Ninth Australian Conference on Grassland Invertebrate Ecology

4-7 April 2016, Western Sydney University, Australia

The conference focuses on the biology, ecology and management of both pest and beneficial invertebrates in native and introduced grasslands including pastures, pasture/crop rotations and turf.

The Conference (grassbugs.com.au) will be hosted by the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at the historic Hawkesbury campus of Western Sydney University. The campus is nestled at the foot of the Blue Mountains and has been a hub of agricultural research and training since 1891. Grassland research, in particular, has featured prominently at the site with modern Australian grasses first used and developed on the Hawkesbury campus in the 1920s. The Conference will be held over three days including a half day field trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens in the Blue Mountains.

Adapted from an article published in the December 2015 issue of the ASBMB magazine, the “Australian Biochemist”, by Gonzalo Estavillo and Janet Macaulay.

High profile educators, science communicators and academics passionate about teaching participated in the two education focused sessions held at ComBio2015, organized by ASPS and ASBMB. The main themes were ‘Challenges in Research Training’ for the lunch workshop and ‘Innovations in Undergraduate Education’ for the concurrent symposia, both on Tuesday 29 September.

Both sessions were well attended by more than 50 people in each providing a good opportunity for both audience and speakers to exchange their thoughts and practices about university science education. The sessions were coordinated by the Education Representatives from the ASBMB and ASPS, Associate Professor Janet Macaulay (Monash University) and Dr Gonzalo Estavillo (CSIRO Agriculture), respectively.

Education Session I, from left: Gonzalo M Estavillo (co-Chair), Martin Stone, Graham Phillips, Alastair McEwan and Terrence Piva (co-Chair).

Associate Professor Martin Stone (Director of the MBio Graduate School, Monash University) kick-started Education I: ‘Challenges in Research Training’ session discussing efforts on how to map skills training onto target competencies for graduate students. Five main core competencies for PhD students were identified, including subject area knowledge, technical expertise, critical thinking, communication skills and professionalism. This program has implemented a ‘competencies assessment rubric’ to help students and supervisors assess their progress. Martin highlighted the need for developing a sense of professionalism, defined as self-respect, organisation skills, and ability to prioritise work, as well as being a team player. Finally, Martin identified time, resources and reaching a consensus on what and how to teach as still being the main challenges in graduate education.

The second talk of the session was presented by the Dean of the UQ Graduate School, Professor Alastair McEwan. Alastair described a framework identifying transferable skills for employability of PhD graduates. Alastair highlighted that undertaking a PhD “is not a waste of time and that the skills that can be gained” can be used in other profession employment positions. Interestingly, Alastair discussed that the most successful economies of Scandinavia have three to five times more researchers in business enterprise compared to Australia, which is remarkable given that both countries have about the same number of researchers. The challenge learnt is to insure that the skills learnt can be transferred during the PhD directly into the job market. Although the professional skills are relatively easy to acquire and measure during the PhD, transferable skills, that is, skills applicable to other jobs, are not so easy to track. Although transferable skills could be taught during boutique workshops and professional development courses (such as VITAE) and industry placements, they are much harder to assess. Placement or short stays in other organisations could be a good way to assess transferable skills.

Finally, Dr Graham Phillips gave an informative talk about his experiences as a science communicator and why he chose science communication as a career path. Graham is a well-known science communicator from the ABC’s Catalyst with a PhD in astrophysics. He also teaches an introductory science communication course co-convened with Associate Professor Ros Gleadow at Monash University. Graham argued that people in most jobs, including scientists, “need good communication skills… and need to have proof of it”. Moreover, he pointed out that “we want to hear more scientific points of view in the media”, highlighting climate change as an example where the participation of more scientists would greatly benefit the debate. “Know your audience and present the big picture story” was his advice to people keen on science communication to a non-specialised audience. Extra time in the Education I session allowed for a very interesting Q&A session between panellists and the audience, which completed this highly educational symposium.

Education Session II, from left: Heather Verkade (co-Chair), Peter Arthur, Beth Loveys, Karina Riggs, Susan Rowland, Ros Gleadow, Patrick Schaeffer and Janet Macaulay (co-Chair)

Education II: ‘Innovations in Undergraduate Education’ started with a presentation by Dr Peter Arthur, winner of the 2015 ASBMB Beckman Coulter Education Award. Peter discussed a process which had been introduced at UWA to measure the effectiveness of achievement of teaching goals within lab classes. This system allows review of assessments to ensure alignment of assessment and instruction. Peter was followed by Associate Professor Ros Gleadow who spoke about harnessing digital tools to improve undergraduate teaching. Ros has redesigned the landing screen and general format of the Moodle site to a more student friendly and engaging format which is more interactive, enabling greater student collaboration. She uses social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to closely engage with the students.

The next presentation was a team presentation by Dr Beth Loveys and Dr Karina Riggs who discussed flipping laboratory classes. Their model of a flipped class enables the incorporation of learning activities covering the range of Blooms taxonomy – pre-class: remember and understand; during class: apply and analyse; and post-class: evaluate and create. They use online pre-practical activities to ‘flip the laboratory’ with agriculture and viticulture science students. They also argued that students gained broader knowledge, better understanding and gained greater confidence after those pre-practical activities. Importantly, students’ marks significantly increased after their new approach. Dr Patrick Schaeffer then discussed a successful approach taken in a biotechnology course to prepare students for real world challenges. The molecular biology course integrates experimental design, critical and analytical thinking and laboratory work in real-world situations. Associate Professor Susan Rowland discussed the struggles and issues associated with undergraduate research. This presentation discussed the scale of student experiences from standard practical classes to ALURE (Authentic Large-scale Undergraduate Research Experience) to URE (Undergraduate research experience). Susan talked about the ALURE project and the issue of what is authentic research. Collectively all these speakers delivered highly insightful presentations which opened up deeper thought on how we can all be more effective in our communication delivery and better approach the road to educational discovery.

5^th International Symposium on Soil Organic Matter, Göttingen, Germany, September 20-25^th

A whole week of soil organic matter! While many Europeans commented that it was a long way to come for a conference, the nine Australians lucky enough to attend SOM2015 all agreed that we found it thoroughly worthwhile. On the pre-conference field trip, Brian Wilson, Samantha Grover and a dozen other scientists visited peatlands under a range of agricultural uses and had fun flitting back and forth across the former border between East and West Germany. Schnapps tasting at a former convent ended the day but set the scene for the conference proper, which featured different local beers during the poster sessions every evening. Lynne Macdonald, Mark Farrell, Gaelle Ng, Tom Baker, BP Singh, Bhawana Bhatta and Jessica Ernakovich joined Brian Wilson and Samantha Grover to present a wide range of the SOM research from Australia. Outputs from the National Soil Carbon Program were abundant. The Australian contingent joined delegates from more than 50 countries, who presented 161 talks over four days, selected from more than 600 submitted abstracts. The bar was set high, with opening keynote addresses from Rattan Lal and Johan Six. All agreed that this high standard was maintained and the coffee (and beer) breaks were abuzz with animated conversation. Dr Grover’s talk on the effects of lime on the mineralisation of soil organic matter attracted considerable interest and connections were established with two authorities in this area. Ongoing research on peat soils was also strengthened by the first face-to-face meeting between Samantha Grover and Anna Normand, a PhD student from the University of Florida whom Dr Grover co-supervises. The next conference baton was passed on to Jennifer Dungait from Rothamstead Research, which will host the 6^th SOM symposium in 2017. A post-conference workshop on SOM fractionation will result in a comparative trial of fractionation methods from laboratories around the world, with Lynne Macdonald accepting the trial soils to contribute CSIRO’s methodology to the study.

After the conference Samantha visited Dr Cordula Vogel and Professor Karsten Kalbitz at Dresden Technical University and gave a splendid talk to their Soil Science and Site Ecology group. Potential collaborations were discussed, a joint project proposal  drafted and relationships between the two groups were even further strengthened. The valuable contribution from the Plant Nutrition Trust was well acknowledged in all presentations and it helped to attract matching funding from La Trobe University.

Samantha Grover and Brian Wilson with colleagues at a remnant of the fence dividing East and West Germany on the SOM2015 pre-conference field trip.

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The 4th International Conference on Plant Vascular Biology‏ will be held in Shenzhen, China between July 19th and 23rd 2016. Early registration is due April 1.

For further details go to 4th International Conference on Plant Vascular Biology‏ or PVB2016 flyer

There are also more employment opportunities available through the ASPS website at UWA, Perth and 4 positions at ANU Acton.

Global Plant Council E-Bulletin December 2015 Forward to a Friend  | View web version (also click here to translate to other languages!)

Email Us GPC Website GPC Blog @GlobalPlantGPC @GPC_EnEspanol Facebook Donate E-Bulletin /  December 2015 Happy New Year! The holiday season means our December round-up is a little bit late this month, but never fear, this e-Bulletin is still packed full of new and fascinating plant science, reports, funding opportunities, events and information from around the world. Before you delve into this newsletter, a few things from us: Some of the presentations made during our Stress Resilience Symposium can now be found online on the SEB website, here. On that note, if you’d like to contribute an article on the topic of plant stress resilience to a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany (JXB), the deadline is January 31st. Find out how here.  Finally, welcome and thank you to New Phytologist and Nature Plants who have joined JXB in kindly agreeing to provide sponsorship for the Global Plant Council. If you work for a journal that would be interested in sponsoring us, please get in touch!

Latest News /  View more…If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact lisa@globalplantcouncil.org  This month 62 new breaking news stories were posted on the GPC website including… In Nature Plants: Theory of ‘smart’ plants may explain the evolution of global ecosystems A new theory presented by Princeton University (USA) researchers suggests that the ecosystems of the world have their various forms because of plant “decisions” that made them that way.  In New Phytologist: How fresh is your maple syrup? Sugar maple trees can store carbon from the atmosphere for several years in non-structural reserves as a buffer against disturbances such as droughts, hurricane damage, or attacks by insects. A new study shows that trees draw on this reserve when springtime sap begins to flow. Scientists create first map of the wheat epigenome Scientists at the University of Liverpool (UK) have carried out the first ever genome-wide survey of heritable molecular changes that regulate gene activity in wheat, in what could become a new tool to improve crop breeding technologies. Launch of the Latin American Plant Phenotyping Network (LatPPN) A new network for Latin America to facilitate training of breeders and development of scientists on several aspects of phenotyping and pre-breeding methodologies, scientific exchange of young/senior researchers and students, and international access to resources and research facilities. 2016 named International Year of Pulses The UN declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (IYP). And, no, they don’t mean the pulse you take to measure your heartbeat. Events / View more…If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org International Plant & Animal Genome XXIV 09–13 January 2016. San Diego, USA. World Congress on Root and Tuber Crops 18–22 January 2016. Nanning, Guangxi, China.Pan-African Grain Legume & World Cowpea Conference 28 January–04 February 2016. Livingstone, Zambia. Reports / Lots of new reports, and an archive of useful documents from the last few years, are available on our website. Head to the Resources page and click ‘Reports’. Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the US Food System (PDF) A USDA state-of-the-science assessment, which establishes the technical foundation for managing food security outcomes around the world and for preparing consumers, agricultural producers, and others in the United States for changing conditions. More…(PDF) Funding Opportunities / Spotted a funding opportunity we’ve missed? Please tell us about it by emailing lisa@globalplantcouncil.org This month we found some new funding opportunities, including the Rothamsted International Fellowship Scheme for scientists from developing countries, Institutional Skills Grants to develop new UK-Brazil training programs to support staff or researchers in public and civil society institutions, science museums and botanic gardens, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Interdisciplinary Synergy Program for Denmark, and scholarship opportunities for PhD students to study in China.  More info…Congratulations also to Alexander Jones, formerly of the Carnegie Institution for Science, now at The Sainsbury Laboratory, UK, who has won the New Phytologist Tansley Medal for Excellence in Plant Science. On the blog /  View more…Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC’s blog? Please get in touch! Email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org GPC/SEB Stress Resilience Symposium: online tools for stress resilience research In summarizing this meeting, Lisa Martin also highlights some of the excellent digital tools mentioned by our speakers for plant science research and breeding.  More…Making Plant Genomics Front Page News with an Emblematic Genome Project: The Bauhinia Flower Scott Edmunds from GigaScience Journal talks about an innovative new plant genomics initiative to sequence the national flower of Hong Kong. More…How to create a successful crop research partnership: the Generation Challenge Programme GPC New Media Fellow Sarah Jose describes the Generation Challenge Programme, a 10-year collaborative project to develop food crops with improved stress resilience. More… Now That’s What I Call Plant Science 2015 In the first of two 2015 round-up posts, New Media Fellow Amelia Frizell-Armitage reveals the Top 5 Most Influential Plant Science Stories of 2015, as voted for by GPC followers.  More… 2015 Plant Science Round-up In Sarah’s round-up post, she takes a look at some of the plant science breakthroughs of 2015. More… Members /  Click here for details of the GPC Member Organizations and representatives. Please contact Ruth Bastow (ruth@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council.  The GPC is a coalition of plant and crop science societies from across the globe. The GPC seeks to bring plant scientists together to work synergistically toward solving the pressing problems we face. Please click here to make a donation via PayPal to help support the GPC.

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Dear Colleagues,

Mark Waters hails from the southern regions of the UK. He went to school in Bedford and was fortunate to study Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford. Here he nurtured his curiosity towards understanding plant growth and development after becoming inspired by a first year practical class on photosynthesis. After completing his PhD at the University of Nottingham studying plastid stromules with Kevin Pyke, he returned to the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford for a post-doc stint with Jane Langdale. There he investigated the transcriptional regulation of chloroplast development, picking up essential skills in genetics and molecular biology. Next Mark moved to Australia in 2010 having been attracted to the impressive reputation of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at the University of Western Australia (UWA). He joined Steve Smith’s group to explore the nascent field of karrikin signalling in plants.

Named after the local Noongar word for smoke, karrikins are small molecules produced by burning vegetation, and are thus prevalent in the post-bushfire environment characteristic of Australia. The seeds of many plant species germinate upon exposure to plant-derived smoke, and Gavin Flematti at UWA identified karrikins as one of the bioactive compounds in 2004. The karrikin story therefore has a decidedly Australian flavour.

Genetic screens for karrikin-insensitive mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana led to the major discovery that formed the basis for Mark’s 2015 Goldacre Award: the identification and characterisation of the karrikin receptor protein KAI2. This work, published in Development in 2012, provided strong evidence that all plants, not just those adapted to fire-prone environments, possess the key machinery for detecting karrikins.

KAI2 belongs to a family of hydrolase-type proteins that also incudes DWARF14, the receptor for the strigolactone class of plant hormones. Strigolactones influence several developmental processes, most notably shoot branching. Karrikins and strigolactones are chemically similar, as both compounds possess the same “butenolide” structure that is essential for bioactivity. Mark’s research has demonstrated that KAI2 and DWARF14 are structurally similar proteins with quite different physiological functions. As a result, his work has positioned karrikins as abiotic plant growth regulators that are distinct from strigolactones, each having a respective receptor protein with different ligand specificities (Waters et al. 2012, Scaffidi et al. 2013, Scaffidi et al. 2014).

Some of Mark’s more recent work has described the evolutionary conservation of KAI2-dependent signalling in plants. KAI2-type proteins can be traced back to the algal ancestors of land plants, and crucially they are functionally conserved between lycophyte ferns and angiosperms, which diverged over 400 million years ago (Waters et al., 2015). This finding implies that KAI2 is fundamentally important to plant development, a fact borne out by the dramatic seed germination, seedling growth and leaf development phenotypes of KAI2-deficient mutants. In light of the fact that most plants do not encounter karrikins under natural conditions, it is possible that KAI2 has evolved not to perceive smoke, but instead to detect related butenolide compounds that remain to be discovered.

Dr Waters will explore the interface between chemical genetics and molecular biology and hopes to identify new butenolide compounds. He aims to dissect plant hormone interaction networks involved in plant development and perhaps exploit the KAI2 signalling system for crop improvement strategies. Mark and his colleagues have instigated a smoking hot area of research discovery into such an amazing chemical rich in Australian ecological significance.

Contact:

Email: mark.waters”at”uwa.edu.au

URL: http://www.uwa.edu.au/people/mark.waters

Twitter: watersmt

Selected references

1. 1. Waters, MT*, Nelson, DC, Scaffidi, A, Flematti, GR, Sun, YK, Dixon, KW, & Smith, SM (2012). Specialisation within the DWARF14 protein family confers distinct responses to karrikins and strigolactones in Arabidopsis. Development, 139, 1285–1295. http://doi.org/10.1242/dev.074567 (*corresponding author)
2. 2. Scaffidi, A*, Waters, MT*, Ghisalberti, EL, Dixon, KW, Flematti, GR, & Smith, SM (2013). Carlactone-independent seedling morphogenesis in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal, 76, 1–9. http://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.12265 (*Joint first authors)
3. 3. Scaffidi, A, Waters, MT, Sun, YK, Skelton, BW, Dixon, KW, Ghisalberti, EL, et al. (2014). Strigolactone hormones and their stereoisomers signal through two related receptor proteins to induce different physiological responses in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology, 165, 1221–1232. http://doi.org/10.1104/pp.114.240036
4. 4. Waters, MT*, Scaffidi, A, Moulin, SLY, Sun, YK, Flematti, GR. & Smith, SM (2015). A Selaginella moellendorffii ortholog of KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE2 functions in Arabidopsis development but cannot mediate responses to karrikins or strigolactones. Plant Cell, 27, 1925–1944. http://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.15.00146

(*corresponding author)

By Gonzalo M. Estavillo – Plant Science Education Representative (2013-2015)

The Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS ) is a scientific society promoting all areas of plant related research. ASPS nurtures the next generation of plant scientists and has the potential to educate the non-specialized audience about the importance of plants and plant research. Our society offers a unifying representation of plant scientists across Australia that collaborate with international plant science organizations linked through the Global Plant Council.

It has been highlighted that “the planet needs more plant scientists” to meet future demands for food and fibre, an issue that appears further compounded by an increase in the average age of plant scientists in some parts of the world. Future plant scientists will need to be equipped with a deep knowledge of the plant sciences and armed with cutting edge technologies to address future climate change issues that challenge food security and plant biodiversity. As importantly, sustainable agricultural systems will need to operate with less arable land and water resources. Scientific societies such as ASPS have the potential to ignite new interest in plant science and help attract younger minds to identify new solutions to current and emerging problems.

The “Plant Science Education Representative” coordinates and promotes the education and outreach efforts for ASPS. In addition to the “Education Rep”, six “Discipline Representatives” are responsible to drive agendas in specific research areas in close coordination with the Executive Committee.

The Education Rep is commissioned important tasks for science outreach, recognition and communication, in addition to the general Discipline Representative duties. For example, the Education Rep organizes two Education sessions at the annual biology conference ComBio along with the corresponding Representative for the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. These sessions include a lunch workshops featuring high profile speakers, such as the Chief Scientist or professional science communicators, as well as symposia concurrent with scientific sessions, where the keynote speakers are teaching prize awardees.

The ASPS Teaching Award recognises innovative contributions to undergraduate teaching. The Education Rep chairs an ad hoc committee composed by an external teaching academic and a student to rank the applications and recommend the most outstanding one as the award recipient. The Education Representative is also responsible for continuous development and maintenance of the Teaching section of the ASPS website.

Different Social media platforms allows ASPS to interact with its members and communicate plant sciences to non-specialized audiences. These tools, and current initiatives such as FoPD and National Science Week provide excellent outreach opportunities to effectively communicate the importance of plant research to our society while enhancing the profile of the ASPS and its members. Education and effective communication of our science are the means to inspire the new generation of plant biologists.

Dear Plant Scientists,

The Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) and Website & Communications Sub-Committee welcome your submissions to our Phytogen blog.

ASPS publishes the Society newsletter Phytogen to promote plant science and outreach to members and the general public. Phytogen is currently a live blog and is periodically sent to our members via email.

We believe that Phytogen is a valuable vehicle for communicating new ideas, recent professional experiences, and events, while promoting our Society and plant biology in general. Current and relevant content is critical to achieve these goals.

How can you help? We are continuously seeking for relevant content from Society members, including researcher profiles, conference highlights, government policy development, agricultural and academic innovation, biological discoveries and conservation, national and international outreach activities or description of a new breakthrough technology.

ASPS will continue to enhance the exposure of Australian plant science through effective communication to a general audience. We encourage you, especially our HDR students (e.g. MSc/PhD) and Early Career Researchers to contribute to Phytogen and our social media networks (Facebook or twitter).

ASPS would like to sincerely thank Conjoint Professor Tina Offler for her long-standing role as the chief editor of Phytogen. Tina will continue as co-editor and provide professional mentorship to support the new chief editor of Phytogen; Dr. Chris Cazzonelli.

We welcome you to contact Chris (c.cazzonelli@westernsydney.edu.au) to discuss article ideas or submit your story for publication in Phytogen.

Regards,

Chris.

The New Phytologist Tansley Medal is awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to research in plant science by an individual in the early stages of their career (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 short review that will be published in New Phytologist, accompanied by an Editorial announcing the winner and finalists. The application deadline for this year’s Medal is 30 November 2015.

The Tansley Medal is an opportunity to award recognition to an outstanding scientist in the early stages of his or her career and supporting and nurturing the next generation of plant scientists is a core aspect of the activities of the New Phytologist Trust. I would be very grateful if you would support us in this endeavour by spreading the word to anyone you know who might be eligible to apply for the 2016 Tansley Medal. If you have any queries regarding the medal or the submission process please do not hesitate to get in touch. More details on the Medal can be found at: http://www.newphytologist.org/tansleymedal.

Chris Cazzonelli

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Dear Members of ASPS,

Please be advised that the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists will be held at 17:30 – 18:30 on Wednesday 30 September 2015 in Room 218, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Vic. As usual, the ASPS Annual General Meeting has been scheduled during the COMBIO conference week.

Below please find the Agenda. If you would like to add any items to the Agenda, please e-mail these to the Honorary Secretary Martha Ludwig (martha.ludwig@uwa.edu.au or secretary@asps.org.au), by Friday 25 September 2015.

Sincerely,

John Evans

(President of ASPS)