Contacts
Group membership
After completing her Master's thesis at the August Cieszkowski Agricultural University in Poznan, Poland, Joanna pursued a PhD position in the Plant Cell Biology group led by Professor Karin Krupinska and relocated to Kiel, Germany. Her PhD studies focused on characterizing DNA-protein complexes present in chloroplasts. She obtained her PhD degree in 2011.
In 2012, Joanna relocated to sunny 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 under the guidance of Professor Ian Small. Since 2014, her research has shifted its focus to plant mitochondria, specifically to a group of proteins known as Restorer of Fertility (Rf) proteins. Rf proteins play a crucial role in the development of hybrid cultivars in cereals, making them of significant agronomic importance.
In 2022, Joanna was awarded the ARC Future Fellowship and accepted an offer for a Senior Lecturer and Group Leader Position in the Division of Plant Sciences at the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University. She relocated to Canberra in October 2023. Her research group employs molecular biology and computational methods to investigate the interactions between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes in plants, with the goal of applying this knowledge to breed high-yielding and stress-resistant hybrid crops. Of particular interest to her is the family of mitochondrial transcription termination factors known as mTERFs and their role in fertility restoration in cereals, including wheat, rye, barley, and sorghum.
Joanna collaborates with Groupe Limagrain, the world's fourth-largest seed-producing company, on the identification and characterization of restorer genes in wheat. Additionally, through collaboration with Professor Nils Stein from The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany, she has contributed to the characterization and annotation of the PPR/RFL family in the reference genome of bread wheat and became a member of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. Joanna also collaborates with Professor David Jordan and Dr Emma Mace from the University of Queensland, as well as Professor Adam Lukaszewski from the University of California, Riverside (to name a few).
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ARC Future Fellowship, 2022
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UWA Rising Stars , 2021
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Peter Goldacre Award, 2021
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Fay Gale Fellowship , 2019
Research interests
The aim of Joanna's research is the genomic and molecular characterisation of Restorer-of-Fertility-like (RFL) genes in plants and their application to hybrid breeding in crops. Joanna's genome-wide analyses of the RFL clade in cereals (rice, barley, wheat, and rye) have revealed the evolutionary plasticity of RFL genes in plants and proposed mechanisms that drive the creation of new gene variants capable of suppressing the expression of novel mitochondrial genes that cause cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS).
Hybrid varieties are favoured for their attractive agronomic traits and higher and more stable yields. However, for many staple crops like wheat or barley, hybrid seed production on a commercial scale remains difficult. The major limiting factor is the absence of an efficient way to control self-pollination. Most promising approach uses CMS induced by a gene encoded in the mitochondrial genome, and nuclear RFL genes able to overcome this sterility in the hybrids. RFL proteins block expression of CMS genes by inducing cleavage of their transcripts.
In addition to this agricultural application, the suppression of CMS by nuclear restorer genes represents an intriguing example of mitochondrial-nuclear genome interactions that are integral to the process of speciation by natural selection and are therefore of great interest to a broader research community.
Projects
- Dang Huynh, S, Melonek, J, Colas-des-Francs-Small, C et al. 2023, 'A unique C-terminal domain contributes to the molecular function of Restorer-of-fertility proteins in plant mitochondria', New Phytologist, vol. 240, no. 2, pp. 830-845.
- Small, I, Melonek, J, Bohne, A et al. 2023, 'Plant organellar RNA maturation', The Plant Cell, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 1727-1751.
- M. Bikaun, J, Bates, T, Bollen, M et al. 2022, 'Volatile biomarkers for non-invasive detection of American foulbrood, a threat to honey bee pollination services', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 845.
- Small, I & Melonek, J 2022, 'Triticeae genome sequences reveal huge expansions of gene families implicated in fertility restoration', Current Opinion in Plant Biology, vol. 66.
- Rabanus-Wallace, M, Hackauf, B, Mascher, M et al. 2021, 'Chromosome-scale genome assembly provides insights into rye biology, evolution and agronomic potential', Nature Genetics, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 564-573.
- Melonek, J, Duarte, J, Martin, J, Beuf, L et al. 2021, 'The genetic basis of cytoplasmic male sterility and fertility restoration in wheat', Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1.
- Walkowiak, S, Gao, L, Monat, C et al. 2020, 'Multiple wheat genomes reveal global variation in modern breeding', Nature, vol. 588, no. 7837, pp. 277-283.
- Melonek, J, Zhou, R, Bayer, P et al. 2019, 'High intraspecific diversity of Restorer-of-fertility-like genes in barley', The Plant Journal, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 281-295.
- Appels, R, Eversole, K, Stein, N et al. 2018, 'Shifting the limits in wheat research and breeding using a fully annotated reference genome', Science, vol. 361, no. 6403.
- Lehniger, L, Finster, S, Melonek, J et al. 2017, 'Global RNA association with the transcriptionally active chromosome of chloroplasts', Plant Molecular Biology, vol. 95, pp. 303-311.
- Melonek, J, Oetke, S & Krupinska, K 2016, 'Multifunctionality of plastid nucleoids as revealed by proteome analyses', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta: Proteins & Proteomics, vol. 1864, no. 8, pp. 1016-1038.
- Wu, W, Liu, S, Ruwe, H et al. 2016, 'SOT1, a pentatricopeptide repeat protein with a small MutS-related domain, is required for correct processing of plastid 23S-4.5S rRNA precursors in Arabidopsis thaliana', The Plant Journal, vol. 85, no. 5, pp. 607-621.
- Melonek, J, D. Stone, J & Small, I 2016, 'Evolutionary plasticity of restorer-of-fertility-like proteins in rice', Scientific Reports, vol. 6.
- Powikrowska, M, Frederiksberg , A, Martens, H et al. 2014, 'SVR4 (suppressor of variegation 4) and SVR4-like: Two proteins with a role in proper organization of the chloroplast genetic machinery', Physiologia Plantarum, vol. 150, no. 3, pp. 477-492.
- Liu, S, Melonek, J, Boykin, L et al. 2013, 'PPR-SMRs: Ancient proteins with enigmatic functions', RNA Biology, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 1312-1321.
- Melonek, J, Matros, A, Tr�sch, M et al. 2012, 'The core of chloroplast nucleoids contains architectural SWIB domain proteins', The Plant Cell, vol. 24, no. 7, pp. 3060-3073.
- Krupinska, K, Melonek, J & Krause, K 2012, 'New insights into plastid nucleoid structure and functionality', Planta, vol. 237, no. 3, pp. 653-664.
- Melonek, J, Mulisch, M, Schmitz-Linneweber, C et al. 2010, 'Whirly1 in chloroplasts associates with intron containing RNAs and rarely co-localizes with nucleoids', Planta, vol. 232, no. 2, pp. 471-481.