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Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Young Perth researcher and avid surfer, Tiago Tomaz, recently published the discovery that removing two proteins from plants can increase levels of Vitamin C and have large effects on plant growth.  This surprising discovery from The University of Western Australia arose from altering plant respiration - the way plants "breathe" and produce energy.

The ability to increase a plant's Vitamin C content, a natural antioxidant, has many implications for improving the current approach to dietary vitamin supplementation and the development of antioxidant-rich foods.  This knowledge may also help us create plants better able to withstand environmental stressors associated with climate change.

"Environmental stresses create "free radicals" - the vandals of the cell," Mr Tomaz said.  "Free radicals rip parts off other molecules, making them unstable.  These unstable molecules rip parts off other molecules and so the damage spreads in a wave of destruction.  Antioxidants, such as vitamin C, are a weapon against free radicals.  They act in a kamikaze fashion, presenting themselves to attack from free radicals to prevent damage to key components of the cell.  Plants with higher levels of antioxidants have two benefits; they are better able to withstand stress themselves and are healthier for the people who eat them."

Mr Tomaz's interest in plant biochemistry is centralised around the use of reverse genetics.  This gene disruption technology is used to find out how small changes in genes (and their protein products) can make huge differences to the overall plant - especially in the production of energy.

For his honours project at the UWA-based Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (PEB), he focused on the tiny energy factories of the cell called mitochondria.  Mitochondria produce energy in plants and animals through respiration.

"Genetic defects in humans that prevent respiration from working properly often tragically result in infant mortality," he said.

Using reverse genetics, Mr Tomaz was able to establish how plants are able to get around this defect, providing new insights into how respiration works in plants and humans.

Mr Tomaz's work on mitochondria and respiration, in collaboration with the prestigious Umea Plant Science Centre in Sweden, was published in the November issue of Plant Physiology .

Mr Tomaz developed a passion for the environment when he took up surfing in primary school.  A science teacher encouraged him to explore biology and he embarked on an animal science major at university, but later moved into plant biology.

He works at the Plant Energy Biology centre, where he is in the final year of his doctorate.  "Working in molecular plant science is extremely interesting, we are making discoveries that have potential real-world applications for improving agriculture in our changing world.  It's pretty amazing," he said.  "Surfing and free radicals are a great combination."

Media references

Tiago Tomaz (+61 8)  6488 4435  /  (+61 4) 33 653 015
Alice Trend (Science Communications Officer, Plant Energy Biology)  (+61 8)  6488 4481
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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