Academic Staff - Dr Jenny Saleeba

Areas of Interest

Genetics of root branching patterns

Our lab is pursuing a research project on the genetic mechanisms of lateral root formation in Arabidopsis thaliana and their consequences to the plant as a whole. We have mapped the chromosomal positions of several genes involved in root architecture. Lab members have developed specialised bioinformatics software that can weigh up the relative likelihood of different candidate genes being important in this phenotype. Currently the lab is screening gene knockout lines in order to pinpoint the most important genes. The long-term outcome of this project will be to gain a genetic understanding of root formation. The information could be applied to the improvement of roots in field crops and plants of horticultural importance so that they can better search for water and nutrients and are more resilient to mechanical damage by wind and rain.

Microbial diversity in soils

The collaboration between Peter McGee's lab and our lab has uncovered intriguing relationships between the relative diversity of soil-borne microbes and other factors including land use. This work is part of the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre.

Complex genetic systems

Organisms are constantly making decisions about very complex questions. We aim to understand the genetics of at least some of this complexity. How does an organism respond to its environment and genotype and what affect does this response have on the whole organism? We are using quantitative tools in genetics, biostatistics and bioinformatics in order to address this goal.

Natural variation

Close relatives of plants have many similarities and some very distinct differences. We aim to investigate the genetic differences between taxa in order to find out in what way these differences are genetically encoded.

Research Output

Publications

Midgley DJ, Saleeba JA, Stewart MI, Simpson AE McGee PA (2007) Molecular diversity of soil basidiomycete communities in northern-central New South Wales, Australia. Mycological Research 111(3): 370-378.

Midgley DJ, Saleeba JA, Stewart MI, McGee PA (2007) Novel soil lineages of Archaea are present in semi-arid soils of eastern Australia. Canadian Journal of Microbiology, 53(1): 129-138.

Istifadah N, Saleeba JA, McGee PA (2006) Isolates of endophytic Chaetomium spp. inhibit the fungal pathogen, Pyrenophora triticirepentis, in vitro. Canadian Journal of Botany 84:1148-1155.

Midgley DJ, Jordan LA, Saleeba JA, McGee PA (2006) Utilisation of carbon substrates by orchid and ericoid mycorrhizal fungi from Australian dry sclerophyll forests. Mycorrhiza16:175-182.

Becerra-LopezLavalle L A, Saleeba JA, Lyon BR (2005) Molecular identification of fungi isolated from stem issue of Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). Australian Journal of Botany, 53:571-578.

Jakobsen IB, Saleeba JA, Poidinger M, Littlejohn TG (2001) TreeGeneBrowser: phylogenetic data mining of gene sequences from public sequence databases. Bioinformatics 17: 535-540.

Saleeba JA, Ibrahim RK, Gulick PJ (1998) cDNA cloning and nucleotide sequencing of an adenylate translocator in white lupine. Plant Physiol 117: 1127.

Saleeba JA, Guerinot ML (1995) Induction of ferric reductase activity in response to iron deficiency in Arabidopsis. Biometals 8:297-300.

Yi Y, Saleeba JA, Guerinot, ML (1994) Iron uptake in Arabidopsis thaliana. In Biochemistry of Metal Micronutrients in the Rhizosphere, Manthey JA, Crowley DE, Luster DG (eds.) CRC Press Inc, Boca Raton, Florida.

Saleeba JA, Cotton RGH (1993) Chemical cleavage of mismatch to detect mutations. Methods Enzymol 217:286-295.

Cotton RGH, Howells DW, Saleeba JA, Dianzani I, Smooker PM, Jennings IG (1993) Structure function studies of the phenylalanine hydroxylase active site and a summary of structural features. Adv Exp Med Biol 338:55-57.

Dianzani I, Howells DW, Ponzone A, Saleeba JA, Smooker PM, Cotton RGH (1993) Two new mutations in the dihydropteridine reductase gene in patients with tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency. J Med Genet 30:465-469.

Cotton RGH, Dahl H-HM, Forrest SM, Howells DW, Ramus SJ, Bishop RE, Dianzani I, Saleeba JA, Palombo E, Anderson MJ, Campbell RD (1993) Analysis of sequence contexts flanking T.G mismatches leads to predictions about reactivity of the mismatched T to osmium tetroxide. DNA Cell Biol 12:945-949.

Ramus SJ, Forrest SM, Pitt, DB, Saleeba JA, Cotton RGH (1993) Comparison of genotype and intellectual phenotype in untreated PKU patients. J Med Genet 30:401-405.

Saleeba JA, Cobbett CS, Hynes MJ (1992) Characterisation of the amdA-regulated aciA gene of Aspergillus nidulans. Mol Gen Genet 235:349-358.

Saleeba JA, Ramus SJ, Cotton RGH (1992) Complete mutation detection using unlabeled chemical cleavage. Human Mutation 1:63-69.

Ramus SJ, Forrest SM, Saleeba JA, Cotton RGH (1992) CpG hotspot causes second mutation in codon 408 of the phenylalanine hydroxylase gene. Hum Genet 90:147-148.

Saleeba JA, Cotton RGH (1991) 35S-labelled probes improve detection of mismatched basepairs by chemical cleavage. Nucleic Acids Res 19:1712.

Saleeba JA, Cotton RGH (1991) Mutation detection by chemical cleavage. Life Science 9:7.

Katz ME, Saleeba JA, Sapats SI, Hynes MJ (1990) A mutation affecting amdS expression in Aspergillus nidulans contains a triplication of a cis-acting regulatory sequence. Mol Gen Genet 220:373-376.

Hynes MJ, Andrianopoulos A, Davis MA, van Heejswick R, Katz ME, Littlejohn TG, Richardson IB, Saleeba JA (1989) Multiple circuits regulating the amdS gene of Aspergillus nidulans. In Proceedings of the EMBO-Alko Workshop on Molecular Biology of Filamentous Fungi, Nevalainen H, Penttila M (eds), Foundation for Biotechnical and Industrial Fermentation Research (Helsinki) 6:63-71.

Recent Conference and Seminar Presentations

• Saleeba JA, Gaal CV, Prodhan MA, Ly PKC (2008) Identification of root branching candidate genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. ComBio, Canberra.
• Alomari O, Saleeba JA, Knox O, McGee P (2007) Effect of rotation on proteobacterial biodiversity and ability to influence root architecture. ComBio, Sydney.
• Saleeba JA, Ly P (2007) Candidate gene identification by combining QTL mapping with bioinformatics. 54th Genetics Society of Australasia Annual Conference, Sydney.
• Loke SM, Saleeba JA, McGee PA (2006) Analysis of AMF colonising the roots of Gossypium hirsutum and Trifolium subterraneum grown in field soil by ARDRA. 5th International Conference on Mycorrhiza, Granada, Spain.
• Golubchik T, Palmer CS, Saleeba JA, Lyon BR (2005) Application of an in vitro phytotoxicity assay to investigate the causal agents of vascular wilt diseases of cotton. ComBio, Adelaide.
• Saleeba JA (2004) Quantitative trait loci for root architecture in Arabidopsis. 15th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, Berlin, Germany.
• Saleeba JA (2004) Quantitative trait loci for root architecture in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney, Cobbitty.
• Loke SM, Saleeba JA, McGee PA (2004) Molecular community analysis of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in cotton cropping soils. 10th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology in Cancun, Mexico.
• Midgley DJ, Saleeba JA, Stewart MI, McGee PA (2004) Diversity of archaeal communities in cotton growing, semi-disturbed and natural soils in eastern Australia. 10th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology in Cancun, Mexico.
• McGee P, Midgley D, Saleeba JA (2004) Soil health: a multifaceted approach to understanding the microbiology of soil. 12th Australian Cotton Conference, Gold Coast.