Professor Mark Tester

Biography/ Background

Undergraduate
1980-82 Bachelor of Science Degree, University of Adelaide, Australia

1981            E.M. Cornish Prize for Botany; Constance Eardley Prize for Botany II (Taxonomy)
                J.G. Wood Prize for Botany III
1984    1st Class Honours in Botany (supervisor: Dr FA Smith)
        â€~The Effect of Photon Irradiance on Mycorrhizal Development in Trifolium subterraneumâ€TM
                John Bagot Medal (shared)

Graduate
1985 St John's College and University of Cambridge - supervisor: Prof EAC MacRobbie Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Overseas Scholarship, Overseas Research Students Award, Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Award & George Murray Scholarship 1988 PhD, â€^~Studies of Ion Channels in Chara corallinaâ€^TM

Employment

1988-1990       Glaxo Junior Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge
1990-1992       Lecturer, Department of Botany, University of Adelaide
1993-2000       Lecturer, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
1994-2003       Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge
2000-2003       Senior Lecturer, Dept of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
2001-2003       BBSRC Research Development Fellow
2004-           Australian Research Council Federation Fellow (professorial research fellowship)

Qualifications

B.Sc.(Hons), First Class, Adelaide
Ph.D., Cambridge

Teaching Interests

Undergraduate teaching
In Cambridge I contributed to undergraduate teaching in all three years of the Natural Sciences Tripos. The quantity and breadth of my teaching has certainly been significant. The quality of my teaching is harder to quantify. It has been evaluated primarily by reviews of student questionnaires at the end of each term, facilitated by Consultative Committee meetings each term for each subject. Students have consistently rated all aspects of my teaching highly. For example, in my first year lectures to ~350 students on cell membranes, in every year I obtained the highest marks of all the lecturers delivering the course. Whilst using student feedback, it may also be useful to quote from a final year consultative committee meeting minutes: 'The students considered that in terms of what is helpful to them, nobody does it better than Dr Tester. He provides a great deal of information in lectures, but the references are reasonable. His lectures were found to be accessible, and they provided a useful overlap with ecology.â€^TM

I have also been involved in the development of courses. My input to the development of the new first year biology courses was central – although change of some sort was going to happen, it was the model for change proposed by me that was the one finally accepted. I was also been involved in attempts to transform the degree structure in a Polish University, being a partner in an EU TEMPUS grant of €334,850 with Prof. A. Tretyn of Torún University. My commitment to teaching and the development of teaching is also evident from my membership of the Institute of Learning and Teaching.

On a more pedagogical note, I actively try to tailor my teaching style to accommodate the level of the students in the course. My 1st year lectures are deliberately more populist, with the aim of capturing the students' attention, enabling me then to teach in a memorable way. Teaching to more advanced years employs fewer 'gimmicks' and becomes a more personal exchange. With this change in style comes a change in my handouts, from complete in 1st year, to the provision of only subheadings, graphics, and references in 3rd year. However, I release complete lecture notes on the web after each lecture. College teaching
Cambridge is a collegiate University, and I feel it is important to the running of the University for lecturers to be engaged in the College system. As such, I was involved in Churchill College for most of my time there as a lecturer. I gave many supervisions, I was the Director of Studies in Biological Sciences, and I was an advanced studentsâ€^TM tutor. I was also a member of College Council for two years and chaired the Library Committee for several years. Current input at the University of Adelaide Although I am currently in a research-only post, I still present 6 lectures to first year undergraduates and give several â€^~guestâ€^TM lectures to advanced undergraduates and coursework graduates in a range of subjects. In the past year, I have done this in Adelaide, Cambridge and Heidelberg. I am also involved in the establishment of a new Masters course in plant biotechnology which will run for the first time this year – and for which over 20 students have already enrolled.

Graduate teaching
In my own research laboratory, graduate students usually obtain feedback through almost daily encounters in the laboratory, both with me and with the postdoctoral workers in my group. This has been facilitated by the excellent layout of my research area. In both Adelaide and Cambridge, my office has been in the far corner of a large laboratory. Different students have different preferences and requirements for supervisory interaction – I try to be sensitive to these various needs, formalising regular contact with some students, whilst leaving others to interact more regularly with the postdoctoral worker to whom they have been allocated. Weekly lab meetings and fortnightly journal clubs also provide a forum for presentations of work by the students to the whole group, a forum that can provide fertile ground for the development of new strategies.

Overall, I am committed to education and believe that I have gained the knowledge and honed the skills demanded of a high quality teacher. I consider that students are inspired by my teaching and are able to develop their conceptual understanding. Furthermore, there is good evidence that my efforts are appreciated by the students. My teaching has ranged from the molecular to the ecological, reflecting my research interests in elucidating molecular explanations for ecological phenomena. Consequently, I have enjoyed fulfilling an unusually wide array of teaching demands over my past 16 years as an academic.

Research Interests

The aim of my research programme is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that enable certain plants to thrive in sub-optimal soil conditions, such as high salinity or low N availability. The applied aim is to modify crop plants to increase their productivity on such soils; and to increase the mineral content of their seeds. The intellectual aim is to understand mechanisms of long-distance communication within plants through the study of genes which lead to appropriate shoot nutrient levels. Coordinated responses by the whole plant to environmental stimuli are essential to allow plants to respond appropriately to changes in their environment, yet our understanding at the molecular and cellular levels of high level coordination processes remains minimal.

The current focus is on salinity tolerance, so the main solute being studied is Na+, with attention also being paid to other solutes, such as K+, Cl- and boric acid. More detailed information can be found on my websites.

Three complementary technical approaches are being taken to study control of nutrient accumulation:

1.      Forward genetics, through discovering and exploiting naturally occurring variation in lines, particularly from the regions in which wheat and barley originated.
2.      Reverse genetics, through the identification of candidate genes from genomics and related approaches and measuring effects of altering expression of key genes in crop and model plants.
3.      Complementing both the above approaches is a molecular genetic approach, where novel variation in shoot solute accumulation is generated by manipulation of random gene expression in specific cell types hypothesized to be important in controlling shoot solute accumulation.

Most research in my laboratory employs the classic model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, whose small size and sequenced genome pre-disposes it to molecular and genetic studies. However, about five years ago I made a strategic decision to begin using rice, as an important crop in its own right, but also as a powerful model cereal which is not as extensively studied as Arabidopsis. This move was timely, coinciding with advances in transformation and anticipating the genome sequence by over two years. With my move two years ago to Australia, I have been able to apply my experience with Arabidopsis and rice to wheat and barley, exploiting the opportunities provided by the excellent genetic resources available at the ACPFG.

With the forward genetic strategy, natural variation in shoot Na+ accumulation is being discovered and exploited for both direct introgression into commercial lines and gene discovery. In particular, high throughput assays for reliably measuring shoot Na+ accumulation in cereals have been developed and are now being used to screen exotic germplasm for novel variation in shoot Na+ accumulation. Out of over 600 accessions already screened, some lines with extraordinarily low Na+ have already been revealed in some cereals, most notably the diploid wheat progenitor, Triticum monococcum. This material is now being used to construct mapping populations for, ultimately, positional cloning of the alleles responsible for this variation. This material is also being introgressed directly into commercial germplasm, a traditional breeding process that can be uniquely accelerated at the ACPFG by exploiting the unique combination in the Centre of molecular markers and the high throughput physiological-based screen. The use of established mapping populations of wheat and barley has also revealed genetic loci, whose molecular identities are also being established. Needless to say, we are also taking this forward genetic approach in Arabidopsis, and have identified alleles responsible for a large percentage of the variation in shoot Na+ accumulation. In the second approach, several candidate genes have been identified from the literature (HKT, AVP, SOS1, NHX, ENA, GLR) and are being expressed and silenced constitutively, inducibly and in specific cell types. The effects on shoot accumulation of Na+ (and other solutes) are being steadily revealed, with preliminary results showing exciting possibilities (e.g. PpENA1 overexpression appears to lower shoot Na+ in some lines). This work will be continued, focusing on genes and cell types that show the most promise, to critically assess the utility of this approach for future transgenic applications. Additionally, searches for further candidate genes will remain ongoing, using both bioinformatics approaches and also a cell type-specific transcriptomics project (in collaboration with Ken Birnbaum, NYU), using fluorescently-activated cell sorting, laser capture microdissection and RNA amplification to profile transcription in single cell types. Using Affymetrix microarrays enables quantitative comparison of expression profiles in samples obtained from different cell types in plants grown in different conditions, which provides information on the modulation of gene expression in specific cell types in response to stress. This should indicate genes involved in specific, adaptive responses to stress, unlike current studies of gene responses that use whole tissue samples. Given the importance of cell-specific processes in stress responses, these latter analyses are more likely to reveal genes involved in damage response, rather than damage limitation. Genes that limit damage will clearly be of greater interest in mis-expression studies. The third approach combines forward and reverse genetic strategies, with the activation of random genes in specific cell types that are likely to be important in controlling shoot solute accumulation. The reason for this approach comes from the following thinking. For shoot Na+ accumulation to be minimized, Na+ would need to be pumped out of cells in the outer part of the root, but into cells in the inner part of the root, adjacent to the xylem (to maintain low Na+ in the xylem and thus low delivery to the shoot). The novel approach being employed in my research is the study and manipulation of ion transport in specific cell types within the plant, particularly in the root. The importance of this has been recently demonstrated, where constitutive over-expression of the gene encoding the Na+ influx transporter, AtHKT1, increased shoot Na+, whereas stelar-specific expression of this gene had the opposite effect, reducing shoot Na+. This recent result supports clearly the hypothesized importance of cell-specific expression in shoot ion accumulation, and clearly requires building upon for some time to come.

For the past few years, we have been developing and using GAL4/GFPP enhancer trap lines in Arabidopsis and rice to generate transgenic plants with altered levels of expression of Na+ transporters (and other genes) in specific cell types. The more genomic-scale approach has been recently trialed in my laboratory, with the generation of 1100 lines with random gene activation specifically in the epidermis and cortex and the screening of mutants for abnormal accumulation of solutes in the shoot using ICP-MS. So far, 11 mutants have been confirmed, including five lines with low shoot Na+. I confidently expect this material will provide many opportunities for years to come. This programme has the added value of providing material of interest to human nutritionists, as plants with increased accumulation of valuable elements such as Fe, I and Zn will be identified. Deficiencies in these elements generate some of the most significant health problems globally. This will give me the chance to access new funding sources, such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, as well as providing the chance to elucidate fundamental molecular principles underlying the control of nutrient accumulation in higher plants. The above programme, whilst developed by me over the past decade or more, is currently embedded in the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, an independent company located on the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide. The ACPFGâ€^TMs remit is to develop cereal varieties with increased tolerance to abiotic stresses such as salinity and drought (see www.acpfg.com.au). My research program fits ideally into this remit, and a mutually beneficial relationship between ACPFG and my own programme has been established. Besides substantial support from the ACPFG and the University of Adelaide, work in Australia is funded primarily by the Australian Research Council, but significant support has also been obtained from the industrial organisation the Grains Research & Development Corporation. In addition, I was centrally involved in the recent substantial agreement between DuPont and ACPFG, which has provided the opportunity to establish a line of research on nitrogen use efficiency, the intellectual and technical basis for which is similar to the work described above on salinity.

Such work is not done alone, and, in addition to the collaborative network of some 100 researchers in the ACPFG, a number of significant external collaborations have been established. At the University of Adelaide, projects are underway with Professor Steve Tyerman, Dr. Brent Kaiser, Professor Roger Leigh and Dr. Matt Gilliham. In addition, a collaborative project on salinity tolerance in wheat has been commenced with Dr. Rana Munns (CSIRO Plant Industry). At the international level, collaborative projects with Emmanuel Guiderdoni (CIRAD, France) on rice transgenesis and Ken Birnbaum (New York University) on single cell type gene profiling have been established.

Publications

Refereed publications

 

Over 100 refereed papers have been published in international journals. Listed below are those from the last 5 years. In addition, book chapters, short papers, notes, abstracts and NCBI database submissions have been published. 

H index = 32; total citations = 3,318; average citations per paper = 28.9 (average in plant and animal science for 1997-2008 of 6.3)      [updated 16 July 2009]

Publications from the past five years are listed immediately below, and this is followed by a full list of older papers, from 1985-2004.

 

2009

Rajendran, K., Tester, M. & Roy, S.J. (2009) Quantifying the three main components of salinity tolerance in cereals. Plant, Cell & Environment 32, 237-249

Grace, E.J., Cotsaftis, O., Tester, M., Smith, F.A. & Smith, S.E. (2009) Arbuscular mycorrhizal inhibition of growth in barley cannot be attributed to extent of colonisation, fungal P uptake or effects on expression of plant phosphate transporter genes. New Phytologist 181: 938-949

Genc Y, Tester, M and McDonald G.K. (2009). Calcium requirement of wheat in saline and non-saline conditions. Plant and Soil,  doi 10.1007/s11104-009-0057-3

Møller, I.S., Gilliham, M., Jha, D., Mayo, G.M., Roy, S.J., Coates, J.C., Haseloff, J. & Tester, M. (2009) Shoot Na⁺ exclusion and increased salinity tolerance engineered by cell type-specific manipulation of Na⁺ transport in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 21: doi 10.1105/tpc.108.064568

Widodo, Roessner, U., Patterson, J.H., Newbigin, E.J., Tester, M. & Bacic A. (2009) Metabolic responses to salt stress of the barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars, Sahara and Clipper, which differ in salinity tolerance.  Journal of Experimental Botany, in press

Plett, D. & Tester, M. (2009) Chapter 6 - Genetic determinants of salinity tolerance in crop plants. In: Jenks, M. & Wood, A., eds. Genes for Plant Abiotic Stress. Wiley-Blackwell, in press

Piñeros, M. & Tester, M. (2009) Calcium inhibits dihydropyridine-stimulated increases in opening and unitary conductance of a wheat root plasma membrane depolarisation-activated Ca²⁺-permeable channel. FEBS Letters, resubmitted after revision

Jha, D., Shirley, N., Tester, M. and Roy, S.J. (2009) Expression profiling of transporters important in salinity tolerance in four ecotypes of Arabidopsis. Plant, Cell & Environment, submitted

Tregeagle, J.M. Walker, R.R., Tisdall, J.M. & Tester, M. (2009) Cl^- uptake, transport and accumulation in grapevine rootstocks of differing Cl^--excluding ability. Functional Plant Biology, submitted

Johnson, A., Kyriacou, B., Callahan, D., Carruthers, L., Stangoulis, J. and Tester, M. (2009) Nicotianamine a key regulator of rice micronutrient content. Science, submitted

Cotsaftis, O., Plett, D., Johnson, A.A., Ismail, A.M., Walia, H., Close, T.J., Tester, M. and Baumann, U. (2009) Root-specific transcript profiling of contrasting rice genotypes in response to salinity stress. Plant Physiology, submitted

Shavrukov, Y., Langridge, P. and Tester, M. (2009) Salinity tolerance and sodium exclusion in genus Triticum. Breeding Science, submitted

Drew, D.P., Hrmova, M., Lunde, C., Jacobs, A., Tester, M. and Fincher, G.B. (2009) Two distinct molecular mechanisms have evolved for Na⁺ transport by type IID P-type ATPases in lower plants and fungi . Plant Journal, submitted

 

 

2008

Munns, R. & Tester, M. (2008) Salinity tolerance in higher plants. Annual Reviews of Plant Biology 59: 651-681

Roy, S.J., Gilliham, M., Berger, B., Essah, P.A., Cheffings, C., Miller, A.J., Widdowson, L., Davenport, R.J., Liu, L.-H., Skynner, M.J., Davies, J.M., Richardson, P., Leigh, R.A. and Tester, M. (2008) Investigating glutamate receptor-like gene co-expression in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant, Cell & Environment 31: 861-871

Tracy, F.E., Gilliham, M., Dodd, A.N., Webb, A.A.R. & Tester, M. (2008) Cytosolic free Ca²⁺ in Arabidopsis thaliana are heterogeneous and modified by external ionic composition. Plant, Cell & Environment 31: 1063-1073

Izanloo, A., Condon, A.G., Langridge, P., Tester , M. and Schnurbusch, T. (2008) Different mechanisms of adaptation to cyclic water stress in two South Australian bread wheat cultivars. Journal of Experimental Botany 59: 3327-3346

 

2007

Davenport R.J., Muñoz-Mayor A., Jha, D., Essah P.A., Rus A. & Tester M. (2007) The Na⁺ transporter AtHKT1 controls xylem retrieval of Na⁺ in Arabidopsis. Plant, Cell & Environment 30: 497-507

Byrt, C.S., Platten, J.D., Spielmeyer, W., James, R.A., Lagudah, E.S., Dennis, E.S., Tester, M. & Munns, R. (2007) HKT1;5-like cation transporters linked to Na⁺ exclusion loci in wheat, Nax2 and Kna1. Plant Physiology 143: 1918-1928

Lunde, C., Drew, D.P., Jacobs, A.K. & Tester, M. (2007) Exclusion of Na⁺ via sodium ATPase (PpENA1) ensures normal growth of Physcomitrella patens under moderate salt stress. Plant Physiology 144: 1786-1796 (with cover image)

Jacobs, A., Lunde, C., Bacic, A., Tester, M., Roessner, U. (2007) The impact of constitutive heterologous expression of a moss Na⁺ transporter on the metabolomes of rice and barley. Metabolomics 3: 307-317

Genc, Y., McDonald, G.K. & Tester, M. (2007) Reassessment of tissue Na⁺ concentration as a criterion for salinity tolerance in bread wheat. Plant, Cell & Environment 30: 1486-1498

Sutton, T., Baumann, U., Hayes, J., Shi, B.-J., Collins, N.C., Schnurbusch, T., Hay, A., Mayo, G., Pallotta, M., Tester, M. & Langridge, P. (2007) Boron-toxicity tolerance in barley arising from efflux transporter amplification. Science 318:  1446-1449

Chen, Z., Pottosin, I.I., Cuin, T.A., Fuglsang, A.T., Tester, M., Jha, D., Zepeda-Jazo, I., Zhou, M., Palmgren, M.G., Newman, I.A. & Shabala, S. (2007) Root plasma membrane transporters controlling K⁺/Na⁺ homeostasis in salt-stressed barley. Plant Physiology 145: 1714-1725

Schnurbusch, T., Huang, C., Collins, N.C., Sutton, T., John, U., Roy, S., Paltridge, N., Tester, M., Langridge P. & Fincher, G.B. (2007) Prospects for developing GM varieties of wheat and barley with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress. Agricultural Science 21: 4-10

Møller, I.S. and Tester, M. (2007) Salinity tolerance of Arabidopsis: a good model for cereals? Trends in Plant Science 12: 534-540

Johnson, A., Yu, S.-M. & Tester, M. (2007) Activation tagging systems in rice. In: Uphadyana, N.M., ed., ‘Rice Functional Genomics: Challenges, Progress and Prospects’, pp 333-353 (Springer) http://www.springer.com/east/home/generic/search/results?SGWID=5-40109-22-173700505-0

 

2006

Platten, J.D., Cotsaftis, O., Berthomieu, P., Bohnert, H., Bressan, R., Davenport, R.J., Fairbairn, D.J., Horie, T., Leigh, R.A., Lin, H.-X., Luan, S., Mäser, P., Pantoja, O., Rodríguez-Navarro, A., Schroeder, J.I., Sentenac, H., Uozumi, N., Véry, A.-A., Zhu, J.-K., Dennis, E.S. and Tester, M. (2006) Nomenclature for HKT genes, key determinants of plant salinity tolerance. Trends in Plant Sciences 11: 372-374

Murthy, M. & Tester, M. (2006) K⁺ and Na⁺ currents across the plasma membrane of protoplasts from the roots of wild type and a Na⁺ hyperaccumulating mutant of Capsicum. Journal of Experimental Botany 57: Special Issue on Salinity, 1171-1180

Gilliham, M., Sullivan, W., Tester, M. & Tyerman, S.D. (2006) Simultaneous flux and current measurement from single plant protoplasts reveals a strong link between K⁺ fluxes and current, but no link between Ca²⁺ fluxes and current. Plant Journal 46: 134-144

Walch-Liu, P., Liu, L.-H., Remans, T., Tester, M. & Forde, B.G. (2006) Evidence that L-glutamate can act as an exogenous signal to modulate root growth and branching in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant & Cell Physiology 47: 1045-1057

 

2005

Johnson, A.A.T., Hibberd, J.M., Gay, C., Essah, P.A., Haseloff, J., Tester, M. and Guiderdoni, E. (2005) Spatial control of transgene expression in rice (Oryza sativa L.) using the GAL4 enhancer trapping system. Plant Journal 41: 779-789  [MT is corresponding author] (with cover image)

Tester, M. & Bacic, A. (2005). Abiotic stress tolerance in grasses. From model plants to crop plants. Plant Physiology 137: 791-793

Davenport, R.J., James, R.A., Zakrisson-Plogander, A., Tester, M. & Munns, R.J. (2005) Control of sodium transport in durum wheat. Plant Physiology 137: 807-818 (with cover image)

Gilliham, M. & Tester, M. (2005) The regulation of anion loading to the maize root xylem. Plant Physiology 137: 819-828

And here follows a listing of older papers, from 1985-2004. 

(a) Primary Papers
1. Tester, M., Smith, F.A. & Smith, S.E. (1985) Phosphate inflow into Trifolium subterraneum L.: effects of photon irradiance and mycorrhizal infection. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 17: 807-810

2. Smith, S.E., Tester, M., & Walker, N.A. (1986) The development of mycorrhizal root systems in Trifolium subterraneum L.: growth of roots and the uniformity of spatial distribution of mycorrhizal infection units in young plants. The New Phytologist 103: 117-131

3. Tester, M., Smith, S.E., Smith, F.A. & Walker, N.A. (1986) Effects of photon irradiance on the growth of shoots and roots, on the rate of initiation of mycorrhizal infection and on the growth of infection units in Trifolium subterraneum L. The New Phytologist 103: 375-390

4. Smith, S.E., Walker, N.A. & Tester, M. (1986) The apparent width of the rhizosphere of Trifolium subterraneum L. for vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal infection: effects of time and other factors. The New Phytologist 104: 547-558

5. Tester, M., Paton, D.C., Reid, N. & Lange, R.T. (1987) Seed dispersal by birds and densities of shrubs under trees in arid South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 111: 1-5

6. Tester, M., Beilby, M.J. & Shimmen, T. (1987) Electrical characteristics of the tonoplast of Chara corallina: a study using permeabilised cells. Plant & Cell Physiology 28: 1555-1568

7. Tester, M. (1988) Pharmacology of K+ channels in the plasmalemma of the green alga, Chara corallina. Journal of Membrane Biology 103: 159-169

8. Tester, M. (1988) Blockade of potassium channels in the plasmalemma of Chara corallina by tetraethylammonium, Ba2+, Na+ and Cs+. Journal of Membrane Biology 105: 77-85

9. Tester, M. (1988) Potassium channels in the plasmalemma of Chara corallina are multi-ion pores: voltage-dependent blockade by Cs+ and anomalous permeabilities. Journal of Membrane Biology 105: 87-94

10. Knowles, B.H., Blatt, M.R., Tester, M., Horsnell, J.M., Carroll, J., Menestrina, G. & Ellar, D.J. (1989) A cytolytic �-endotoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis forms cation selective channels in planar lipid bilayers. FEBS Letters 244: 259-262

11. Tester, M. & Blatt, M.R. (1989) Direct measurement of K+ channels in thylakoid membranes by incorporation of vesicles into planar lipid bilayers. Plant Physiology 91: 249-252

12. Blatt, M.R., Beilby, M.J. & Tester, M. (1990) Voltage dependence of the Chara proton pump revealed by current-voltage measurement during rapid metabolic blockade with cyanide. Journal of Membrane Biology 114: 205-223

13. Tester, M. & MacRobbie, E.A.C. (1990) Cytoplasmic Ca2+ affects the gating of potassium channels in the plasma membrane of Chara corallina: a whole cell study using Ca2+ channel effectors. Planta 180: 569-581

14. Thiel, G. & Tester, M. (1990) Ferri- and ferrocyanide salts change the current-voltage relations of Chara corallina: no correlation with the transmembrane redox system. Journal of Experimental Botany 41: 1559-1565

15. Zorec, R., Tester, M., Macek, P. & Mason, W.T. (1990) Cytotoxicity of equinatoxin II from the sea anemone Actinia equina involves ion channel formation and an increase in intracellular calcium activity. Journal of Membrane Biology 118: 243-249

16. Brodey, C.L., Rainey, P.B., Tester, M. & Johnstone, K. (1991) Bacterial blotch disease of the cultivated mushroom is caused by an ion channel forming lipodepsipeptide toxin. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 4: 407-411

17. White, P.J. & Tester, M. (1992) Potassium channels from the plasma membrane of rye roots characterized following incorporation into planar lipid bilayers. Planta 186: 188-202

18. Zorec, R. & Tester, M. (1992) Cytoplasmic calcium stimulates exocytosis in a plant secretory cell. Biophysical Journal 63: 864-867

19. Reid, R.J., Tester, M. & Smith, F.A. (1993) Effects of salinity and turgor on calcium influx in cells of Chara. Plant, Cell & Environment 16: 547-554 20. Piñeros, M. & Tester, M. (1993) Plasma membrane Ca2+ channels in roots of higher plants and their role in aluminium toxicity. Plant & Soil 155/156: 119-122

21. Garnett, T.P., Tester, M. & Nable, R.O. (1993) The control of boron accumulation by two genotypes of wheat. Plant & Soil 155/156: 305-308

22. Zorec, R. & Tester, M. (1993) Rapid pressure driven exocytosis-endocytosis cycle in a single plant cell: Capacitance measurements in aleurone protoplasts. FEBS Letters 333: 283-286

23. Tester, M. & Zorec, R. (1994) Control of exocytosis in a plant secretory cell by cytosolic Ca2+ and hydrostatic pressure. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 710: 254-262

24. Bruce, A., Smith, S.E. & Tester, M. (1994) The development of mycorrhizal infection in cucumber: effects of P supply on root growth, formation of entry points and growth of infection units. The New Phytologist 127: 507-514

25. Quinn, D.M., Atkinson, H.M., Bretag, A.H., Tester, M., Trust, T.J., Wong, C.Y.F. & Flower, R.L.P. (1994) Carbohydrate-reactive, pore-forming outer membrane proteins of Aeromonas hydrophila. Infection and Immunity 62: 4054-4058 (and 1995: Infection and Immunity 63: 1146)

26. Reid, R.J., Tester, M. & Smith, F.A. (1995) Calcium/aluminium interactions in the cell wall and plasma membrane of Chara. Planta 195: 362-368

27. Piñeros, M. & Tester, M. (1995) Characterization of a voltage-dependent Ca2+-selective channel from wheat roots. Planta 195: 478-488

28. Hutchison, M.L., Tester, M. & Gross, D.C. (1995) Role of biosurfactant and ion channel-forming activities of syringomycin in transmembrane ion flux: a model for the mechanism of action in the plant-pathogen interaction. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 8: 610-620

29. Rengel, Z., Piñeros, M. & Tester, M. (1995) Transmembrane calcium fluxes during Al stress. Plant & Soil 171: 125-130 30. Roberts, S.K. & Tester, M. (1995) Inward and outward K+-selective currents in the plasma membrane of protoplasts from maize root cortex and stele. Plant Journal 8: 811-825

31. Reid, R.J., Brookes, J.D., Tester, M. & Smith, F.A. (1996) The mechanism of zinc uptake in plants. Characterisation of the low-affinity system. Planta 198: 39-45

32. Roberts, S.K. & Tester, M. (1997) A patch-clamp study of Na+ transport in maize roots. Journal of Experimental Botany 48 (Special Issue): 431-440

33. Piñeros, M. & Tester, M. (1997) Calcium channels in plant cells: selectivity, regulation and pharmacology. Journal of Experimental Botany 48 (Special Issue): 551-577

34. Piñeros, M. & Tester, M. (1997) Characterisation of the high affinity verapamil-binding site in a plant plasma membrane Ca2+-selective channel. Journal of Membrane Biology 157: 139-145

35. Roberts, S.K. & Tester, M. (1997) Permeation of Ca2+ and monovalent cations through an outwardly rectifying channel in maize root stelar cells. Journal of Experimental Botany 48: 839-846

36. Homann, U. & Tester, M. (1997) Ca2+-independent and Ca2+/GTP-binding protein-controlled exocytosis in a plant cell. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 94: 6565-6570

37. Reid, R.J., Tester, M. & Smith, F.A. (1997) Voltage control of calcium influx in intact cells. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 24: 805-810

38. Kiegle, E., Gilliham, M., Haseloff, J & Tester, M. (2000) Hyperpolarisation-activated calcium currents found only in cells from the elongation zone of Arabidopsis thaliana roots. Plant Journal 21: 225-229

39. Davenport, R.J. & Tester, M. (2000) A weakly voltage-dependent, nonselective cation channel mediates toxic sodium influx in wheat. Plant Physiology 122: 823-834

40. White, P.J., Piñeros, M., Tester, M. & Ridout, M.S. (2000) Cation permeability and selectivity of a root plasma membrane calcium channel. Journal of Membrane Biology 174: 71-83

41. Kiegle, E., Moore, C., Haseloff, J., Tester, M. & Knight, M. (2000) Cell-type specific calcium responses to drought, NaCl, and cold in Arabidopsis root: a role for endodermis and pericycle in stress signal transduction. Plant Journal 23: 267-278 (with cover image)

42. Demidchik, V. & Tester, M. (2002) Sodium fluxes through non-selective cation channels in the plasma membrane of protoplasts from Arabidopsis thaliana roots. Plant Physiology 128: 379-387

43. Demidchik, V., Bowen, H.C., Maathuis, F.J.M., Shabala, S.N., Tester, M.A., White, P.J. & Davies, J.M. (2002) Arabidopsis thaliana root nonselective cation channels mediate calcium uptake and are involved in growth. Plant Journal 32: 799-808

44. Demidchik, V., Shabala, S.N., Coutts, K.B., Tester, M.A. & Davies, J.M. (2003) Free oxygen radicals regulate plasma membrane Ca2+- and K+-permeable channels in plant root cells activation by hydroxyl radicals mediates early plant stress responses. Journal of Cell Science 116: 81-88

45. Berthomieu, P., Conéjéro, G., Nublat, A., Brackenbury, W.J., Lambert, C., Savio, C., Uozumi, N., Oiki, S, Yamada, K., Cellier, F., Gosti, F., Simmonneau, T., Essah, P.A., Tester, M., Véry, A.A., Sentenac, H., Casse, F. (2003) Functional analysis of AtHKT1 in Arabidopsis shows that Na+ recirculation by the phloem is crucial for salt tolerance. EMBO Journal 22: 2004-2014

46. Essah, P.A., Davenport, R.J. & Tester, M. (2003) Sodium influx and accumulation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiology 133: 307-318

46. Demidchik, V., Essah, P. & Tester, M. (2004) Glutamate activates sodium and calcium currents in the plasma membrane of Arabidopsis root cells. Planta 219: 167-175

(b) Reviews

I. Tester, M., Smith, S.E. & Smith, F.A. (1987) The phenomenon of "nonmycorrhizal" plants. Canadian Journal of Botany 65: 419-431

II. Tester, M. & Morris, C. (1987) The penetration of light through soil. Plant, Cell & Environment 10: 281-286

III. Tester, M. (1990) Plant ion channels: whole cell and single-channel studies. The New Phytologist 114: 305-340

IV. Reid, R.J. & Tester, M. (1992) Measurements of Ca2+ fluxes in intact plant cells. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B 338: 73-82

V. White, P.J. & Tester, M. (1994) Using planar lipid bilayers to study plant ion channels. Physiologia Plantarum 91: 770-774

VI. Tester, M. (1997) Techniques for studying ion channels: an introduction. Journal of Experimental Botany 48 (Special Issue): 353-359

VII. Homann, U. & Tester, M. (1998) Patch clamp measurements of capacitance to study exocytosis and endocytosis in plants. Trends in Plant Sciences 3: 110-114

VIII. Tester, M. (1999) Control of long-distance K+ transport by ABA. Trends in Plant Sciences 4: 5-6

IX. Tester, M. & Leigh, R.A. (2001) Partitioning of transport processes in roots. Journal of Experimental Botany, 52, Roots Special Issue, 445-457

X. Demidchik, V., Davenport, R.J. & Tester, M. (2002) Nonselective cation channels. Annual Reviews of Plant Biology 53, 67-107

XI. Tester, M. & Davenport, R.J. (2003) Na+ transport and Na+ tolerance in higher plants. Annals of Botany 91, 503-527

Professional Associations

Fellow, Institute of Biology
Society for Experimental Biology
American Society of Plant Biologists
Australian Society of Plant Scientists
Cambridge Philosophical Society
Institute for Learning and Teaching

Professional Interests

I am an ARC Federation Fellow (Research Professor) in the School of Agriculture and Wine, University of Adelaide and am embedded in the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics. The immediate aim of my research programme is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that enable certain plants to thrive in sub-optimal soil conditions, such as high salinity or low water supply, in particular by mechanisms controlling allocation of solutes to the shoot. The ultimate applied aim is to modify crop plants to increase their productivity on such soils. The ultimate intellectual aim is to understand mechanisms of long-distance communication within plants by studying genes which co-ordinate whole plant responses that correct inappropriate nutrient concentrations in the shoot. I am funded primarily by two grants from the Australian Research Council, but several grants I was awarded from the BBSRC and the EU are still running or have recently terminated in Cambridge. I am currently responsible for work done by about 37 people (8 technicians, 15 graduate students, 12 postdoctoral researchers, 2 visitors) organised in 5 â€^~technical teamsâ€^TM. (See also ARC Feature article, at http://www.arc.gov.au/news/features/profits_in_poor_soil.htm)

Community Engagement

2000- Appearances in local radio, on GM crops – BBC, Red-FM, The Naked Scientist 2000 News feature in Cambridge Evening News, on GM crops 2001 Science adviser for BBC1 drama, Fields of Gold (screened, Spring, 2002) 2001 Team Captain in science quiz show for Discovery Channel (pilot, but not commissioned) 2001 Attended two-day BBSRC Media Training Course Engaged in GM crops debate – e.g. references ii, iii, 13a, 14a 2002 Opening lecture at preview of exhibition, Mendel, Genius of Genetics, Science Museum, London

Over 50 articles in printed media regarding criticism of BBC drama, Fields of Gold, including BBSRC Business, Jan., 2003 issue, p. 24 2003 Café Scientifiques in Lancaster and Cambridge 2005 Several articles in Australian media, on GM, salinity and crop improvement

Entry last updated: Thursday, 16 Jul 2009