研究领域

Biological Sciences

The research area that I have operated within since the beginning of my postgraduate studies is broadly encompassed by C4 photosynthesis and carbon partitioning. Between 1993 and 2007, a major focus of my research has been the development of a fundamental understanding of carbon metabolism/ photoassimilate partitioning and more specifically sucrose transport processes at the more detailed cellular level in the key food and biofuel crop sugarcane. By the application of a directed EST sequencing approach undertaken on the major sucrose storage organ in sugarcane, the stem, a number of ESTs encoding novel transporters were identified and full length cDNA sequences isolated. Three putative hexose transporters have been immunolocalised to the phloem of maturing internodes of the stem and an increase in expression of these transporters coincided with the logarithmic increase in sucrose concentration. The single sucrose transporter identified to date exhibited a novel localisation pattern being present in the cell layer surrounding the vascular bundles and showed a strong spike in expression at the initiation of the logarithmic phase of sucrose accumulation. The development of a high level of expertise in functional characterisation of sugar transporters has been realised through substantial collaboration travel awards from Federal Department of Industry Science and Technology and the Australian Academy of Science. Visits to work in the laboratories of premier transport researchers Professor Wolf Frommer, (University of Tuebingen, Germany and Carnegie Institute, Stanford University, USA) and Dr John Ward, (University of Minnesota) has resulted in functional characterisation of the sugarcane sucrose transporter in heterologous systems including yeast and Xenopus laevis oocytes. In addition to researching sucrose transport, I also have considerable expertise in improving transformation and transgene expression in recalcitrant plant species, skills essential for implementing genetic manipulations in order to dissect the role of candidate genes. In 2008 I began developing a new research platform using Sorghum as a model biofuels feedstock. In addition to investigating sucrose transport mechanisms I have extended the scope of photoassimilate partitioning to include cell wall construction/deconstruction and composition. My group is currently undertaking leading edge research in the development of FTIR and FPA-FTIR as tools for detailed investigation of cereal grass cell wall composition and the development of predictive models of digestibility using spectral analysis. The application of ionic liquids as a novel and efficient means of biomass pre-treatment for the production of second generation biofuels is also currently being investigated.

近期论文

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2016 Martin AP, Palmer WM, Brown C, Abel C, Lunn JE, Furbank RT, Grof CPL, 'A developing Setaria viridis internode: an experimental system for the study of biomass generation in a C-4 model species', BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR BIOFUELS, 9 (2016) [C1] 2015 Palmer WM, Martin AP, Flynn JR, Reed SL, White RG, Furbank RT, Grof CPL, 'PEA-CLARITY: 3D molecular imaging of whole plant organs', SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 5 (2015) [C1] 2015 Milne RJ, Offler CE, Patrick JW, Grof CPL, 'Cellular pathways of source leaf phloem loading and phloem unloading in developing stems of Sorghum bicolor in relation to stem sucrose storage', Functional Plant Biology, 42 957-970 (2015) [C1] 2014 Zhou Y, Grof CPL, Patrick JW, 'Proof of concept for a novel functional screening system for plant sucrose effluxers', Journal of Biological Methods, 1 1-6 (2014) [C1] 2013 Milne RJ, Byrt CS, Patrick JW, Grof CP, 'Are sucrose transporter expression profiles linked with patterns of biomass partitioning in Sorghum phenotypes?', Front Plant Sci, 4 223 (2013) [C1] 2013 Martin AP, Palmer WM, Byrt CS, Furbank RT, Grof CPL, 'A holistic high-throughput screening framework for biofuel feedstock assessment that characterises variations in soluble sugars and cell wall composition in Sorghum bicolor', BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR BIOFUELS, 6 (2013) [C1] 2012 Byrt CS, Cahyanegara R, Grof CPL, 'Plant carbohydrate binding module enhances activity of hybrid microbial cellulase enzyme', Frontiers in Plant Science, 3 (2012) [C2] 2011 Byrt CS, Grof CP, Furbank RT, 'C-4 plants as biofuel feedstocks: Optimising biomass production and feedstock quality from a lignocellulosic perspective', Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 53 120-135 (2011) [C1] 2011 Rae AL, Casu RE, Perroux JM, Jackson MA, Grof CP, 'A soluble acid invertase is directed to the vacuole by a signal anchor mechanism', Journal of Plant Physiology, 168 983-989 (2011) [C1] 2010 Kuhn C, Grof CP, 'Sucrose transporters of higher plants', Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 13 288-298 (2010) [C1] 2010 Grof CP, Campbell JA, Kravchuk O, Lambrides CJ, Albertson PL, 'Temperature effect on carbon partitioning in two commercial cultivars of sugarcane', Functional Plant Biology, 37 334-341 (2010) [C1] 2007 Jackson MA, Rae AL, Casu RE, Grof CPL, Bonnett GD, Maclean DJ, 'A bioinformatic approach to the identification of a conserved domain in a sugarcane legumain that directs GFP to the lytic vacuole', Functional Plant Biology, 34 633-644 (2007) [C1] 2007 Albertson PL, Grof CPL, 'Application of high performance anion exchange-pulsed amperometric detection to measure the activity of key sucrose metabolising enzymes in sugarcane', Journal of Chromatography B: Analytical Technologies in the Biomedical and Life Sciences, 845 151-156 (2007) [C1] 2007 Grof CPL, Albertson PL, Bursle J, Perroux JM, Bonnett GD, Manners JM, 'Sucrose-phosphate synthase, a biochemical marker of high sucrose accumulation in sugarcane', Crop Science, 47 1530-1539 (2007) [C1] 2007 Sivitz AB, Reinders A, Johnson ME, Krentz AD, Grof CPL, Perroux JM, Ward JM, 'Arabidopsis sucrose transporter AtSUC9. High-affinity transport activity, intragenic control of expression, and early flowering mutant phenotype', Plant Physiology, 143 188-198 (2007) [C1] 2006 Reinders A, Sivitz AB, Hsi A, Grof CPL, Perroux JM, Ward JM, 'Sugarcane ShSUT1: Analysis of sucrose transport activity and inhibition by sucralose', Plant, Cell and Environment, 29 1871-1880 (2006) [C1] 2006 Lakshmanan P, Geijskes RJ, Wang L, Elliott A, Grof CPL, Berding N, Smith GR, 'Developmental and hormonal regulation of direct shoot organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. interspecific hybrids) leaf culture', Plant Cell Reports, 25 1007-1015 (2006) [C1] 2006 Grof CPL, So CTE, Perroux JM, Bonnett GD, Forrester RI, 'The five families of sucrose-phosphate synthase genes in Saccharum spp. are differentially expressed in leaves and stem', Functional Plant Biology, 33 605-610 (2006) [C1] 2005 Vickers JE, Grof CPL, Bonnett GD, Jackson PA, Morgan TE, 'Effects of tissue culture, biolistic transformation, and introduction of PPO and SPS gene constructs on performance of sugarcane clones in the field', Australian Journal of Agricultural Research, 56 57-68 (2005) [C1] 2005 Vickers JE, Grof CPL, Bonnett GD, Jackson PA, Knight DP, Roberts SE, Robinson SP, 'Overexpression of polyphenol oxidase in transgenic sugarcane results in darker juice and raw sugar', Crop Science, 45 354-362 (2005) [C1]