Joanna Melonek

Polish German English

After completing my Master’s thesis in the group of Professor Marek Switonski in the Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding at the August Cieszkowski Agricultural University in Poznan, Poland, in summer 2005 I accepted a PhD position funded by the German Research Foundation in the Plant Cell Biology group of Professor Karin Krupinska and moved to Kiel, Germany. The main goal of my PhD studies was the purification and identification of components of the DNA-protein complexes present in chloroplasts. I obtained my PhD degree in December 2010 with summa cum laude.

In October 2012 I changed continents and moved to Perth, Western Australia to start postdoctoral work at The University of Western Australia in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology in the group of Professor Ian Small. Since 2014 the focus of my research switched to plant mitochondria, in particular to a group of proteins known as Restorer-of-Fertility-like (RFL). RFL genes are used by plant breeders during the development of hybrid varieties - therefore are of great agronomical importance. I’m particularly interested in the identification and characterisation of RFL genes from genomic sequence data from cereals. For this purpose we have developed a bioinformatics pipeline enabling the search for RFL(-PPR) sequences in large genome and transcriptome datasets.

I successfully collaborate with Groupe Limagrain - the 4^th largest seeds producing company on identification and characterisation of restorer genes in wheat. In addition, through collaboration with Professor Nils Stein and Dr Ruonan Zhou from The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany on the RFL family in barley, I got involved in the characterisation and annotation of the PPR/RFL family in the Refseqv1.0 reference genome of bread wheat and became member of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. I also collaborate with Professor David Jordan from Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation and Dr Emma Mace from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and Dr Robert Klein from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) on restorer genes in sorghum.

In a broader context, I’m interested in the biology of the RFL family in plants, particularly in the extreme sequence variation and unusual selection patterns acting on members of this intriguing gene family.