Associate Professor Caitlin Byrt
Biography
Co-founder of Membrane Transporter Engineers (MTE). MTE develops protein components for highly specific element and nutrient separation from complex solutions and for crop improvement purposes. MTE have designed novel protein components and tested the function of hundreds of naturally occurring diverse membrane proteins using cutting-edge and highly specialised approaches. MTE engineers value-adding components for advancing membrane separation technologies and improving plant productivity in challenging environments. The components MTE creates can be embedded in membrane-based filtration systems for gaining new functions and used in critical mineral processing, and MTE deliver components that can be incorporated in plant cell membranes for improving crop performance.
Available student projects
Biotechnology Development Opportunities:
Contribute to solving water security challenges by helping the Membrane Transporter Engineers Pty Ltd team develop novel advanced separation technologies https://ceat.org.au/ceat-announces-new-addition-to-the-innovation-hub/
Higher Degree Research Project Opportunities:
1. Investigating aquaporin roles as macronutrient channels in plants
Project Overview
Aquaporins are emerging as multi-functional water and solute channels that could have crucial roles in plant nutrition and nutrient uptake pathways, including macronutrients such as nitrogen and potassium. There have been reports in the literature that some plant aquaporins can transport the macronutrients potassium (K+) (AtPIP2;1; Byrt et al., 2017; Qiu et al., 2020) and nitrogen (NO3-) (OsPIP1;3in; Liu et al., 2020). This PhD project will investigate plant aquaporins as macro-nutrient channels by testing their function in nutrient transport in heterologous systems and confirm in planta function of macronutrient transport by generation and analysis of transgenics.
Hypothesis
Plant aquaporins that transport the macronutrients may have important roles in plant nutrient uptake pathways and nutrient distribution through-out the plant.
Experiments and desired skills
This project will involve experiments using yeast and possibly Xenopus laevis oocytes as heterologous expression systems for functional characterization of candidate aquaporins. The candidate will generate transgenic plants via agrobacterium mediated transformation of Arabidopsis (floral dipping), Setaria viridis or Oryza sativa (tissue culture). Transgenic lines will include +/- tagged versions for protein localization studies. The transgenic plants will be phenotyped and analysed for nutrient uptake/transport.
Desired (but not essential) skills:
- General molecular biology skills (PCR, gene cloning etc)
- Cell culture
- Plant growth
- Plant transformation
- Microscopy
Outputs
Expected outputs would be
- High-impact paper(s) reporting on in planta investigation of aquaporin contributions to nutrient transport; potential for IP generation.
2. Engineering aquaporins for applications in membrane separation technologies
Project Overview
Aquaporin proteins are used in commercially available water filtration devices. The aquaporin proteins are stably embedded in polymer membrane matrix that enabled the selective filtration of ultra-pure water from contaminated water sources. The diversity of substrate permeabilities of plant aquaporins opens the possibility that plant aquaporins could be embedded in a polymer membrane matrix and deployed in filtration devices to increase the functionality of membrane separation technologies. This PhD project will engineer and optimize plant aquaporins to for use in filtration devices.
Hypothesis
Plant aquaporins could be engineered to specifically separate other molecules of interest (such as macronutrients, or other valuable ion elements) from mixed aqueous solution when embedded in a filter membrane.
Experiments and desired skills
This project is IP-sensitive. This project will involve design-build-test cycles of protein engineering to optimize function and protein stability. The candidate will test protein function using yeast as the heterologous expression system before moving onto protein purification and reconstitution into liposomes. The candidate (in coordination with external collaborators) will generate the polymer membrane matrix to embed the engineered aquaporins in as a lab-bench prototype and perform proof-of-function tests; analyzing input vs output composition of complex aqueous mixtures.
Outputs
Opportunity to contribute to developing technologies that can help solve water and nutrient security and sustainability challenges in the future.
3. Improving osmotic stress tolerance in crops by engineering ion-channel aquaporins
Project Overview
It is well established in the literature that aquaporins have crucial roles in plant osmoregulation and tolerance to osmotic stresses. Several plant aquaporins have also been shown to transport sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) ions, and this function may have important implications in aquaporin involvement in plant osmotic stress tolerance. This PhD project will investigate how the ion channel function of candidate plant aquaporins influences plant osmotic stress tolerance. The possible coupling between ion and water flow in aquaporins could be an important feature for water pumping and energy generation. Coupled ion and water flow has been linked to regulating membrane potential by reducing membrane hyperpolarization, which would reduce the gradient for nonselective cation influx and influence plant tolerance to osmotic stresses such as salinity. Coupling of ion and water flow could also be implicated in diurnal movements in plant tissues and in movement of guard cells which influences gas and water exchange with the environment.
Hypothesis
Plants use ion channel aquaporin function in osmotic stress tolerance mechanisms.
Experiments and desired skills
The candidate will generate transgenic plants via agrobacterium mediated transformation of Arabidopsis (floral dipping), Setaria viridis or Oryza sativa (tissue culture). Transgenic lines will include +/- tagged versions for protein localization studies. The transgenic plants will be phenotyped under different osmotic stress conditions, and ion uptake/transport analysed.
Outputs
- paper(s) on in planta investigation of ion channel aquaporins as targets for crop osmotic stress tolerance improvement; potential for IP generation.
Publications
- Wege, S, Qiu, J, Byrt, C et al. 2021, 'A single residue deletion in the barley HKT1;5 P189 variant restores plasma membrane localisation but not Na+ conductance', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta: Biomembranes, vol. 1863, no. 10.
- McGaughey, S, Tyerman, S & Byrt, C 2021, 'An algal PIP-like aquaporin facilitates water transport and ionic conductance', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta: Biomembranes, vol. 1863, no. 10.
- Tran, S, Horie, T, Imran, S et al. 2020, 'A Survey of Barley PIP Aquaporin Ionic Conductance Reveals Ca2+-Sensitive HvPIP2;8 Na+ and K+ Conductance', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 21.
- Munns, R, Day, D, Fricke, W et al 2020, 'Energy costs of salt tolerance in crop plants', New Phytologist, vol. 225, no. 3, pp. 1072-1090.
- Houston, K, Qiu, J, Wege, S et al. 2020, 'Barley sodium content is regulated by natural variants of the Na+ transporter HvHKT1;5', Communications Biology, vol. 3, no. 258, pp. 1-9.
- Munns, R, Passioura, J, Colmer, T et al. 2020, 'Osmotic adjustment and energy limitations to plant growth in saline soil', New Phytologist, vol. 225, no. 3, pp. 1091-1096.
- Hoai, P.T., Tyerman, S.D., Schnell, N., Tucker, M., McGaughey, S.A., Qiu, J., Groszmann, M.* and Byrt, C.S*., 2020. Deciphering aquaporin regulation and roles in seed biology. Journal of Experimental Botany, 71(6), pp.1763-1773. *Joint senior and co-corresponding authors
- Qiu, J., McGaughey, S.A., Groszmann, M., Tyerman, S.D. and Byrt, C.S., 2020. Phosphorylation influences water and ion channel function of AtPIP2; 1. Plant, Cell & Environment, 43(10), pp.2428-2442.
- David, R, David, R, Byrt, C et al 2019, 'Roles of membrane transporters: connecting the dots from sequence to phenotype', Annals of Botany, vol. 124, no. 2, pp. 201-208.
- David, R, David, R, Byrt, C et al 2019, 'Roles of membrane transporters: connecting the dots from sequence to phenotype', Annals of Botany, vol. 124, no. 2, pp. 201-208.
- Tyerman, S, Munns, R, Fricke, W et al 2019, 'Energy costs of salinity tolerance in crop plants', New Phytologist, vol. 221, no. 1, pp. 25-29.
- Amarasinghe, S, Watson-Haigh, N, Byrt, C et al 2019, 'Transcriptional variation is associated with differences in shoot sodium accumulation in distinct barley varieties', Environmental and Experimental Botany, vol. 166, no. 103812, pp. 1-15.
- Xu, B, Waters, S, Byrt, C et al 2018, 'Structural variations in wheat HKT1;5 underpin differences in Na+ transport capacity', Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, vol. 75, no. 6, pp. 1133-1144pp.
- Byrt, C, Munns, R, Burton, R et al 2018, 'Root cell wall solutions for crop plants in saline soils', Plant Science, vol. 269, pp. 47-55pp.
- Martin, A, Brown, C, Nguyen, D et al 2017, 'Cell Wall Development in an Elongating Internode of Setaria', in Andrew Doust and Xianmin Diao (ed.), Genetics and Genomics of Setaria, Springer, Switzerland, pp. 211-238pp.
- Jaime-Pérez, N, Pineda, B, GarcÃa-Sogo, B et al 2017, 'The sodium transporter encoded by the HKT1;2 gene modulates sodium/potassium homeostasis in tomato shoots under salinity', Plant Cell and Environment, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 658-671pp.
- Kourghi, M, Nourmohammadi, S, Pei, J et al 2017, 'Divalent Cations Regulate the Ion Conductance Properties of Diverse Classes of Aquaporins ', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 18, no. 2323, pp. 19pp.
- Byrt, C, Zhao, M, Kourghi, M et al 2017, 'Non-selective cation channel activity of aquaporin AtPIP2;1 regulated by Ca 2+ and pH', Plant Cell and Environment, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 802-815pp.
- Corbin, K, Betts, N, van Holst, N et al 2016, 'Low-Input Fermentations of Agave tequilana Leaf Juice Generate High Returns on Ethanol Yields', Bioenergy Research, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 1142-1154pp.
- Li, B, Byrt, C, Qiu, J et al 2016, 'Identification of a stelar-localized transport protein that facilitates root-to-shoot transfer of chloride in arabidopsis', Plant Physiology, vol. 170, no. 2, pp. 1014-1029pp.
- Byrt, C, Betts, N, Tan, H et al 2016, 'Prospecting for energy-rich renewable raw materials: Sorghum stem case study', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 20pp.
- McGaughey, S, Osborn, H, Chen, L et al 2016, 'Roles of aquaporins in setaria viridis stem development and sugar storage', Frontiers in Plant Science, vol. 7, no. 1815, pp. 13pp.
- Ermawar, R, Collins, H, Byrt, C et al 2015, 'Distribution, structure and biosynthetic gene families of (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan in Sorghum bicolor', Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 429-445pp.
- Corbin, K, Hsieh, Y, Betts, N et al 2015, 'Grape marc as a source of carbohydrates for bioethanol: Chemical composition, pre-treatment and saccharification', Bioresource Technology, vol. 193, pp. 76-83pp.
- Ermawar, R, Collins, H, Byrt, C et al 2015, 'Genetics and physiology of cell wall polysaccharides in the model C4 grass, Setaria viridis spp', BMC Plant Biology, vol. 15, no. 236, pp. 18pp.
- Corbin, K, Byrt, C, Bauer, S et al 2015, 'Prospecting for energy-rich renewable raw materials: Agave leaf case study', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 23pp.
- Byrt, C, Xu, B, Krishnan, M et al 2014, 'The Na+ transporter, TaHKT1;5-D, limits shoot Na+ accumulation in bread wheat', The Plant Journal, vol. 80, no. 3, pp. 516-526pp.
- Grof, C, Byrt, C & Patrick, J 2014, 'Phloem Transport of Resources', in Paul Moore and Frederik Botha (ed.), Sugarcane: Physiology, Biochemistry, and Functional Biology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Oxford, United Kingdom, pp. 267-306pp.
- Martin, A, Palmer, W, Byrt, C et al 2013, '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, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 186-186.
- Byrt, C, Betts, N, Farrokhi, N et al. 2013, 'Deconstructing Plant Biomass: Cell Wall Structure and Novel Manipulation Strategies', in B Singh (ed.), Biofuel Crops: Production, Physiology and Genetics, CABI Publishing, UK, pp. 135-150.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Deciphering desalination mechanisms from salt-excreting mangroves (Primary Investigator)
- Sugar transporter biology and applications for crop inprovement - PhD scholarship (Primary Investigator)
- C4 Rice Phase IV (Secondary Investigator)
- Boosting barley and rice stress tolerance in Australia and Japan (Primary Investigator)
- Deciphering how plants control water and salt co-transport (Primary Investigator)
