Dr David Fairbairn
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Botany,
School of Life Sciences,
John Hines Building (#62),
The University of Queensland , St. Lucia ,
Queensland 4072, Australia
Email: d.fairbairn@botany.uq.edu.au
The Big Questions
- How do root-knot nematodes (RKN) trigger giant cell development?
- What are the key processes required for salt tolerance in Eucalyptus?
The Short-term goals
- Identification of genes that are differentially expressed during RKN infection of pineapple roots
- Functional characterization of Eucalyptus genes
(cation transport in Eucalyptus and Arabidopsis)
| Group (lab) Members and areas of research
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- Dr. Richard Moyle (microarray analysis)
- Mr. Tony Cavallaro (plant molecular biology)
- Ms. Janani Mahalinga-Iyer (plant transformation and nematode studies)
Current:
ARC Linkage-Project (Benign strategies to engineer nematode resistance in plant crops)
| Techniques in the Laboratory
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Currently active
Wide range of molecular biology techniques, plant tissue culture, real-time PCR, C. elegans RNAi, microarray analysis ( Arabidopsis and pineapple) and functional analysis of genes in Arabidopsis plants.
In development:
Tissue culture Arabidopsis/RKN system.
Top three areas of knowledge
- Sodium and potassium uptake mechanisms in plants
- RKN plant interactions
- Gene silencing and RNAi
Top three technical skills
- RNAi in plants and nematodes
- Microarray analysis
- Real-time PCR analysis of gene expression
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Maser, P., Eckelman, B., Vaidyanathan, R., Horie, T., Fairbairn, D.J, Kubo. M., Yamagami, M., Yamaguchi, K., Nishimura, M., Uozumi, N., Robertson, W., Sussman, M.R. and Schroeder, J.I. (2002). Altered shoot/root Na + disruption and bifurcating salt sensitivity in Arabidopsis by genetic disruption of the Na + transporter AtHKT1 . FEBS Letters 531, 157-161.
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Liu, W., Fairbairn, D.J., Reid, R. and Schachtman, D.P. (2001). Characterization of two HKT1 homologues from Eucalyptus camaldulensis that display intrinsic osmosensing capability. Plant Physiology 127, 283-294.
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Fairbairn, D.J., Liu, W., Schachtman, D.P., Gomez-Gallego, S., Day, S. and Teasdale, R.D. (2000). Characterization of two distinct HKT1-like potassium transporters from Eucalyptus camaldulensis . Plant Molecular Biology 43, 515-525.
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