Sandra Schmöckel

Biography

Sandra did her Bachelors and Masters studies at the University of Potsdam (Germany), completing both theses in the laboratory of Prof. Bernd Müller-Röber. She completed her PhD in plant science at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) at the University of Adelaide (Australia). In collaboration with Enrico Martinoia (Univ. Zurich, Switzerland), she is using a proteomics approach in barley to identify novel candidate proteins involved in tissue tolerance.

Research Interests

I am interested to discover how plants respond to salt stress and how plants manage salt (NaCl) that has entered through the roots and has been translocated to the shoot, where it is particularly toxic. My main interests are to characterize the ion transporters mediating the translocation of Na+ from the root to the shoot and discover how Na+ is compartmentalized into the shoot’s vacuoles, where it is less toxic. For my studies I am using a model system called Arabidopsis thaliana and a crop plant, barley (Hordeum vulgare).

Selected Publications

The genome of Chenopodium quinoa. Jarvis DE*, Ho YS*, Lightfoot DJ*, Schmöckel SM*, Li B*, Borm T, Ohyanagi H, Mineta K, Michell CT, Saber N, Kharbatia NM, Rupper RR, Sharp AR, Dally N, Boughton BA, Woo YH, Gao G, Schijlen E, Guo X, Momin AA, Negrão S, Al-Babili S, Gehring C, Roessner U, Jung C, Murphy K, Arold ST, Gojobori T, van der Linden CG, van Loo EN, Jellen EN, Maughan PJ & Tester M (2017). Nature. 542, 307-312, doi:10.1038/nature21370 *authors contributed equally
Genetic diversity and population structure of two tomato species from the Galapagos Islands reveal new insights into the influence of the islands’ tectonic movement on gene flow. Pailles Y, Ho S, Pires IS, Tester M, Negrão S & Schmöckel SM (2017). Frontiers in Plant Science. 8:138. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00138
Evaluating physiological responses of plants to salinity stress. Negrão S*, Schmöckel SM* & Tester M. (2016) . Annals of Botany, doi: 10.1093/aob/mcw191 *authors contributed equally
Different NaCl-induced calcium signatures in the Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes Col-0 and C24. SM Schmöckel, AF Garcia, B Berger, M Tester, AA Webb, SJ Roy. Plos One 10: e0117564. (2015)
A novel protein kinase involved in Na+ exclusion revealed from positional cloning. SJ Roy, W Huang, XJ Wang, A Evrard, SM Schmoeckel, ZU Zafar and M Tester. Plant Cell and Environment 36, 553-568 (2013)
Expression of human c-reactive protein in different systems and its purification from Leishmania tarentolae. H Dortay, SM Schmoeckel, J Fettke, B Müller-Röber. Protein expression and purification, 78, 55-60 (2011)

Education

PhD in Plant Science, University of Adelaide, Australia
MS of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Potsdam, Germany
Bachelor of Life Science, University of Potsdam, Germany

Scientific and Professional Membership

Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS)

Research Interests Keywords

Salinity tolerance Ion transport Crop science Barley Plant Science