reaction<br />
(PCR), which is a quantitative<br />
technique for measuring DNA.<br />
We have developed our own<br />
real-time PCR assays for a number<br />
of crops, which in some cases<br />
are more sensitive than the previously<br />
published tests. Sensitivity<br />
is very important, because the<br />
amount of DNA that can be<br />
extracted from, say, a biscuit is<br />
very low. These assays have provided<br />
us with the research tools<br />
that we need for testing certain<br />
scenarios that have so far proved<br />
too challenging for the industry.<br />
Despite the dominance of realtime<br />
PCR in GMO diagnostics, the<br />
technique does have several shortcomings:<br />
it is expensive, it needs<br />
qualified technicians, it can’t be<br />
performed in the field, and studies<br />
have shown that it’s actually not<br />
very precise. For these reasons,<br />
a lot of our efforts recently have<br />
“It’s really important<br />
that consumers are<br />
able to make an<br />
informed choice...”<br />
been focused on the development<br />
of completely new technology for<br />
GMO detection.<br />
Who is currently involved<br />
in Lifeprint Australia<br />
There are four ACPFG personnel<br />
involved in some way with<br />
Lifeprint Australia. Michael<br />
Gilbert is the CEO; Peter Langridge<br />
is a Director; I manage the<br />
scien- tific projects; and Stephen<br />
Fletcher performs the laboratory<br />
work. Dr Sibylle Roesel, of<br />
Lifeprint GmbH, is also a Director<br />
of Lifeprint Australia.<br />
What does this new company mean for you<br />
personally, and in terms of your career<br />
I’ve always had a keen interest in<br />
technologies that have industrial<br />
applications, so Lifeprint Australia<br />
was appealing from that point of<br />
view. But more importantly, my<br />
involvement with the company<br />
presents me with a great opportunity<br />
to develop my business skills.<br />
So far Stephen and I have been<br />
concentrating on the science,<br />
but we have recently written a<br />
couple of business plans and I<br />
really enjoyed it. The plan now is<br />
to take on more of the commercial<br />
responsibilities, with mentoring<br />
from Michael Gilbert.<br />
What do you see happening with<br />
Lifeprint Australia this year<br />
Everyone involved in Lifeprint<br />
Australia knows that it will need to<br />
stand on its own merits, but I am<br />
really optimistic about the future.<br />
Stephen and I are particularly<br />
excited about the new technologies<br />
that we proposed, so hopefully<br />
we can secure some investment to<br />
pursue those projects.<br />
One other option we are investigating<br />
is the provision of a testing<br />
service within Australia, which<br />
would provide some income<br />
and allow us to get on with the<br />
interesting R&D projects.<br />
Dr Andrew Milligan, Lifeprint Australia’s<br />
R&D Manager, has<br />
been working as a molecular<br />
biologist in the ‘Functional<br />
Genomics in the Growth and<br />
End-Use Quality of Cereals’<br />
program, funded by the Grains<br />
Research and Development<br />
Corporation. He completed his<br />
PhD at Rothamsted-Research<br />
and Zeneca Agrochemicals in<br />
the UK, where he studied GM<br />
approaches to herbicide resistance<br />
in wheat.<br />
4<br />
5
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
Pictured, and right: Fluorescent images of<br />
Arabidopsis roots showing expression of<br />
green fluorescent protein (GFP) in pericycle<br />
cells and cells among the vasculature.<br />
The expression of GFP is driven by expression<br />
of a yeast transcription factor, GAL4.<br />
Thus, when plants are transformed a second<br />
time with a gene of interest behind the upstream<br />
activation sequence to which GAL4 binds,<br />
the expression of this gene of interest will<br />
occur only in the cells fluorescing green.<br />
Using this system, we have shown that<br />
expression of the gene encoding a Na + influx<br />
protein called AtHKT1 in the cell types illustrated<br />
above decreases shoot Na + accumulation,<br />
whereas expression of AtHKT1 in all cells in the<br />
plant causes increased shoot accumulation of<br />
Na + . This has implications for understanding<br />
the genes involved in salinity tolerance.<br />
From roots to shoots:<br />
tackling salinity in specific cells<br />
By Professor Mark Tester<br />
It’s widely recognised that salinity is a big<br />
problem in Australian agriculture.<br />
A plant’s salinity tolerance is<br />
largely determined by its ability<br />
to exclude sodium ions (Na + ) from<br />
its shoots, where concentrations<br />
can build up to much higher levels<br />
than in the roots. A plant that can<br />
maintain a low level of Na + in its<br />
shoots is likely to be more salt<br />
tolerant than a plant that allows<br />
Na+ to accumulate there.<br />
Given this, ACPFG researchers<br />
are looking at how to stop<br />
Na + from accumulating in plant<br />
shoots. Researchers have recently<br />
discovered they’re able to increase<br />
or decrease the amount of Na + in<br />
shoots by changing the expression<br />
of a gene involved in the transport<br />
of Na + in roots. The Na + transporter<br />
plays an important role in<br />
this research. This is a protein that<br />
lets Na + leak into cells.<br />
The combined efforts of<br />
researchers Gehan Safwat,<br />
Inge Moller and Dr Deepa<br />
Jha have recently shown that<br />
unregulated over-expression of<br />
a gene called AtHKT1, which<br />
encodes the Na + transporter,<br />
will increase shoot Na + . Whereas<br />
expression of AtHKT1 specifically<br />
in stelar cells will decrease<br />
how much Na + accumulates<br />
in the shoots.<br />
So, unregulated over-expression<br />
of the gene, which makes the<br />
Na + transporter go into overdrive<br />
all over the plant, doesn’t help<br />
the plant to cope with salinity.<br />
But if we regulate where the gene<br />
expression happens, in this case in<br />
specific cells in the centre of the<br />
roots, it does help, with less Na +<br />
ending up in the shoots.<br />
This research used 197 segregating<br />
second generation plants<br />
from at least ten independent<br />
transformations, where each plant<br />
has been analysed for shoot Na +<br />
accumulation and genotyped<br />
for the presence or absence of<br />
“A plant that can maintain a low level of Na + in<br />
its shoots is likely to be more salt tolerant...”<br />
AtHKT1. These results should be<br />
published later this year.<br />
Hopefully this research will<br />
lead to plants that pump out salt<br />
from the roots, keeping it away<br />
from the shoots, meaning the<br />
plants would be more able to cope<br />
with Australia’s salty soils.<br />
Professor Mark Tester specialises in<br />
plant physiology. He is funded by<br />
an Australian Research Council<br />
Federation Fellowship, through<br />
the University of Adelaide’s<br />
School of Agriculture and Wine,<br />
at the Australian Centre for Plant<br />
Functional Genomics.<br />
After a Bachelor of Science with<br />
Honours in Adelaide, he did a<br />
PhD at Cambridge on the electrophysiology<br />
of ion channels. He<br />
has since applied this knowledge<br />
to Na + transport in roots, with<br />
the aim of increasing the salinity<br />
tolerance of crops.<br />
His work has been cellular<br />
and reverse genetic in nature,<br />
and he is now relieved to be<br />
able to add a forward genetic<br />
approach at the ACPFG.<br />
Genotyping is identifying the genetic<br />
features of an organism.<br />
Na + is the symbol for sodium ions, which<br />
is the form salt takes in plants.<br />
Over-expression is an increase in the expression<br />
of a gene. Expression is the process by which the<br />
instructions in genes are used to create proteins.<br />
Segregation, in genetics, is when more than one form<br />
of a gene will assort randomly during reproduction.<br />
Stelar cells are in the central part of a plant’s root,<br />
immediately surrounding the vascular tissue.<br />
6<br />
7
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
Right: Nadim Shadiac harvesting antibodies<br />
Below: using antibodies to detect protein by western blot<br />
Bottom: antibody-rich media derived from<br />
a monoclonal hybridoma cell line<br />
By Nadim Shadiac<br />
The ACPFG has a world-class monoclonal<br />
antibody unit that is essential for the<br />
work of our researchers. Through this<br />
facility, links have been established<br />
with researchers from agricultural<br />
institutes in Australia and overseas.<br />
The unit is exceptional within the ACPFG<br />
because it deals mainly with animal<br />
cells, rather than plants.<br />
What is it about monoclonal<br />
antibodies that make them so<br />
useful for proteomics in agriculture<br />
The answer is specificity.<br />
Each antibody is capable of recognising<br />
only one site on a particular<br />
protein. This gives researchers a<br />
very powerful tool for studying<br />
their protein of interest.<br />
The antibodies allow us<br />
to collect information on the<br />
structure, chemical modifications<br />
and conformation of target<br />
proteins in plants. Antibodies<br />
also allow us to show a protein’s<br />
location at both cellular and tissue<br />
levels, measure the amount of<br />
cialised. Lymphocytes are taken<br />
from the mouse and fused to<br />
cancerous myeloma cells, because<br />
lymphocytes cannot survive alone<br />
in culture. The fused cells are<br />
known as hybridomas. We can<br />
then screen for individual cells<br />
producing the antibody of interest<br />
and since the hybridoma cells<br />
are immortal, we can grow and<br />
culture them indefinitely while<br />
they produce the antibody.<br />
As well as the methods mentioned<br />
above, there are several<br />
procedures during the process<br />
that enable the completion of a<br />
given antibody project. Techniques<br />
such as the enzyme-linked<br />
immunosorbent assay (ELISA)<br />
and western blotting are used for<br />
quality control throughout the<br />
development of antibodies.<br />
The ACPFG has well-established<br />
systems in place to handle<br />
all stages of monoclonal and<br />
polyclonal antibody development.<br />
Two temperature-regulated carbon<br />
dioxide incubators provide a<br />
Affinity chromatography is a biochemical<br />
method that separates and purifies a<br />
particular protein from a mixed sample.<br />
An antibody is a protein produced<br />
by the body’s immune system that<br />
recognises and helps fight antigens.<br />
An antigen is a foreign substance, such<br />
as a protein, that stimulates an immune<br />
response when introduced into the body.<br />
An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay<br />
(ELISA) is a biochemical method that detects<br />
the presence of antigens or antibodies.<br />
Antibody encounters: what mice can tell us about plants<br />
“Each antibody is capable of recognising<br />
only one site on a particular protein. This<br />
gives researchers a very powerful tool<br />
for studying their protein of interest”<br />
protein and determine the identity<br />
of their binding partners.<br />
As far as the ACPFG goes,<br />
the most common types of proteins<br />
studied are those involved<br />
in abiotic stress responses in<br />
cereals. Combined with simple<br />
affinity chromatography techniques,<br />
the antibodies can<br />
help purify these stress-related<br />
proteins from the plant.<br />
So how are monoclonal antibodies<br />
made The process, which<br />
typically takes four to six months<br />
per project, relies on the immune<br />
system of a laboratory mouse.<br />
Researchers are able to produce<br />
the protein of interest artificially,<br />
outside of a plant. They can introduce<br />
the artificial protein into the<br />
mouse, stimulating an immune<br />
response. This protein ‘antigen’<br />
travels through the circulation<br />
system and is channelled through<br />
the spleen where the lymphocyte<br />
cells recognise the foreign protein<br />
and produce antibodies against it.<br />
Researchers can then use these<br />
antibodies to study how this same<br />
protein behaves in its native state<br />
– that is, in the plant.<br />
In the stages that follow, the<br />
technology becomes highly spe-<br />
home for the delicate cell cultures.<br />
Cryogenic storage vessels allow<br />
for the safekeeping of around 800<br />
individual cell lines at any given<br />
time. An animal housing facility<br />
is located on the Waite campus,<br />
allowing us to easily exchange<br />
animal materials.<br />
The monoclonal antibody<br />
unit is a fundamental part of<br />
most ACPFG research programs,<br />
even though mouse spleens and<br />
cancer cells might not come to<br />
mind when you think of drought<br />
or salinity problems in crops!<br />
Nadim Shadiac is the program<br />
leader for the ACPFG’s<br />
monoclonal antibody unit. He<br />
is responsible for coordinating<br />
all antibody projects for the<br />
centre and external organisations.<br />
Nadim’s background is<br />
in protein chemistry, having<br />
completed a Biotechnology<br />
degree with the University of<br />
Adelaide, followed by Honours<br />
in Biochemistry in 2002. In his<br />
Honours degree Nadim worked<br />
on viral proteins involved in<br />
suppressing the human immune<br />
response. <strong>2006</strong> is his fourth year<br />
at the Waite Campus.<br />
A hybridoma is a cell made from the fusion of<br />
a spleen cell and myeloma cell, which can<br />
be cloned and maintained indefinitely in cell<br />
culture to produce monoclonal antibodies.<br />
Lymphocytes are white blood cells<br />
responsible for producing antibodies<br />
during an immune response.<br />
Monoclonal antibodies are artificially<br />
produced antibodies, designed to<br />
target a specific antigen.<br />
Western blotting is a technique for identifying<br />
a particular protein using antibodies,<br />
after proteins have been separated using<br />
electrophoresis and transferred onto a sheet.<br />
8<br />
Antibody-producing hybridoma cells under the microscope<br />
9
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
Salt researchers (from left) Dr Alex Johnson, Dr Olivier Cotsaftis, Professor Mark Tester and Darren Plett<br />
The ACPFG turns to dwarves to improve nitrogen use<br />
By Dr Trevor Garnett<br />
The ACPFG has a new project aimed at<br />
improving the way plants use nitrogen, which<br />
uses information from dwarf corn plants.<br />
Plants need plenty of nitrogen<br />
to grow properly, as the nutrient<br />
plays a role in almost all plant<br />
activities. To satisfy this need,<br />
farmers worldwide apply about 90<br />
million tonnes of nitrogen fertiliser<br />
to croplands each year. The reason<br />
farmers have to add this much<br />
nitrogen is that many agricultural<br />
crops are very inefficient at using<br />
it. For example, cereals use only<br />
30 per cent of the nitrogen that is<br />
applied as fertiliser.<br />
Apart from being economically<br />
wasteful, this practice is<br />
also costly to the environment.<br />
Nitrogen pollution of waterways<br />
is a worsening problem worldwide.<br />
Nitrogen fertiliser use adds<br />
to greenhouse gases through the<br />
emission of nitrous oxide, a gas<br />
with more than 300 times the<br />
global warming power of carbon<br />
dioxide 1 , which by conservative<br />
estimates accounts for more than<br />
seven per cent of the human-influenced<br />
greenhouse effect 2 .<br />
Why are crops so bad at using<br />
nitrogen It may be that, by breeding<br />
for crops that have high yields<br />
when there is plenty of nitrogen<br />
available, we have created<br />
inefficient plants.<br />
ACPFG researchers, in collaboration<br />
with Pioneer Hi-Bred in<br />
the US, are aiming to improve the<br />
nitrogen use efficiency of cereals.<br />
We hope to do this by increasing<br />
the efficiency of mechanisms<br />
that plants use to accumulate and<br />
utilise nitrogen.<br />
Focusing on corn, the project<br />
will characterise nitrogen-related<br />
processes at the physiological,<br />
biochemical and molecular levels<br />
across plants’ lifecycles. The<br />
goal is to work out what makes<br />
a more nitrogen-efficient plant,<br />
Dr Trevor Garnett caressing the silks of a corn plant<br />
and ultimately make plants with<br />
these attributes.<br />
Important nitrogen processes<br />
happen throughout a plant’s<br />
lifetime, and given that corn<br />
grows to about two metres tall,<br />
this makes it a difficult plant to<br />
work with. Fortunately, the<br />
project uses a dwarf variety that<br />
grows to less than half a metre,<br />
but otherwise behaves like<br />
non-dwarf plants.<br />
“...farmers worldwide<br />
apply about 90<br />
million tonnes of<br />
nitrogen fertiliser to<br />
croplands each year”<br />
The research uses a multifaceted<br />
approach including classical<br />
plant physiology and biochemistry<br />
teamed with transcriptomics to<br />
define the rate-limiting steps in<br />
nitrogen use efficiency, and cellspecific<br />
gene activation to modify<br />
nitrogen use efficiency.<br />
The project, lead by Dr<br />
Brent Kaiser from the University<br />
of Adelaide and the ACPFG’s<br />
Professor Mark Tester will<br />
benefit from access to the<br />
extensive germplasm and bioinformatics<br />
resources of Pioneer<br />
Hi-Bred’s corn breeding programs.<br />
This association will also be<br />
important in delivering improved<br />
plants to farmers.<br />
References<br />
1. http://www.greenhouse.crc.org.au/<br />
2. http://www.fertilizer.org/ifa/<br />
Dr Trevor Garnett has recently joined<br />
the ACPFG to manage the nitrogen<br />
use efficiency project. He is<br />
a plant physiologist specialising<br />
in plant nutrition.<br />
Dr Garnett was an undergraduate<br />
at the University of Adelaide<br />
before doing a PhD in Tasmania<br />
on the nitrogen nutrition of forest<br />
Eucalypts.<br />
Before joining the ACPFG, he<br />
worked for the South Australian<br />
Research and Development<br />
Institute, where he managed a<br />
project funded by the Australian<br />
Centre for International<br />
Agricultural Research. The project<br />
collaborated with Chinese and<br />
Laotian scientists with the goal of<br />
finding lucerne that could grow<br />
in stressful environments.<br />
His research at the ACPFG<br />
will focus on characterising the<br />
processes that limit nitrogen use<br />
efficiency in plants and working<br />
out how they can be improved.<br />
Left, a dwarf corn, and right, a normal corn,<br />
planted at the same time.<br />
New salt tolerance project<br />
links Australia and France<br />
Researchers at the ACPFG and CIRAD (French<br />
Centre de Coopération Internationale<br />
en Recherche Agronomique pour le<br />
Développement) are working together,<br />
thanks to a new grant.<br />
The French-Australian Science<br />
and Technology Programme has<br />
provided funds for ACPFG researchers<br />
Dr Alex Johnson, Dr Olivier<br />
Cotsaftis, Professor Mark Tester<br />
and a student to travel and<br />
work at the French centre.<br />
Dr Emmanuel Guiderdoni,<br />
ano-ther collaborator and a<br />
French student will come from<br />
CIRAD to the ACPFG.<br />
The joint research project uses<br />
a cell type-specific transgene<br />
expression system in rice to investigate<br />
and improve salinity tolerance<br />
mechanisms in cereals. The workload<br />
is shared between the centres,<br />
with molecular cloning and plant<br />
evaluation happening at ACPFG,<br />
and plant transformation and seed<br />
bulking at CIRAD.<br />
Professor Guiderdoni will<br />
come to Adelaide in August, and<br />
the ACPFG researchers will go to<br />
France later this year.<br />
“This project is just the first<br />
of what we hope will be several<br />
collaborations between CIRAD<br />
and ACPFG,” Dr Johnson said.<br />
“...to investigate and<br />
improve salinity tolerance<br />
mechanisms in cereals”<br />
10<br />
11
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
The World Lifesaving Championships, with the Lorne Genome Conference building in the background<br />
What would attract an ACPFG<br />
researcher to Lorne, Victoria in<br />
the middle of February <strong>2006</strong><br />
View from the Great Ocean Road<br />
By Margaret Pallotta<br />
Would it be the spectacle of hundreds of<br />
very fit beach-lovers competing in Rescue<br />
<strong>2006</strong>, the World Lifesaving Championships<br />
Well, that was certainly an attraction, but<br />
there were as many thrills at the 27th Lorne<br />
Genome Conference which I attended!<br />
This friendly conference is<br />
held annually at Lorne over<br />
a few days, and provides a<br />
good opportunity to compare<br />
current genomics research<br />
activities across many fields.<br />
Most delegates are from the<br />
human and animal research worlds<br />
and it’s interesting to talk to them<br />
about the things we can do in plant<br />
research. They are sometimes<br />
more than a little envious of the<br />
amount of genetic manipulation<br />
we are ethically able to do with<br />
plants in our attempts to unravel<br />
gene function. The resources and<br />
methodologies available to plant<br />
researchers mean that in some<br />
areas of genomics research we are<br />
at the forefront of discovery.<br />
The benefit of interaction<br />
between researchers from different<br />
areas was highlighted for me in<br />
an inspiring talk given by Dr<br />
Geoffrey McFadden, who has a<br />
botany background and whose<br />
group was the first to recognize the<br />
similarity between chloroplasts of<br />
plants and a non-photosynthetic<br />
plastid of malaria parasites. The<br />
parasite plastid arose by endosymbiosis<br />
of a photosynthetic<br />
bacterium, and this realization<br />
has lead to numerous excellent<br />
new drug targets that show huge<br />
potential in the fight against this<br />
problematic disease.<br />
Dr Peter Fraser, head of the<br />
Laboratory of Chromatin and<br />
Gene Expression at the Babraham<br />
Institute in Cambridge, showcased<br />
some spectacular cytological<br />
work by his lab on ‘transcription<br />
factories’ located in nuclear subcompartments.<br />
The results from<br />
their studies of 30 different genes<br />
on 8 chromosomes suggest that<br />
“The link between<br />
medical research and<br />
plant research is strong”<br />
gene recruitment to transcription<br />
factories is non-random, with<br />
specific subsets of co-expressed<br />
genes preferentially co-associating<br />
in factories.<br />
The link between medical<br />
research and plant research<br />
is strong. Nutritious foods are<br />
an important part of preventative<br />
health care, and it’s worth<br />
remembering that all the lives<br />
saved or lengthened through<br />
medical research inevitably<br />
leads to greater requirements<br />
for food… plant research will<br />
always be important!<br />
Margaret Pallotta works in the Core<br />
Technologies section of the<br />
ACPFG, offering genetic analysis<br />
support for researchers. In addition<br />
she is currently working on<br />
the analysis of an extensive barley<br />
transposon-tagged population.<br />
She has previously worked for<br />
the University of Adelaide and<br />
CSIRO Plant Industry.<br />
12<br />
13
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
ACPFG student in the spotlight<br />
Node’s new home at La Trobe<br />
The Victorian Department of Primary<br />
Industries (DPI) node of the ACPFG at La<br />
Trobe University recently moved to the new<br />
Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre (VABC) at<br />
the university’s Research and Development<br />
Park, in Bundoora.<br />
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks<br />
launched the $20 million dollar<br />
centre in February, and said the<br />
environment that promotes<br />
effective interactions, networks<br />
and the incubation of spin off<br />
companies,” he said.<br />
As well as DPI staff associated<br />
with the ACPFG and the Victorian<br />
Centre for Plant Functional<br />
Genomics, the centre is home<br />
to the Victorian Microarray<br />
VABC would cement the state’s Technology Consortium,<br />
reputation as an international<br />
biotechnology leader.<br />
the Victorian Bioinformatics<br />
Consortium, Florigene Ltd,<br />
The ACPFG Principal Investigator<br />
Professor German<br />
Spangenberg is also the<br />
VABC chairman. He said the<br />
VABC will enhance the science<br />
“...an international<br />
biotechnology leader”<br />
Above: Education Officer Marie Thorpe running a Get into Genes workshop at the VABC opening<br />
Main: Visit to the microarray technology facility at the VABC. From left: Prof German Spangenberg, DPI<br />
Bundoora; State Member for Bundoora, Sheryl Garbutt; Minister for Agriculture,<br />
Bob Cameron; Minister for Innovation, John Brumby and Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks<br />
and technology base and<br />
innovation capability of Australia’s<br />
agricultural biotechnology<br />
sector.<br />
“The VABC co-locates and<br />
clusters academic and commercial<br />
research and development<br />
groups in the sector, fostering an<br />
GE Healthcare Biosciences and<br />
the head office of the Molecular<br />
Plant Breeding Cooperative<br />
Research Centre.<br />
It is also the base for the Get<br />
into Genes education program<br />
in Victoria.<br />
Stills from the SA Great television commercial<br />
By Fleur Dolman<br />
Earlier this year the ACPFG was approached<br />
by SA Great to represent science in its latest<br />
media campaign.<br />
The campaign, called ‘Now<br />
and in the future…SA Great’,<br />
looked at South Australian creativity<br />
and innovation in art, science<br />
and technology.<br />
The ACPFG was asked to<br />
choose a young, emerging scientist<br />
from their research team,<br />
and I was lucky enough to get<br />
the gig. Being involved in a<br />
television commercial and<br />
photographic shoot was a new<br />
experience for me and I thoroughly<br />
enjoyed it.<br />
It was fun having my hair<br />
and make-up professionally<br />
perfected. I had to laugh when<br />
the crew applauded me for my<br />
‘excellent afternoon’s work’ which<br />
consisted of sitting, standing and<br />
smiling whilst being fussed over.<br />
It was tough but I think I could<br />
get used to it!<br />
My ‘manager’ Belinda Barr<br />
supervised the vast amount of<br />
“...my headless body<br />
is dotted around<br />
Adelaide on billboards<br />
and buses!”<br />
camera footage shot as well as<br />
the four rolls of photographs.<br />
Unfortunately, SA Great decided to<br />
use a photograph in which my face<br />
is hidden by a massive light globe<br />
for the campaign. Now my headless<br />
body is dotted around Adelaide on<br />
billboards and buses!<br />
Luckily the commercial is great<br />
and the ACPFG is getting excellent<br />
media exposure. It’s fantastic that<br />
SA Great has given us the opportunity<br />
to be in the campaign. The<br />
print advertisement, featured<br />
above, gives a bit more information<br />
and if you catch the television<br />
advertisement, you can hear me<br />
and actually see my head for a<br />
few seconds!<br />
Fleur Dolman is completing her<br />
PhD at the ACPFG, studying<br />
plant cytosolic thioredoxins.<br />
She is also regularly involved<br />
in ACPFG education and communication<br />
events. Fleur has<br />
a Bachelor of Biotechnology<br />
from Flinders University with<br />
Honours, for which she studied<br />
kinase signalling cascade genes<br />
in grapevines.<br />
14<br />
15
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
Get into Genes trialled in Queensland<br />
By Belinda Barr<br />
After successfully delivering Get into<br />
Genes in South Australia for the past three<br />
years the ACPFG and Molecular Plant<br />
Breeding Cooperative Research Centre<br />
(MPBCRC) are looking to run Get into Genes<br />
on a national level.<br />
We have successfully expanded<br />
into Victoria, with the<br />
appointment of a joint ACPFG/<br />
MPBCRC Education Officer,<br />
Marie Thorpe, and we are now<br />
looking for further opportunities<br />
throughout Australia.<br />
So we headed up to sunny<br />
Queensland – of course the<br />
weather was a major drawcard,<br />
but we also were invited up there<br />
by potential delivery partners and<br />
the ACPFG Queensland node.<br />
As well as attending a successful<br />
number of meetings, MPBCRC’s<br />
Dr Amanda Able and I ran five<br />
Get into Genes sessions with the<br />
local schools. Kelvin Grove State<br />
College was the first point of call.<br />
Here’s what some of the students<br />
had to say…<br />
“In March, Kelvin Grove<br />
biology students participated<br />
in the Get into Genes<br />
program. This involved small<br />
experimental work stations<br />
designed to show us how<br />
DNA plays an important role<br />
in modern agriculture.<br />
It was particularly interesting<br />
to understand how DNA can<br />
be used to identify characteristics<br />
of an organism<br />
and how these can lead to<br />
improvements in crops”<br />
Jordan Reutas, Year 12 »<br />
“I was lucky enough to<br />
join Ms Gosney’s year<br />
12 biology class to<br />
do experiments<br />
on DNA. My<br />
favourite part was using<br />
the electrophoresis tank.<br />
We used a micropipette<br />
to fill the wells in the<br />
electrophoresis gel. It was<br />
a great challenge to get<br />
it accurate. It was a good<br />
experience and sparked my<br />
interest in biotechnology. “<br />
« Amy Mullaly, Year 9<br />
A big thanks to Bruce Stevens<br />
from Education Queensland,<br />
and Dr Stephanie Williams<br />
from the Australian Research<br />
Council Centre of Excellence for<br />
Integrated Legume Research, for<br />
teeing up the workshops with the<br />
Queensland schools.<br />
We are negotiating with organisations<br />
to collaborate and deliver<br />
Get into Genes in Queensland,<br />
and are confident it will be up<br />
and running by the end of <strong>2006</strong>.<br />
Watch this space!<br />
The ACPFG exhibit at a<br />
careers fair in Queensland<br />
Students lining up to enter the University<br />
of New South Wales careers fair<br />
“...aiming to attract<br />
more quality Honours<br />
and PhD students from<br />
around the country”<br />
Getting graduates<br />
By Cobi Smith<br />
Throughout autumn the ACPFG education and<br />
communication team travelled Australia on<br />
the graduate careers fairs circuit.<br />
Our new ‘transform your<br />
career’ exhibit was rolled out<br />
at universities in Queensland,<br />
New South Wales, the Australian<br />
Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria<br />
and South Australia, all in about<br />
a fortnight.<br />
This is the first year the ACPFG<br />
has attended graduate careers<br />
fairs outside of Adelaide, aiming<br />
to attract more quality Honours<br />
and PhD students from around the<br />
country. There were few scientific<br />
organisations represented at the<br />
fairs, so our presence was a welcome<br />
sight for science students<br />
looking for career guidance.<br />
Trying to cover so many events<br />
in a short space of time was a<br />
logistical challenge. We covered<br />
as many universities with strong<br />
biotechnology and science programs<br />
as we could, given our<br />
small team. Hopefully next year<br />
we’ll make it to universities that<br />
missed out this time.<br />
The ACT ‘Tertiary to Work’<br />
fair, which incorporates every<br />
university in the capital, was the<br />
first on the calendar in mid March.<br />
I lugged our banners and brochures<br />
out to the Australian Institute of<br />
Sport where the event was held,<br />
accompanied by PhD student<br />
Caitlyn Byrt, who is now based in<br />
Canberra. Students there showed<br />
a lot of interest, particularly in the<br />
summer scholarship program.<br />
The following week was the<br />
most hectic, in which I covered<br />
Queensland while Belinda headed<br />
to New South Wales, with ACPFG<br />
staff Fleur Dolman, Katrina Smoult<br />
and Darren Plett holding the fort at<br />
universities in South Australia.<br />
The response in Queensland<br />
was overwhelming: I ran out of<br />
publicity material on the first day<br />
and had to get boxes sent ahead<br />
to other universities.<br />
There was a lot of interest from<br />
bioinformatics students, so it was<br />
fortunate that PhD bioinformatics<br />
student Nikki Appelby was on hand<br />
at the University of Queensland to<br />
answer questions.<br />
Luckily Belinda had time<br />
to restock after New South<br />
Wales before spreading the love<br />
of science in Victoria the following<br />
week.<br />
Hopefully the student interest<br />
displayed at careers fairs will result<br />
in more applications for PhD<br />
scholarships in 2007. Regardless,<br />
we’ve increased awareness of<br />
ACPFG scholarship opportunities<br />
amongst eligible students,<br />
and reassured anxious science<br />
students that there are careers out<br />
there for them!<br />
16<br />
17
ACPFG VECTOR ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN <strong>2006</strong><br />
New Faces<br />
New Faces<br />
Dr Simon Conn<br />
Jeremy Pinyon<br />
I recently completed my PhD at the Flinders University<br />
in Adelaide. During my PhD I identified the major<br />
anthocyanin transport and storage pathways and<br />
characterised their influence on the accumulation of<br />
anthocyanins in grape suspension cells.<br />
I joined the ACPFG in February <strong>2006</strong> as a post-doc to<br />
work on the joint project with Pioneer Hi-Bred, looking at<br />
nitrogen use efficiency in maize.<br />
Last year I graduated from a Bachelor of Biotechnology at<br />
the University of Adelaide, where I learnt of the ACPFG<br />
through its affiliation with the university.<br />
I enjoyed my scholarship with the ACPFG over<br />
the summer break, under the expert supervision of<br />
Dr Andrew Jacobs. I was warmly welcomed by the<br />
helpful and friendly Fincher lab and have continued<br />
on, starting Honours here in January.<br />
I’m characterising rice promoters with a focus on salt<br />
tolerance. My project has been divided into two parts: firstly<br />
confirming the expression specificity of some proposed<br />
tissue-specific rice promoters, then identifying the expression<br />
patterns of promoters that will be isolated from HKT<br />
genes, which direct the sodium ion transporter in rice.<br />
Dr Delphine Fleury<br />
I am originally from Brittany in France, where I obtained my<br />
Master of Chemistry and Plant Biology, studying the genetic<br />
diversity of Agropyron. I also did a degree in Genetics<br />
and Plant Production at the French National Institute of<br />
Agronomical Research, where I worked on the salt resistance<br />
of Pseudomonas.<br />
I then joined the Plant Biotechnology Institute<br />
of Toulouse for my PhD. There I worked on sunflowers<br />
for two seed companies, constructing genetic maps and<br />
identifying quantitative trait loci for physiological traits and<br />
pathogen resistance.<br />
In 2002, I did postdoctoral research at Ghent University<br />
in Belgium, looking at the phenotype and gene expression<br />
profiles of Arabidopsis leaf developmental mutants.<br />
After 4 years of cold and rain in Belgium I was happy to<br />
move to Adelaide and come back to crop research in the<br />
ACPFG. Here I’m looking at the structure and behaviour<br />
of wheat and barley genomes.<br />
Katrina Smoult<br />
My association with ACPFG began after my second undergraduate<br />
year at the University of Adelaide. I did a summer<br />
scholarship with Dr Juan Juttner, we looked at abiotic<br />
stresses affecting barley. I enjoyed my time at the centre<br />
and returned the following summer, working with Dr Stuart<br />
Roy, on salt stress in Arabidopsis. Having graduated with<br />
a Bachelor of Biotechnology, I am now doing my honours<br />
year in Professor Mark Tester’s lab.<br />
As part of the salt focus research group, my project<br />
involves exploring the effects of constitutive and cell-type<br />
specific expression of sodium transporters and how this<br />
can affect sodium accumulation in rice.<br />
Teerachai Kuntothom<br />
I was born and raised in Khon Kaen, a province in northeastern<br />
Thailand. I have a Bachelor of Science in Biology<br />
and a Master of Science in Molecular Biology. I am currently<br />
completing my PhD in Biochemistry under the supervision<br />
of Associate Professor James Ketudat Cairns at Suranaree<br />
University in Thailand.<br />
At the ACPFG I am learning techniques of protein<br />
chemistry, molecular modeling and enzyme kinetics in<br />
Professor Fincher’s laboratory, under the supervision of<br />
Associate Professor Maria Hrmova.<br />
I am studying relationships between the structure and<br />
function of rice and barley β-D-glucosidases, with the ultimate<br />
aim of generating altered enzymes with modified substrate<br />
specificities via structure-based genetic engineering.<br />
Joanna Sundstrom<br />
My undergraduate years were spent at the North Terrace<br />
campus of the University of Adelaide where I completed<br />
a Bachelor of Biotechnology with Honours.<br />
In my Honours project I investigated the genetic control<br />
of cotton fibre development, characterising two putative<br />
fibre-specific transcription factors.<br />
I have just started my PhD with Professor Mark Tester<br />
in the salt focus group. I am investigating how changes to<br />
gene expression in specific root cell types of Arabidopsis<br />
affect the accumulation of various ions in the shoot.<br />
Initially this will involve identifying the genes that<br />
Gehan Safwat has randomly activated in particular root cell<br />
types, which have generated plants with altered ion<br />
levels in the shoots.<br />
Marie Thorpe<br />
Dr Gang Ma<br />
I graduated from the University of Adelaide with a PhD in<br />
molecular biology, during which I published several papers.<br />
I’ve been involved in plant breeding research, particularly<br />
wheat, in both China and Australia.<br />
While working as a visiting scientist at the Waite Campus I<br />
was involved in a Grains Research and Development Council<br />
project, studying aluminium toxicity under high pH, which is<br />
a major abiotic factor for crops in southern Australia.<br />
I was also involved in two Australian Research Council<br />
projects, studying insect immunity and biodiversity using<br />
molecular biology approaches.<br />
I’m currently studying the response of barley cell wallrelated<br />
genes to abiotic stress factors, using functional<br />
genomic strategies.<br />
As a child, I used my blackboard and a packet of coloured<br />
chalk to ‘teach’ anyone who cared to listen. I always said I<br />
wanted to be a teacher when I grew up — until the year in<br />
high school when I discovered the work of Gregor Mendel.<br />
In typically adolescent fashion, I abandoned my first love<br />
for a new one: genetics.<br />
During my undergraduate years at the University of<br />
Melbourne, I was taught by several exceptional scientists<br />
who reinforced my fascination with genetics. Human genetics<br />
has been my main professional interest for over 15 years.<br />
I have also taught for short periods, at primary, secondary,<br />
tertiary and adult levels. But it was only after I<br />
completed my Master of Education in 2002 that education<br />
returned to the foreground.<br />
Since then I have developed two programs for primary<br />
school students and written genetics units for the National<br />
Science Literacy Testing scheme.<br />
I am delighted to now be part of the Get into Genes<br />
team and to have the opportunity to bring this excellent<br />
educational program to Victorian students.<br />
Anzu Okada<br />
Hui Zhou<br />
I completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours and a Master<br />
of Science in agricultural science at Tohoku University in<br />
Japan, where I researched transgenic rice seeds that produce<br />
recombinants for a cedar pollen allergen, as a future remedy<br />
for pollen allergies.<br />
After my degree I married and moved to Melbourne<br />
with my husband, where I worked as a research assistant<br />
in the plant molecular biology lab of the University<br />
of Melbourne. I focused on wheat regeneration and<br />
transformation using mature wheat embryos.<br />
I moved to Adelaide one year ago and<br />
enjoyed a relaxing life. I recently travelled to my long time<br />
dream destinations, China’s ‘Silk Road’ and Northern Pakistan.<br />
However I found myself missing laboratory work.<br />
Now I’m very happy to join this fantastic centre.<br />
I’m working with Dr Thorsten Schnurbusch on a<br />
map based cloning project to research the Boron<br />
tolerance gene, Bo1, of wheat.<br />
I am a new Technical Assistant working with Bu-Jun on the<br />
construction of bacterial artificial chromosome libraries.<br />
I received my undergraduate degree from Heilongjiang<br />
University, China in 2001, and Master degree from<br />
Qigihar University, China, in 2004. I then worked as a<br />
lecturer at Heilongjiang University for a year.<br />
I previously focused on molecular biology, especially<br />
on the cloning and expression of a gene (VP2) from<br />
an infectious bursal disease virus.<br />
I came to Australia in 2005 as a dependent of my<br />
husband, who is completing his PhD at the CSIRO, on<br />
the Waite campus.<br />
I like Australia, especially Adelaide. I feel very<br />
lucky that I have the chance to work at the ACPFG,<br />
which I believe is one of the best places to work<br />
in agricultural research in the world. I assure you<br />
that I will certainly make some contributions to<br />
the ACPFG!<br />
18<br />
19
ACPFG vector<br />
Keep an eye on the<br />
ACPFG website for the<br />
launch of the careers<br />
guide, featuring<br />
interviews with the<br />
people pictured here.<br />
Can you spot the<br />
ACPFG impostor<br />
THE MAGAZINE OF THE AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR PLANT FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS<br />
The International Triticeae Mapping Initiative and the Australian<br />
Centre for Plant Functional Genomics invite you to attend the<br />
<strong>2006</strong> ITMI workshop & ACPFG Genomics Symposium<br />
McCracken Country Club in Victor Harbour, South Australia<br />
27th–31st August <strong>2006</strong><br />
For registration details go to www.<strong>acpfg</strong>.com.au<br />
There’s more than just science at ACPFG symposiums<br />
<strong>2006</strong> Transformation Workshop<br />
17–21 July <strong>2006</strong>, at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus<br />
This workshop gives postgraduate students and researchers a<br />
practical and theoretical insight to the technologies used in<br />
transformation, tissue culture and genetic engineering.<br />
For registration details go to www.<strong>acpfg</strong>.com.au<br />
Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics<br />
PMB 1, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064<br />
To subscribe to Vector, the ACPFG magazine, send an email to reception@<strong>acpfg</strong>.com.au<br />
with your address and ‘subscribe to Vector’ in the subject, or post to the address above.<br />
The ACPFG vector is a quarterly publication.<br />
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