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Global Plant Council February E Bulletin
06 March 2017
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Global Plant Council February E Bulletin
06 March 2017
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Antarctica trip? Apply by Feb 20th
10 February 2017
The Homeward Bound Initiative
By Sandra Kerbler
PhD Candidate at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology,
The University of Western Australia
If you could change one thing in the world today, what would it be? I’m sure many of you reading this will be thinking of certain political leaders right now, but what about the issues a little closer to home? The ones you face each and every day? What about those that are long engrained, such that we don’t even realise they are there sometimes? Seeing so many of my talented female colleagues leave science because it was just “too competitive” and that they “didn’t have what it takes,” the answer to this question was simple. For me, I would change the gender inequality in science and that’s why I took part in Homeward Bound.
Homeward Bound is a leadership and strategy program for women scientists, set against the backdrop of Antarctica. Created by Australian leadership expert Fabian Dattner in collaboration with Dr Jessica Melbourne-Thomas of the Australian Antarctic Division, the program aims to equip a 1000-strong global collaboration of women scientists with the ability to lead, influence and contribute to policy and decision making, over the next 10 years. Homeward Bound was an incredible experience for me. Not only did has it helped me develop the skills needed to succeed in the upper echelons of science, but being part of a larger collaborative of women, all with a science background and all at very different stages of their careers has been truly inspiring.
If you would similarly like to improve the gender inequality in science and enhance your ability to lead constructively, plan strategically and communicate effectively to both scientists and non-scientists alike, please consider applying for the next Homeward Bound voyage in 2018. Applications close on the 20th February, 2017. For more information, please visit: https://homewardboundprojects.com.au or alternatively contact me directly at: sandra.m.kerbler@gmail.com
Want to go to Antarctica? Apply by Feb 20
10 February 2017
The Homeward Bound Initiative
By Sandra Kerbler
PhD Candidate at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology,
The University of Western Australia
If you could change one thing in the world today, what would it be? I’m sure many of you reading this will be thinking of certain political leaders right now, but what about the issues a little closer to home? The ones you face each and every day? What about those that are long engrained, such that we don’t even realise they are there sometimes? Seeing so many of my talented female colleagues leave science because it was just “too competitive” and that they “didn’t have what it takes,” the answer to this question was simple. For me, I would change the gender inequality in science and that’s why I took part in Homeward Bound.
Homeward Bound is a leadership and strategy program for women scientists, set against the backdrop of Antarctica. Created by Australian leadership expert Fabian Dattner in collaboration with Dr Jessica Melbourne-Thomas of the Australian Antarctic Division, the program aims to equip a 1000-strong global collaboration of women scientists with the ability to lead, influence and contribute to policy and decision making, over the next 10 years. Homeward Bound was an incredible experience for me. Not only did has it helped me develop the skills needed to succeed in the upper echelons of science, but being part of a larger collaborative of women, all with a science background and all at very different stages of their careers has been truly inspiring.
If you would similarly like to improve the gender inequality in science and enhance your ability to lead constructively, plan strategically and communicate effectively to both scientists and non-scientists alike, please consider applying for the next Homeward Bound voyage in 2018. Applications close on the 20th February, 2017. For more information, please visit: https://homewardboundprojects.com.au or alternatively contact me directly at: sandra.m.kerbler@gmail.com
Homeward Bound
10 February 2017
The Homeward Bound Initiative
By Sandra Kerbler
PhD Candidate at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology,
The University of Western Australia
If you could change one thing in the world today, what would it be? I’m sure many of you reading this will be thinking of certain political leaders right now, but what about the issues a little closer to home? The ones you face each and every day? What about those that are long engrained, such that we don’t even realise they are there sometimes? Seeing so many of my talented female colleagues leave science because it was just “too competitive” and that they “didn’t have what it takes,” the answer to this question was simple. For me, I would change the gender inequality in science and that’s why I took part in Homeward Bound.
Homeward Bound is a leadership and strategy program for women scientists, set against the backdrop of Antarctica. Created by Australian leadership expert Fabian Dattner in collaboration with Dr Jessica Melbourne-Thomas of the Australian Antarctic Division, the program aims to equip a 1000-strong global collaboration of women scientists with the ability to lead, influence and contribute to policy and decision making, over the next 10 years. Homeward Bound was an incredible experience for me. Not only did has it helped me develop the skills needed to succeed in the upper echelons of science, but being part of a larger collaborative of women, all with a science background and all at very different stages of their careers has been truly inspiring.
If you would similarly like to improve the gender inequality in science and enhance your ability to lead constructively, plan strategically and communicate effectively to both scientists and non-scientists alike, please consider applying for the next Homeward Bound voyage in 2018. Applications close on the 20th February, 2017. For more information, please visit: https://homewardboundprojects.com.au or alternatively contact me directly at: sandra.m.kerbler@gmail.com
Media videos of Homeward Bound can be found here.
January GPC E-Bulletin
05 February 2017
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Cyclotides: small plant defence molecules to drive pharmaceutical innovation
01 February 2017
COMBIO 2016 winner of the ASPS Student Poster Awards
Georgianna Oguis
Institute for Molecular Bioscience – University of Queensland, Australia
Plants have evolved quite a number of ways to evade predators. An obvious strategy for an organism incapable of rapid movement out of danger is to produce toxins. Whilst the most notable plant defence molecules are small molecule secondary metabolites, there exists great many peptides that are also expressed in plants. One such class of these peptides are known as cyclotides, and these have special properties worth talking about. The discovery of cyclotides goes back to 1973 when Norwegian doctor Lorents Gran discovered that the active ingredient of the herbal tea African women drink in order to induce birth is apparently an ultrastable peptide that can survive boiling and oral ingestion1. Gran named the molecule kalata B1—after the local name of the plant kalata-kalata (Oldenlandia affinis). Since then many other cyclotide-related studies spawned. However, it was only in 1999 that the term “cyclotide” was coined; and these specifically pertain to head-to-tail cyclised plant peptides which have three disulfide bridges that are arranged to form a knotted topology2. Cyclotides are found to exhibit a range of biological activities including anthelminthic, cytotoxic, molluscicidal and antimicrobial activities3. Other than these, cyclotides have very promising applications both in agriculture and in peptide-based therapeutics—the former being the hypothesised evolutionary role as an insecticide and the latter which can be attributed to their ultrastable properties (brought about by its cyclic structure and knotted topology), thus be used as frameworks for peptide drug engineering.
Before the year concluded in 2016, the first cyclotide-based bioinsecticide called Sero-X was made commercially available. The product was developed and is being manufactured by the Australian-owned company InnovateAg. The insecticide is currently being applied to control pests on cotton and macadamia crops. Although there are yet no cyclotide-based peptide therapeutics on the market, the possibility of this scaffold appearing in a commercial product may not be that far off as several proofs of the concept have already been published3. The main idea behind this is to “graft” or replace a number of native cyclotide amino acids with specific sequences which can target cancer cells, adipocytes, cell receptors, and possibly many other targets. By having these sequences grafted into the cyclotide scaffold, we are able to create ultrastable peptide therapeutics that are highly specific and would not interfere with healthy cells. There is repeated emphasis on “ultrastability”, as this property is essential to improved peptide drug delivery and half-life. A particular peptide-based drug may be stable in vitro but when administered in vivo, an entire array of enzymes, compounds, acids and proteases plus the non-optimal environment can encumber peptide function, or lead to degradation. Another good point, or perhaps one of the best points of cyclotides, is that they are naturally produced in plants. This implies that we can utilise plants as biofactories for the production of these cyclotide-based therapeutics. The advantage of this plant-based system is that we are able to cheaply produce medicines in large quantities, making them affordable to all walks of life, especially to people in developing countries who will finally be given VIP access to life’s basic necessities.
My winning poster entry at ComBio 2016 entitled “The key drivers of cyclotide production in butterfly pea” is but a glimpse of a very big picture. I am part of a big group headed by Prof. David Craik, the driver of research in the areas of cyclotide therapeutic and plant biosynthesis of cyclotides. I would love to think of our group as a factory where we are categorised into several subgroups that are unified with a goal. For instance, the chemists and structural biologists synthesise and characterise the peptides. The cell biologists and biochemists subsequently test these peptides in vitro and in vivo. The molecular biologists and plant scientists then express the peptides of interest into the plants for possible mass production. I happened to be sitting at the end of the chain where my colleagues and I try to establish an optimised system for the production of pharmaceuticals in plants. The poster features one of the many aspects of production in plants we are looking at. In a nutshell, I want to know what drives cyclotide production in butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea), as this specific plant expresses chemically diverse cyclotides in all life stages and in such great abundance. Once I have characterised the key drivers, I can potentially use these to drive the production of cyclotide-based pharmaceuticals in other plant systems that are economically important. In other words, we need to identify the best driver to race the fastest car in a professional team, and hopefully cross that finish line first to bag the golden trophy.
References:
1 Gran L. On the effect of a polypeptide isolated from “Kalata-Kalata” (Oldenlandia affinis DC) on the oestrogen dominated uterus. Acta Pharmacol Toxicol. 1973;33:400–8.
2 Craik DJ, Daly NL, Bond T,Waine C. Plant cyclotides: a unique family of cyclic and knotted proteins that defines the cyclic cystine knot structural motif. J Mol Biol. 1999;294:1327–36.
3 Oguis GK, Kan MW, Craik DJ. Natural functions and structure-activity relationships of cyclotides. Adv Bot Res. 2015;76: 187-226.
Contact: Georgianna Oguis @ g.oguis@imb.uq.edu.au
miR156-targeted SPLs as repressors for transfer cell development in Arabidopsis?
29 December 2016
by Suong Nguyen, The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Although it has been two months since ComBio2016, my memory of all the events occurring at the
Suong’s poster awarded at ComBio2016 … and on her birthday!
conference is still fresh as if they happened just yesterday. These were the feelings of admiration, fascination and enjoyment attending plenary lectures, symposia, colloquia and poster teasers, and the pleasurable meetings and conversations I had with colleagues and friends during lunchtime and break-times. Particularly, during the poster sections, I had great opportunities to talk to and discuss my research with many eminent plant biologists, from whom I received constructive comments on the work presented in my poster. One of the most memorable moments at ComBio2016 is when I was awarded the Poster Award on the last day of the conference (which was also my birthday J).
My PhD research at The University of Newcastle has focused on elucidating the genetic controls of the development of transfer cells – a specialised cell type functioning in enhancing nutrient transport in plants. My ComBio2016 poster summarised my recent findings that transfer cell development in Arabidopsis phloem parenchyma is a novel trait specific to vegetative phase change, and that this novel trait is regulated by microRNA miR156 and its SPL target genes. The poster attracted a lot of attention and comments from the conference attendees, which later contributed to improving the manuscript I was drafting to report these findings. A month after the conference I submitted this manuscript to Plant Physiology and then just in the last few days I received notification that the manuscript has been accepted (conditional with minor revisions). A welcome Christmas present!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank ASPS for providing me the Travel Grant to attend ComBio2016 and communicate my research there, and I am very honoured and grateful at receiving the ASPS Poster Award. Besides precious “academic moments” the conference brought me, and as an international student, in exploring the extraordinary beauty of Brisbane. I am very much looking forward to ComBio2017 and a great trip to Adelaide.
Employment opportunities and the GPC November E-bulletin
05 December 2016
Your ASPS membership is paid to [wpmlfield name=”paidtodate”] (year, month, day).
We have several new employment opportunities based around Australia and in New Zealand.
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ASPS award applications closing soon, new employment opportunities and events.
28 November 2016
Your ASPS membership is paid to [wpmlfield name=”paidtodate”] (year, month, day).
Dear members,
Just to remind you that the deadline for Goldacre and Teaching Awards applications is 9 December 2016 and is fast approaching. The RN Robertson Travelling Fellowship application deadline is 20 January 2017.
We also have several new employment opportunities and FEBS 2017 congress has been added to our events page.
FEBS 2017
The 42nd FEBS Congress
Jerusalem, Israel, 10-14 September, 2017
https://2017.febscongress.org/
The FEBS Congress aims to provide an outstanding international forum in the European area for the face to face exchange of knowledge and ideas across the molecular life sciences. The core scientific programme comprises inspiring plenary lectures from distinguished researchers working in areas of high topical interest, and a range of themed symposia providing focused updates from leading experts in each field. The contribution of participants towards the scientific discussion at the event is encouraged by the opportunity to present work through extensive poster sessions, and submitted abstracts may also be considered for oral presentations.
The broad subject coverage of the Congress and its size provide an excellent setting for participants to gain valuable insight into progress in research areas beyond their own. In addition, a range of special sessions aim to engage participants on wider issues, such as teaching in the molecular life sciences, and science and society questions. A commercial exhibition provides additional interest.
The FEBS Congress has a strong emphasis on support, education and inspiration for the next generation of scientists, with a bursary scheme for early-career researchers, a satellite Young Scientists’ Forum, and activities to encourage interaction with peers and experts.
Altogether the FEBS Congress aims to be an exemplary cross-discipline gathering in the molecular life sciences for research presentation, discussion, learning, inspiration and encouragement — with participants leaving with new research knowledge and ideas, and perhaps the beginnings of international collaborations and friendships.
For more information visit: https://2017.febscongress.org/
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