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| Mary Beilby at the Australian Centre for
Plant Functional Genomics in Adelaide, South Australia |
At the end of 2003 I was overjoyed to find that I was granted Special
Study Program leave for the second half of 2004.
The start was the International Workshop on Plant Membrane Biology
at AGRO Montpellier, France, July 6 - 10. I have attended this conference
series every three years since 1980! I presented five posters and
met many colleagues old and new. The molecular biology content of
the conference proceedings has grown greatly. I feel that this powerful
approach is missing in my research.
We then drove across Europe, through my native Czech Republic and
into Germany, where I talked to my Ph.D student Chris Cherry-Gaedt.
Our long drive finished in Glasgow, visiting Mike Blatt, who is
Regius Professor of Botany. I have started Chara culture
for Mike to be used for teaching electrophysiology. We used Mike’s
superb fluorescence confocal microscope to find that fluorescent
pH indicator BCECF uptake into Chara highlights small organelles,
but not the bulk of the cytoplasm, as was previously believed. We
are still processing results.
After returning to Sydney I attended the 4th Symposium
of the International Research Group on Charophytes, 25 - 27 September
at Ranelagh House, Robertson, NSW, where I presented a talk. I have
met this group of fellow ‘charologists’ for the first
time, although I have read some of their papers. The group is interested
in the history of charophytes and finds their fossilized parts in
ancient rocks. There were charophytes 400 million years ago! The
group has taken me on an excursion to Lightning Ridge, where opalised
charophytes can be found. I was not lucky enough to find any, but
enjoyed looking!
Back in Sydney it was time for another new direction: I spent a
week at ANSTO with Chris Garvey, performing low angle neutron scattering
of charophyte cell walls. Our experiments aimed to find differences
in the wall structure between salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive charophytes.
We have struck some problems with keeping the samples wetted with
D2O to provide contrast and will continue experiments
in 2005.
I had arranged with Federation Fellow Mark Tester, who was once
my fellow ‘charologist’ in Cambridge to give me some
training at the Australian Center for Plant Functional Genomics
in Adelaide. My project was to extract messenger RNA from salt-tolerant
charophyte Lamprothamnium and inject it into the salt-sensitive
Chara. Can we make Chara temporarily salt-tolerant?
I learned to extract mRNA from Lamprothamnium (as shown
in the picture below). The procedures involved a new discipline
(for me) to keep the experiment free from contamination. Large amounts
of Lamprothamnium plants were needed and I organised a
trip to Lake Budgewoi on the Central Coast, where I was lucky to
find some. I have perfected the injection procedure and produced
the first batch Lamprothamnium RNA injected Chara
cells. My time ran out at this point. There are many control experiments
to perform and so I have submitted an ARC proposal to continue these
experiments with the help of a Postdoctoral Fellow with a molecular
biology background. Wish me luck!
Mary Beilby
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