Frank W Smith
Senior Principal Research Scientist
CSIRO Plant Industry,
Queensland BioSciences Precinct,
306 Carmody Rd. ,
St Lucia Qld 4067
Personal Website Address: none
Email: frank.smith@csiro.au
The Big Question:
- To improve the efficiency of phosphate and sulphate uptake and utilisation in commercially important crop plants.
The Short-term goals:
- To provide an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of phosphate and sulphate transport and their regulatory mechanisms in plants.
| Group (lab) Members and areas of research
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- Frank Smith - nutritional physiology, plant molecular biology.
- Anne Rae - cell biology, molecular biology, barley and rice transformation.
- Stephen Mudge: molecular biology, gene promoter analysis, GFP and GUS reporter gene analysis and localisation, Arabidopsis transformation.
- Dona Glassop: molecular biology of P transport in mycorrhizal plants
- Janine Jarmey : molecular biology, barley transformation.
Current:
Note. This research group is being disbanded upon my retirement so funding contracts with GRDC and Graingene are not being renewed as they expire
- CRCMPB - Supporting Donna Glassop's work on identifying and characterising P transporters involved in transfer of P from mycorrhizal fungi to cereal plants
- RCMPB identifying and characterising P transporters involved in transfer of P from mycorrhizal fungi to cereal plants.
Applications submitted or planned
| Techniques in the Laboratory
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Currently active:
- plant molecular biology including gene discovery, DNA and RNA manipulation
- yeast complementation
- molecular analysis of transporter proteins
- eporter gene analysis
- localisation of gene expression and/or transporter proteins by in-situ hybridisation, immunolocalisation, reporter gene localisation
- gene promoter dissection
- RNA transcript quantification by northern blot and real-time PCR analyses
- plant tissue culture
- transformation of yeast, Arabidopsis, rice, barley and canola
- isotopic phosphate and sulphate uptake analyses.
Top three areas of knowledge :
- nutritional physiology particularly phosphate and sulphate
- molecular biology of genes encoding plant transport proteins
- root cell biology
Top three technical skills:
- a wide range of molecular skills
- cell biology
- nutrient uptake studies in yeast, plant cell suspensions and whole plants.
| Publications - Last 5 Years
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Rae AL , Jarmey JM, Mudge SR and Smith FW . 2004. Over-expression of a high-affinity phosphate transporter in transgenic barley plants does not enhance phosphate uptake rates. Functional Plant Biology 31, 1-8 .
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Mudge SR , Smith FW and Richardson AE . (2003) Root-specific and phosphate-regulated expression of phytase under the control of a phosphate transporter enables Arabidopsis to grow on phytate as a sole P source. Plant Science 165, 871-878
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Howarth, J.R., Fourcroy, P., Davidian, J-C ., Smith, F.W. and Hawkesford, M.J. (2003) Cloning of two contrasting high-affinity sulfate transporters from tomato induced by low sulfate and infection by the vascular pathogen Verticillium dahliae . Planta 218 , 58-64.
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Godwin, R., Rae, A.L., Carroll, B. and Smith, F.W. (2003) Cloning and characterisation of two genes encoding sulfate trasporters from rice ( Oryza sativa L.). Plant Soil 257, 113-123
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Rae AL, Cybinski DH, Jarmey JM and Smith FW (2003) Characterisation of two phosphate transporters from barley: evidence for diverse function and kinetic properties amongst members of the Pht1 family. Plant Molec. Biol. 53, 27-36
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Smith, F.W., Mudge S.R. and Rae A.L. and Glassop D. (2003) Phosphate transport in plants. Plant Soil 248: 71-83
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Smith, F.W. (2002) The phosphate uptake mechanism. Plant Soil 245, 105-114
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Rae, A.L. and Smith, F.W. (2002) Localisation of expression of a high affinity sulfate transporter in barley roots. Planta 213, 565-568.
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Mudge, S.R., Rae, A.L., Diatloff, E. and Smith, F.W. (2002) Expression analysis suggests novel roles for members of the Pht1 family of phosphate transporters in Arabidopsis . Plant J. 31, 341-353
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Yoshimoto N., Takahashi H., Smith F.W., Yamaya T. and Saito K . (2002) Two distinct high-affinity sulfate transporters mediate inducible and constitutive uptake of sulfate in Arabidopsis roots. Plant J. 29, 465-473
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Smith, F.W. (2001) Sulphur and phosphorus transport systems in plants. Plant Soil 232: 109 118
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Smith, F.W . (2001) Plant responses to nutritional stresses. In : Molecular analysis of plant adaptation to the environment, M.J.Hawkesford and P Buchner (eds) (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht ) pp249-269.
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Smith FW, Rae AL and Hawkesford MJ (2000) Molecular mechanisms of phosphate and sulphate transport in plants. Biochim Biophys Acta 1465: 236-245.
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Huang, C., Barker, S.J., Langridge, P., Smith, F. W. and Graham, R.D. (2000) Zinc deficiency up-regulates expression of high-affinity phosphate transporter genes in both phosphate-sufficient and -deficient barley ( Hordeum vulgare L. cv Weeah) roots. Plant Physiology 124: 415-422.
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Smith, F.W., Rae, A.L. and Hawkesford, M.J. ( 2000) Molecular mechanisms of phosphate and sulphate transport in plants. Biochim. Biophys. Acta . Biomembranes 1465, 236-245
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Takahashi, H., Watanabe A ., Smith, F. W., Blake-Kalff M., Hawkesford M. J. and Saito K . (2000) The roles of three functional sulphate transporters involved in uptake and translocation of sulphate in Arabidopsis . Plant Journal 23, 171-178.
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Smith F W, Cybinski D and Rae A L (1999) Regulation of expression of genes encoding phosphate transporters in barley roots. In "Plant Nutrition - Molecular Biology and Genetics" Ed G Gissel-Nielsen and A Jensen. pp145-150. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht .
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Smith F. W. (1999) Molecular biology of nutrient transporters in plant membranes. In Mineral Nutrition of Crops: Fundamental Mechanisms and Implications. Ed Z Rengel. Pp 67-89. Haworth Press, Binghamton .
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