Download Media Release

MEDIA STATEMENT
Monday 25 May 2015
AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FELLOWSHIP FOR INFLUENCIAL PLANT SCIENTIST
Professor Ian Small will be inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science at a ceremony
in Canberra this evening, in recognition of his contribution to science and scientific research.
Prof. Small from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at the
University of Western Australia researches cell mechanisms that control production of proteins in
plant organelles, the primary generators of energy used by all living organisms.
Prof. Small’s work has promising applications in agriculture and biotechnology.
In 2014 Prof. Small was titled Scientist of the Year at the WA Premier’s Science Awards, and awarded
a prestigious Australian Laureate Fellowship. His inclusion in the prestigious Thomson Reuters 2014
Highly Cited Researchers list had him named as one of the world’s most influential scientific minds.
Prof. Small is best known for his discovery and characterisation of the pentatricopeptide repeat
(PPR) family of proteins. This family of proteins is important for controlling plant fertility in hybrid
crop breeding.
PPR proteins bind individual RNA sequences in the plant cell organelles the chloroplast and
mitochondrion. This binding determines whether or not a gene is expressed. The PPR protein-RNA
sequence recognition is dependent on a novel molecular code that Prof. Small and his colleagues
discovered. The code has been shown to underlie male plant sterility and, ultimately, the restoring
of fertility for plant breeding. The code also shows great practical promise in allowing specific editing
of RNA sequences, and hence controlling gene expression, in all living species.
Prof. Small will give a presentation about his work, titled From biodiversity to synthetic biology: using
evolution to inform the design of synthetic RNA binding proteins, at the Academy’s annual flagship
event, Science at the Shine Dome.
Prof. Small was selected as one of 21 new Fellows by the Australian Academy of Science. The
Academy now numbers a total of 503 Fellows.
MEDIA REFERENCE:
Karina Price (ARC CoE in Plant Energy Biology, Science Communications Officer)
(+61 8 6488 4481)
Professor Ian Small in a plant growth facility at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy biology
Image credit: ARC CoE Plant Energy Biology