Fixing the Nitrogen Fixation Challenge
Towards that end he packed in a busy schedule of conferences, symposia and research across several cities into his nine months of OSP which began in July last year.Professor Dilworth lectures in microbiology and is also Deputy Director of the Centre for Rhizobium Studies, which specialises in researching the role of legume root nodule bacteria in the nitrogen fixation process.Professor Dilworth began his OSP with the International Symposium for Nitrogen Fixation at the Institute Pasteur in Paris.As one of the Symposium's section coordinators, Professor Dilworth organised the speakers for the section entitled "Stress on nitrogen fixing organisms" and also chaired the session.After Paris, he managed to fit in a few days at the Universite Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, liaising with a colleague who has a research collaboration with the Centre for Rhizobium Studies.Then it was on to Virginia Tech in the United States where Professor Dilworth spent about two and a half months finishing up some research on nitrogen fixation which he had begun on a previous visit.Specifically, Professor Dilworth was working out what properties of nitrogenase (the enzyme that fixes nitrogen) had changed as a result of a single mutation.After two and a half months, Professor Dilworth was pleased that this particular area of research had been concluded to "a satisfactory level".More research followed at the John Innes Centre in Norwich in the United Kingdom, where Professor Dilworth spent almost six months working in the Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory.
A highlight following his OSP was the Novartis Foundation Symposium held in England.The Novartis Foundation organises workshops and symposia that bring together the top range of experts in a particular field. The Foundation usually hosts about six of these conferences a year.For symposium number 221, the Foundation accepted a topic proposed by Professor Dilworth: "Bacterial response to pH".This symposium topic was then taken up by the Wellcome Medical Trust which harnessed about half the speakers from the Novartis Foundation Symposium for yet another conference on the subject.Professor Dilworth's itinerary then led him on to the Gordon Conference in New Hampshire in the United States."It was all pretty hectic," laughed Professor Dilworth. "You just fit in whatever you can."Professor Dilworth said that in general he was satisfied with the "productivity" of his OSP. In addition to the various conferences and symposia, the research had led to three research papers."The best thing about OSP is being able to get back into the laboratory uninterrupted," Professor Dilworth said.Professor Dilworth's main area of research throughout his career has been nitrogen fixation.Among some of his more significant achievements was being responsible for the discovery that nitrogenase can be assayed by measuring the reduction of acetylene to ethylene.Professor Dilworth was also the first to demonstrate that it was the plant that was responsible for producing the globin part of leghemoglobin -- a pigment vital for nitrogen fixation in legume nodules.In recent times, Professor Dilworth has been busy with various projects. As Deputy Director of the Centre for Rhizobium Studies, he helps oversee projects which bring together rhizobium specialists from Murdoch University, Agriculture WA and the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA).The main focus of research at the Rhizobium Centre is understanding how to properly nodulate agricultural legumes under stressful conditions like acid or alkaline soils. This is important because these bacteria enable legumes like clovers, medics, beans and lupins to fix nitrogen for themselves and for subsequent cereal crops.For the past three and a half years before his OSP, Professor Dilworth was also a member of the Australian Research Council and chair of its Research, Training and Careers committee.Further information
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Professor Mike Dilworth Centre for Rhizobium Studies Telephone (08) 9360 2112 email dilworth@central.murdoch.edu.au |
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