BY JONATHON PLETT

2017 GOLDACRE MEDAL WINNER

Growing up in the countryside of Ontario, Canada, Jonathan Plett was exposed to plants and planted environments from a very early age.  While a love for agriculture and ‘useful’ plants would come to fruition in his research career, Jonathan’s first induction into the world of plants was through flower gardening – a hobby introduced to him at the age of 10 by an English couple active within the local gardening club.  Over the years of working with plants, Jonathan became fascinated by the mechanics of how plants grew and flourished and how different environmental conditions affected these processes.

As early as the age of 12 Jonathan knew that he wanted to have a job working with plants in some form – his first science fair project was testing hydroponic systems for optimal plant growth.  Through his undergraduate work in college, this interest was further strengthened and led to a PhD in plant molecular biology.  This area of science has continued to fuel his imagination and to fascinate him to this day.  Jonathan did his PhD studies with Dr. Sharon Regan at Queen’s University in Canada where he studied the biological function of the plant hormone ethylene.  One aspect of this hormone was its huge role in plant:microbe interactions.  This led to a career shift in his post doctoral work and to his current position as a Lecturer in the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University where he considers the molecular mechanics of how plants interact with soil-borne microbes.

The goal of Jonathan’s research is to foster the relationship between symbiotic soil-borne micro-organisms and plants. These organisms increase plant productivity through improved nutrient availability and plant disease resistance. As intensified agricultural and forestry production is resulting in soils with reduced nutritional value and as plant diseases are becoming more virulent, growers and foresters are becoming more reliant on these symbiotic relationships to support the health and productivity of their plants.  Therefore, we need to select plants that will be able to gain the most from relationships with symbiotic micro-organisms. Currently we only have a rudimentary idea of the plant genetics that enable these symbiotic relationships to occur, let alone how we could select plants that foster these symbiotic relationships.  Jonathan’s research is addressing this critical lack of knowledge by studying the plant pathways targeted by symbiotic ‘effector’ proteins during the initial stages of the interaction between plants and micro-organisms.  Jonathan’s research has shown that these effectors, which are small-secreted microbial proteins, are used by mycorrhizal fungi to manipulate the plant immune response, thereby fostering symbiosis.  This means that the tactics used by mycorrhizal fungi to gain access to their host tissues mirror those of pathogenic organisms, with the production of proteins used to overcome host defences (Plett et al., 2014a). Thus, in response, the plant has evolved mechanisms to defend itself from excessive ingrowth of mycorrhizal hyphae, while still enjoying the beneficial aspects of the relationship.

Jonathan’s work has shown that the plant uses two classic plant hormone pathways: jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene, to limit fungal growth within plant tissues (Plett et al., 2014b).  His work in the metabolic regulation during mycorrhizal colonization of plants has also shown that plants produce toxic secondary compounds to slow fungal growth and that only certain mycorrhizal fungi are able to overcome these defences by either metabolising the defence compound (Tschaplinski et al., 2014) or by inducing the expression of proteases and xenobiotic efflux pumps to weather the onslaught raised by the plant (Plett et al., 2015).  Altogether, the results of Jonathan’s work have led to a paradigm shift in how we understand the core relationship between plants and their associated mycorrhizal fungi. His data are now being used to screen new tree and, more recently, crop lines (Plett et al., 2016), to find the ‘sweet spot’ in immune defence that enables plants to maximise the benefits from mycorrhizal fungi without compromising disease resistance. The application of these findings will result in more productive tree plantations and better food security in crops.

Contact Information:

Email: j.plett@westernsydney.edu.au

Twitter: @FungiDownUnder

Website: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/hie/people/researchers/doctor_jonathan_plett

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Pg1MvmEAAAAJ&hl=en

Key References:

Plett JM, Daguerre Y, Wittulsky S, Deveau A, Melton SJ, Kohler A, Morrell-Falvey J, Brun A, Veneault-Fourrey C, Martin F. (2014a) The effector protein MiSSP7 of the mutualistic ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolorinteracts with PopulusJAZ proteins.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA. 111:8299-8304.

Plett JM, Khachane A, Ouassou M, Sundberg B, Kohler A, Martin F. (2014b)  Ethylene and jasmonic acid act as negative modulators during mutualistic symbiosis between Laccaria bicolor and Populus roots.  New Phytologist 202:270-286.

Plett JM, Tisserant E, Brun A, Morin E, Grigoriev IV, Kuo A, Martin F, Kohler A.  (2015)  The mutualist Laccaria bicolor expresses a core gene regulon during the colonization of diverse host plants and a variable regulon to counteract host-specific defenses. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions28:261-73.

Plett JM, Plett KL, Bithell SL, Mitchell C, Moore K, Powell JR, Anderson IC. (2016) Improved Phytophthoraresistance in commercial chickpea (Cicer arietinum) varieties negatively impacts symbiotic gene signaling and symbiotic potential in some varieties. Plant, Cell & Environment.39:1858–186.

Tschaplinski TJ, Plett JM, Engle NL, Deveau A, Cushman KC, Martin MZ, Doktycz MJ, Tuskan GA, Brun A, Kohler A, Martin F. (2014) Populus trichocarpa and Populus deltoidesexhibit different metabolomic responses to colonization by the symbiotic fungus Laccaria bicolor. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions27:546-556.

Hello ASPS members,

We have several new employment opportunities available here.

Graham Farquhar – Senior Australian 2018

Graham started 2018 with yet another award on Australia Day – Senior Australian for 2018. For those of you unfamiliar with Graham, he has previously won the Prime Minister’s prize for Science in 2015, the Macfarlane Burnett medal from the AAS in 2016 and the Kyoto prize in 2017, to name the most recent. These awards are in recognition of his work that has led to wheat varieties with improved water use efficiency and improved representation of climate change trends associated with evaporation. Plants and water feature in both.

Australia has a significant grain growing industry reliant on rainfall rather than irrigation. Annual rainfall is low and variable between years and plays a major role in setting the potential yield that farmers can achieve. Together with colleagues, Graham developed two theoretical frameworks: firstly, a mathematical model describing photosynthesis based around the biochemical properties of the enzyme Rubisco (Farquhar, von Caemmerer & Berry, 1980) and secondly, equations describing what determines the stable isotopic composition of plants (Farquhar, O’Leary & Berry, 1982). There are two stable isotopic forms for carbon, 12C and 13C, with about 1% of the CO2 in the atmosphere containing 13C. Graham realised that carbon isotope discrimination could provide a way of capturing information about how much water a plant chose to spend in order to gain carbon. It turns out that the 13C/12C ratio in plant material is linearly related to the ratio of carbon gained in photosynthesis to water lost during transpiration. The measurement of the 13C/12C ratio of plant material allowed the identification of contrasting wheat lines and a trait that could be selected. Collaboration with the CSIRO plant breeder Richard Richards led to the release of commercial cultivars with greater yield under water limiting conditions for which they shared the Rank Prize in 2014. The carbon isotope theory has proved useful in a number of ways, in agriculture, ecophysiology and global flux models.

With regard to climate change, Graham’s interest in crop water use extended to larger environmental scales and he realised that some model predictions arising from climate change were misleading. Rather than atmospheric warming leading to an increase in potential evaporation, observations from instruments used by the Bureau of Meteorology and by farmers to schedule irrigation suggested the opposite trend (Roderick and Farquhar 2002).

Graham conducts his research at the Australian National University. He has been a strong supporter of Functional Plant Biology, publishing much of his stable isotope work there and encouraging others to do so.

Farquhar GD, von Caemmerer S, Berry JA. 1980. A biochemical model of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation in leaves of C3 species. Planta 149: 78-90.

Farquhar GD, O’Leary MH, Berry JA. 1982. On the relationship between carbon isotope discrimination and the intercellular carbon dioxide concentration in leaves. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 9: 121-137.

Roderick ML, Farquhar GD. 2002. The cause of decreased pan evaporation over the past 50 years. Science 298: 1410-1411.

Dear ASPS members,

It seems like only yesterday I wrote to you in my new role of the Society’s President, and now it is time to wrap 2017 and reflect on events and achievements. Indeed, time flies.

For me the last 12 months have been extremely busy and rather hectic and I can bet that most of you will probably say the same. What worries me the most is that, in a constant chase of deadlines, we often do not have to time to enjoy what we are doing. The joy of getting some exciting result or having a grant funded or a paper accepted is usually short-lived and is soon replaced by a pressing need to meet yet another deadline. Do you have the same feeling?

To change this worrisome pattern I have decided to break the tradition of spending Sunday morning editing student’s papers (isn’t this our usual routine these days?) and spend a few minutes reflecting on what the Society has achieved in 2017.

The Combio meeting in Adelaide was a great success. Many thanks to all ASPS members involved in making it happening and, specifically, to Matt Gilliham and Rachel Burton who took a major workload in organizing this event. We are also looking forward towards equally successful Sydney meeting in 2018.

Many thanks to all of you who have managed to find a time in a busy schedule and attend AGM meeting at Combio. Those who can’t make it or did not attend the conference for one or another reason, can find a brief snapshot of major events and achievements in my report on ASPS website. Right now I want to briefly inform you on some progress made after the meeting, to implement new initiatives approved by the Society.

One of the central topics during the ASPS executive  meeting in Adelaide was an issue of a gender equality in plant science. In order to bridge the existing gap, we have decided to introduce a new award that will be given to an early or mid-career female researcher in recognition of outstanding research conducted subsequent to her PhD. This award is named after Jan Anderson – a pre-eminent scientist and a foundation member of this Society. Now I am very pleased to inform you that this award has been formally launched, and the application for the inaugural 2018 Anderson Award is opened from Dec 1, with submission deadline being Feb 28, 2018. For more details and submission guidelines please visit ASPS website. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to three of the sponsors of this award:  CSIRO Agriculture and Food, the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis. We are looking for your nominations and thrilled to celebrate excellence in research by our leading Society female members.

Talking about awards, the decision has been also made to introduce several discipline-specific awards given to ECR on a bi-annual basis. We are working on this right now and hope to finalize the rules in early 2018. I will keep you posted on progress.

I thank you all for your contribution to the Society and also for the front line work as a researcher you are doing to promote the image of Australian plant science. I wish you all the best for the new 2018 and hope you can soon get a well-deserved rest and enjoy a break.

Sergey Shabala

THE FULL PROGRAM AND FREE REGISTRATION ARE NOW OPEN for:

ACT Mass Spectrometry Symposium 2017, Tuesday November 28, 2017.

Get in QUICKLY because seats a strictly limited!

Description

The ACT Mass Spectrometry Symposium is intended as an interactive forum for experts and novices to discuss the application of mass spectrometry to solving problems and to allow the dissemination of current and future trends in the technology. The speakers represent academic and commercial backgrounds and will cover a wide range of applications as can be seen in the programme below.

Programme

8:55 am WELCOME

9:05 am Clayton Ross (Shimadzu):

Shimadzu GCMS TQ-8050 – Speed Without Compromise (Simultaneous MRM, SIM and SCAN)

9:30 am David DeSouza (Metabolomics Australia, VIC):

Comprehensive Metabolite Profiling by GC-QQQ: A Change in Approach

9:55 am Chris Fouracre (Agilent Technologies):

Revealing the New Ultivo Triple Quadrupole LC/MS

10:20 am David Beale (CSIRO Land & Water, QLD):

Expanding Characterization of Environmental Pollution and Ecosystem Health Using Metabolomic Approaches

10:45 am MORNING TEA BREAK

11:15 am Steve Binos (Thermo Fisher):

Orbitrap DIA; Beyond ID’s for your Proteomic Needs.

11:40 am Rikard Hedman (ANU Research School of Chemistry, ACT):

Detection of Sulfate Conjugated Compounds by Untargeted Mass Spectrometry

12:05 pm Nicole Pendini (Peak Scientific):

Gas Generators: the Safe Onsite Alternative to Cylinders and Dewars

12:30 pm LUNCH BREAK

1:30 pm Chris Hodgkins (AB Sciex):

SelexION®+; Improving Triple-Quadrupole Selectivity with Differential Mobility Spectrometry (DMS) to Reach Lower Limits of Quantitation.

1:55 pm Steve Van Sluyter (Macquarie University, NSW):

Absolute Quantification of Leaf Proteins on a Continental Scale Using SWATH

2:20 pm Heather Patsiouras (Waters):

Ion Mobility MS: Extending the Capability and Selectivity of MS

2:45 pm AFTERNOON TEA BREAK

3:00 pm Udo Rupprecht (Lasersan):

On-line Automated Sample Preparation for GC/MS and LC/MS

3:25pm John Foster (ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, ACT):

Development of Shrimp Ion Microprobe

3:50 pm Alex Donald (University of NSW School of Chemistry, NSW):

Highly Charged Protein Ions: The Strongest Acids to Date

4:15 pm Awards and Announcements

4:30-7:30 pm POST-SYMPOSIUM DRINKS and NIBBLES

 For More Information contact Adam Carroll

By

Viviana Rosati

Thanks to an ASPS Travel Award, I was able to attend the ComBio2017 conference this October in Adelaide, South Australia. It was personally and professionally fulfilling not only to be attending, but presenting, at my very first ComBio. The conference is the main forum for the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology (ANZSCDB), and the Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS), with the societies coming together for three days to promote the latest in research and education, as well as enable invaluable network opportunities.

For me, a highlight of the conference was the plenary Annals of Botany Lecture on the second day featuring Professor Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre. Professor Martin works to increase polyphenol phytonutrients in fruits: compounds with therapeutic properties that could potentially mitigate artherosclerosis and other inflammatory conditions. She emphatically stated: ‘Medicine is not healthcare, food is healthcare. Medicine is sickcare’ – an appropriate reminder for us all.

Over the next two days I attended an array of symposia including: Plant Energy Use Efficiency, Next-generation Phenotyping, Plant Walls and Membranes, Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Microbe-Plant Interactions, and Plant Reproductive Biology. All talks gave me vital insight into the current plant biology research being undertaken worldwide, and offered me several new avenues for my own research – particularly techniques to elucidate the molecular regulation of genes involved in emerging regulatory pathways. The conference delivered an impressive balance of graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, associate professors, and professors presenting their cutting-edge research or stories of discovery.

As part of the crop productivity symposium, I presented my research topic Drought Response in Low-Cyanogenic Sorghum bicolor Mutants; with the presentation being very well received. I took a number of questions during the allocated question time and was given valuable advice driving new exploration within the scope of my research program. It is now the fourth time within a two-year period that I have been a conference presenter. As one might expect, my confidence grows with each presentation and as I become more adept; and there is always a constant challenge to improve and hone my skills in order to deliver a story with a clear message that engages interest and drives impact.

I am extremely grateful to ASPS for providing funding that enabled me to attend the conference and present my research to the plant science community.

Contact: Viviana Rosati (viviana.rosati@monash.edu)

Registration now open!
41^st New Phytologist Symposium: Plant sciences for the future

11–13 April 2018, Nancy, France

https://www.newphytologist.org/symposia/41

The 41^st New Phytologist Symposium will provide new insights into the evolutionary forces and molecular mechanisms that govern plant development and physiology, and their interactions with biotic and abiotic cues.

Invited speakers from the New Phytologist Editorial Board will highlight emerging topics in plant sciences as well as the application of modern technologies to capture the complex mechanisms driving plant development, physiology, interactions and evolution.
Eighteen leading scientists will speak at the symposium along with early career researchers, selected to give talks following submission of poster abstracts. Travel grants are available.

Travel grant deadline: Thursday 18 January 2018
Poster abstract deadline: Thursday 8 February 2018

More details and registration at https://www.newphytologist.org/symposia/41.

By Florian Busch from the Australian National University, Canberra, ACT

During March 2017, parliament in Canberra became flooded with scientists of all kinds of flavours for two days as Science met Parliament in this annual event. This event aims at increasing the dialogue between politicians and scientists to increase the awareness and understanding of how STEM can drive Australia’s economic, social, environmental, and cultural future. I was lucky to be picked as one of two early/mid-career plant scientists representing the Australian Society of Plant Scientists. The two days were filled with quite unique experiences, including a full day of career development and preparation for meeting the parliamentarians, and then, of course, one big day in Parliament.

Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr. Alan Finkel opened the first day setting the scene for what to expect. This was followed by sessions on how science is turned into news and used to shape policy. The focus of the day, however, was on how to make the most of the little time we had for our meeting with the parliamentarians. How much science background could we expect? How detailed should we present our work during our meeting with the parliamentarians? In preparation, we paired up in small groups to practice our ‘elevator pitch’, where we were challenged to explain the nuances of our work in a minute or two, to people outside our fields of expertise. My major lesson from this exercise was discovering the fast pace at which politicians move from one topic to the next. This also turned out to be a great networking opportunity, allowing me to meet scientists from diverse fields of research across all of Australia. The highlight of the day, however, was a gala dinner at Parliament House, where we heard from the newly minted Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, The Hon Arthur Sinodinos, and the Leader of the Opposition, The Hon Bill Shorten, as how they might envision science in future politics.

On the second day, we were inspired by Australian of the Year, Prof. Alan Mackay-Sim, and had the chance to meet the Shadow Minister, The Hon Kim Carr. Lunch was broadcast live on TV at the National Press Club, where the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science was grilled with questions from the press. The definite highlight of the day was meeting our parliamentarians. I was paired up with two other scientists to meet with MP Craig Kelly. This is when practicing our ‘elevator pitch’ the day before paid off; I only had a few minutes to discuss the role of photosynthesis research in securing  food production before MP Craig Kelly ran off to his next meeting. He left us with a deep impression of how parliament works and, hopefully, we left him with some insights into how science works and can shape the economy.

Contact: Florian Busch (florian.busch@anu.edu.au) for further enquires.

Calling all early career plant scientists!

The New Phytologist Tansley Medal is awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to plant science by an early career researcher (student and post-doctoral researchers with up to five years’ experience since gaining/defending their PhD are eligible). The winner will receive a prize of £2000 (GBP) and will author a Tansley insight review that will be published in New Phytologist, accompanied by an Editorial announcing the winner and finalists. The application deadline for this year’s competition is 1 November 2017.

The Tansley Medal award is an opportunity to recognise an outstanding scientist in the early stages of their career, and supporting the next generation of plant scientists is one of the main activities of the New Phytologist Trust. Please support us in this endeavour by spreading the word to anyone you know who might be eligible to apply for the Tansley Medal award. If you have any queries regarding the medal or the submission process please do not hesitate to get in touch. More details on the Tansley Medal can be found at: https://www.newphytologist.org/tansleymedal.