Dr Liz Dennis: researching plant genomics

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

At CSIRO, Dr Dennis heads research into genomics and plant development.

She has made significant innovations in:

• the molecular basis of plant development especially flowering and seed development
• plant gene regulation including epigenetic regulation
• plant response to environmental stress such as waterlogging conditions.

More recently Dr Dennis has been involved in investigating the molecular basis of heterosis (hybrid vigour) and epigenetics (changes in the appearance or gene function of an organism not due to actual changes in its DNA sequence).

Background

Dr Liz Dennis has been one of the pioneers in plant molecular biology. She, together with her colleagues, cloned the alcohol dehydrogenase gene and identified promoter motifs responsible for its regulation.

They also demonstrated that all plants have haemoglobin and explained the function of one type of haemoglobin. Dr Dennis also characterised the Ds element and its movement.

Recently, she and her colleagues identified and have been studying the role of  Flowering Locus C (FLC) in controlling the initiation of flowering.

Academic qualifications

Dr Dennis holds the following qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science (Hons), from the University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
• Doctor of Philosophy, also from the University of Sydney. 

Achievements

Dr Dennis is also a:

• CSIRO Fellow
• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

She was:

• Chairman of the Multinational Arabidopsis Genome Project
• President of the Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1992-94)
• Director of the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology from 1990-93.

Dr Dennis has written one book and been editor of many others. She is author or co-author of over 270 scientific publications and was an editor of The Plant Journal.

She has won numerous awards and honours including:

• a Senior Scholar Fulbright Fellowship, 1982
• the Pharmacia LKB/Biotechnology Medal of the Australian Biochemical Society, 1999
• the Avon Spirit of Achievement Award, 1997
• the Lemberg Medal of the Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1998
• the Prime Minister's Science Prize, 2000.

See a list of scientific papers published by Dr Dennis in her publishing history.

Contact Information

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Related Links

• Gene Technology & Farming
• Gene technology
• CSIRO Plant Industry

• Gene technology: flowering and seeds
• Gene technology: gene discovery
• Gene technology: gene silencing