Research School of Biology Newsletter Issue 67 | 31 August 2015

ANU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT NEWS Awards Congratulations to Ronald Yu (Pogson Group, PS) who won the CMBE 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) on 18 August. Ronald won a $1000 research support grant and will compete in the ANU 3MT final which will be held at Llewellyn Hall on Wednesday 16 September.

Shujuan (Olivia) Zhang, former student in the Atkin Group (PS), has been selected for the prestigious German 'Green Talents' award.

Barry Pogson (PS) has been selected as an American Society of Plant Biology Top Author, after an analysis of the "most highly cited papers between 2009 and 2013" published in The Plant Cell and Cell Biology. Barry is Attenborough's flat lizard (Platysaurus attenboroughi), a new species described by Scott Keogh, Mitzy Pepper and colleagues. Photo: a member of the editorial board, serving as Martin Whiting (see: In the media) Deputy and now Associate Editor of Science the Hon. Karen Andrews MP, at the CSIRO BBC Earth website. Attenborough’s flat lizard Advances. Science Advances is the offspring Discovery Centre on 19 August. The well- (Platysaurus attenboroughi) (pictured above), of Science, created by AAAS as their first open attended public discussion was organised by found in South Africa and Namibia, is named access journal. Anne-Sophie Dielen and Britta Forster, and after naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who Virginia Abernathy (Langmore Group, EEG) featured panellists working in different STEM featured flat lizards in his 2008 TV series 'Life in won the student presentation prize for her fields sharing their vision of what it means to Cold Blood'. The new species is described in talk at the American Ornithologists Union be a woman in science in 2015. Zootaxa. Conference in Oklahoma. Science in ACTion Alexander Mikheyev, Visiting Fellow in the Regina Vega-Trejo (Jennions Group, EEG) won Jennions Group (EEG), has published a paper RSB Students, scientists and staff were out $799 in the Thinkable Inspire Australia Research in Nature. The study reveals rapid evolution in in force for the Science in ACTion event held Competition for her video titled 'Fiddler crabs: wild honey bees that have been exposed to at the Old Bus Depot in Kingston. Centres Their mystery behaviour'. a new parasite, and suggests that genetically of Excellence Plant Energy Biology, and diverse populations can recover from introduced Sara Chica Latorre (Ball Group, PS) has been Translational Photosynthesis joined forces diseases by evolving rapid tolerance, while awarded the Deputy Dean of Science Education to present a popular exhibit that included maintaining much of the standard genetic Commendation for outstanding achievement in a huge, bouncy plant cell, DNA extraction, variation. her Honours studies. and other activities and displays. The BLTC mounted a display that included live Elena Martin Avila (Whitney Group, PS) PHDS SUBMITTED spiders and stick , and the League of Hannah Osborn (von Caemmerer Group, PS), Remarkable Women in Australian Science Anna Harts (Kokko Group, EEG) 'The role and John Rivers (Pogson Group, PS) have been also presented a display. of demography in the evolution of breeding awarded Crawford Conference Scholarships. strategies'. The Crawford Fund supports young Australian agricultural students and scientists. Nadia Mohd Raszman (Djordjevic Group, PS) 'MtCEP1 peptides regulate lateral organ Grants development in the model legume, Medicago Megan Head (Jennions Group, EEG) was truncatula'. awarded 4,760GBP from the Fisheries Society Trevor Murray (Magrath Group, EEG) 'Non-vocal of the British Isles for a grant titled 'Identifying Jessica Ward-Jones, Stephen Fairweather and student acoustic alarm communication'. sexually transmitted microbiota in a livebearing ambassadors Samantha De Silva and Ruiyu Su at Science in fish'. ACTion Tiffany Russell (Tscharke Group, BSB) 'HSV-1 lytic viral gene expression and latency'. Women in Science: challenges and IN THE MEDIA solutions PHDS AWARDED A new species of African lizard, described Gender balance in science was examined in a by Scott Keogh, Mitzy Pepper (EEG) Liam Cassidy (Solomon Group, PS) 'Proteome forum chaired by Professor Brian Schmidt and and colleagues, has been featured on the mapping of the model fungal plant pathogen Stagonospora nodorum using LC-LC-MS/MS'. Kai Chan (Pogson Group, PS) 'Structural methylation sites via clustering in beta Group Leader profile: and functional characterisation of chloroplast regression, The Annals of Applied Statistics. signalling'. Craig Moritz (EEG) Harts, AMF, Jaatinen, K, & Kokko H, Evolution of Group research focus Jason Ng (Mathesius Group, PS) 'Local natal and breeding dispersal: when is a territory auxin transport regulation in the nascent an asset worth protecting? Behavioral Ecology. nodule - an overview in nodulating plants and Johns, S & Shaw, A, Theoretical insight into an investigation onto the cytokinin receptor, three disease-related benefits of migration, CRE1-mediated control of auxin transport in Population Ecology. Medicago truncatula'. Merkling, T, Hamilton, DG, Cser, B, Svedin, N, Isabel Saur (Rathjen Group, PS) 'Identification & Pryke, SR, Mechanisms of colour variation and regulation of receptors involved in plant in the frillneck lizard: geographic differences in immunity'. pigment contents of an ornament, Biological We study the evolution of diversity of terrestrial vertebrates in relation Hamish Web (Foley Group, EEG) 'The Journal of the Linnean Society. genetics of essential oil yield in Melaleuca to environmental history and with a Ng, JLP, Perrine-Walker, FM, Wasson, AP, & focus on tropical Australia and its alternifolia and loxophleba'. Mathesius, U, The control of auxin transport connections with New Guinea. We develop and apply new methods in parasitic and symbiotic root–microbe across population- and phylo- NEW APPOINTMENTS interactions, Plants. genomics and spatial modeling Postdoctoral Scientist Russell Dinnage has Parker, DJ, Cunningham, CB, Walling, CA, of diversity with evidence on joined the Cardillo Group (EEG). phenotypic variation to understand Stamper, CE, Head, ML, Roy-Zokan, EM, how evolutionary responses to past McKinney, EC, Ritchie, MG, & Moore, AJ, environmental change – adaptation, WELCOME Transcriptomes of parents help identify range shifting and speciation - Vivian Phang has joined the BTLC team, as parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a have shaped the diversity that an HDR Admin Assistant. As this position subsocial beetle, Nature Communications. we see now, with applications to is shared between RSB/RSP, Vivian will be conservation planning and practice. Ribi W, & Zeil J, The visual system of the working in RSB on Monday morning, and all Teaching and research Australian 'Redeye' ( moerens), day Tuesday and Thursday. She will be located achievements Structure & Development. in Psychology at other times. I enjoy inspiring and mentoring Young, CM, Cain, KE, Svedin, NS, Backwell, Micrometeorologist Dr Margi Bohm joins students at all levels, typically PRY, & Pryke, SR, Nesting success in crimson learning more from them than vice the Ball Group (PS) as a Visiting Fellow. She finches: Chance or choice? Ethology. versa. Among various awards, will work on the Macquarie Island project to the one I’m proudest of is the develop a model of energy and water balance Young, CM, Cain, KE, Svedin, NS, Backwell, Distinguished Faculty Mentor Award of sub-Antarctic cushion plants in relation to PRY & Pryke, SR, The role of pigment based given by the UC Berkeley Graduate Student Assembly. The successes their responses to climate change, and on plumage in resolving contests, Journal of Avian of my former students give me a lot another project linking micrometeorology with Biology. of satisfaction. stem and leaf hydraulics in mangroves. Margi Zavafer, A, Chow, WS, & Cheah, MH, The action will be located in Rm 84 of Building 46. What do you enjoy most about spectrum of Photosystem II photoinactivation teaching? in visible light, Journal of Photochemistry and Put simply, teaching keeps me alive PAPERS ACCEPTED Photobiology B: Biology. intellectually. It broadens thinking Bromham, L, Testing hypotheses in and I just love seeing the lights macroevolution, Studies in History and go on when a new concept or NOTICES Philosophy of Science. experimental result hits home. WHS - Winter Hazard Bromham, L, Hua, X & Cardillo, M, Detecting What do you enjoy most about As the outside temperatures drop, some RSB macroevolutionary self-destruction from research? members have been bringing their own heaters phylogenies, Systematic Biology. Discovery. I’m a discovery junkie. A into their offices. Unfortunately, there are a new result or insight makes all the Fairweather, SJ, Bröer, A, Subramanian, N, number of issues with this. background effort totally worthwhile. Tumer, E, Cheng, Q, Schmoll, D, O' Mara, ML, Bar radiators and fan heaters should not As something of a biogeographer, I & Bröer, S, Molecular basis for the interaction also get to travel all over Australia for be used, as they represent a significant of the mammalian amino acid transporters fieldwork, meeting fascinating and fire hazard, and they use a large amount of B0AT1 and B0AT3 with their ancillary protein diverse people and soaking in the electricity. Further, in areas such as Linnaeus, collectrin, Journal of Biological Chemistry extraordinary landscapes and biota that use modern building air conditioning of Australia. Fan, D-Y, Ye, Z-P, Wang, S-C & Chow, controls, a localised 'warm' area often results WS, Multiple roles of oxygen in the in the heating system providing less heat for photoinactivation and dynamic repair the other users in the area. of Photosystem II in spinach leaves, This newsletter is archived at If you are feeling cold, please ensure you lodge biology.anu.edu.au/ Photosynthesis Research. a workbook request with RSB Operations/ news-events/newsletter. Layout: Mel Norris & Sharyn Wragg Han, S, Zhang, H, Lockett, GA, Mukherjee, Building Infrastructure, who will try and fine Editing: Stefan Bröer, Sharyn Wragg & N, Holloway, JW & Karmaus, W, Identifying tune the system, before you explore other Mel Norris. heterogenous transgenerational DNA options. - Dr Jeremy Weinman

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