Professor Roger Hellens
This person does not currently hold a position at QUT.
Biography
Professor RP Hellens joined the Centre for Tropical Crop and Biocomodities in March 2014.
From 2000 to 2014 he worked in New Zealand at Plant&Food (aka HortResearch) in Auckland, where he had a number of role including leading the institutes 80-people strong genomics research and more recently the $10M p.a. kiwifruit breeding programme.
His research interests were the development of red-fleshed apple and kiwifruit varieties and exploiting Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques. He has also maintained a keen interest in post transcriptional gene regulation and this has become relevant in work to understand the regulation of vitamin C.
Prior to his move to New Zealand, Professor Hellens worked at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK. Here he developed the first genetic maps in pea (including his PhD on the molecular basis of Mendel’s white flower phenotype), He developed the pGreen plant transformation vector and a project on gene silencing (RNAi) in petunia.
Personal details
Discipline
Other Biological Sciences
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (University of East Anglia)
Experience
- 2014 to date Professor of Agricultural Biotechnology, CTCB, QUT
- 2012 to date Associate Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Otago
- 2012 to 2014 Science Group Leader, Plant&Food, Kiwifruit
- 2009 to 2012 Science Group Leader, Plant&Food, Genomics
- 2006–2009 Science Leader, HortResearch, Fruit Genomics
- 2004–2006 Science Leader, HortResearch, Gene Discovery and Function
- 2001–2004 Scientist, HortResearch, Expression Technology project
- 1996–2001 Postdoc, John Innes Centre, post transcriptional regulation.
- 1994–96 Postdoc, John Innes Center, development of novel binary vector.
- 1991–94 PhD student, John Innes institute, CHS promoter analysis.
- 1989–91 Postgraduate research, John Innes institute, Pea RFLP mapping
Selected publications
- Waterhouse P, Hellens R, (2015) Plant biology: Coding in non-coding RNAs, Nature, 520 (7545), pp. 41-42.
- Laing W, Martinez-Sanchez M, Wright M, Bulley S, Brewster D, Dare A, Rassam M, Wang D, Storey R, Macknight R, Hellens R, (2015) An upstream open reading frame Is essential for feedback regulation of ascorbate biosynthesis in arabidopsis, Plant Cell, 27 (3), pp. 772-786.
- Espley R, Butts C, Laing W, Martell S, Smith H, McGhie T, Zhang J, Paturi G, Hedderley D, Bovy A, Schouten H, Putterill J, Allan A, Hellens R, (2014) Dietary flavonoids from modified apple reduce inflammation markers and modulate gut microbiota in mice, Journal of Nutrition, 144 (2), pp. 146-154.
- Jaeger S, Tomes S, Norling C, Crawford J, Rowan D, McGhie T, Brendolise C, Putterill J, Schouten H, Hellens R, Allan A, Espley R, Bovy A, Bava C, (2013) Analysis of genetically modified red-fleshed apples reveals effects on growth and consumer attributes, Plant Biotechnology Journal, 11 (4), pp. 408-419.
- Dare A, Tomes S, Jones M, McGhie T, Stevenson D, Johnson R, Greenwood D, Hellens R, (2013) Phenotypic changes associated with RNA interference silencing of chalcone synthase in apple (Malus X domestica), Plant Journal, 74 (3), pp. 398-410.
- Naim F, Nakasugi K, Crowhurst R, Hilario E, Zwart A, Hellens R, Taylor J, Waterhouse P, Wood C, (2012) Advanced Engineering of Lipid Metabolism in Nicotiana benthamiana Using a Draft Genome and the V2 Viral Silencing-Suppressor Protein, PLoS One, 7 (12), pp. 1-11.
- Shulaev V, Sargent D, Crowhurst R, Mockler T, Folkerts O, Delcher A, Jaiswal P, Mockaitis K, Liston A, Mane S, Hellens R, other a, (2011) The genome of woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca), Nature Genetics, 43 (2), pp. 109-116.
- Hellens R, Moreau C, Lin-Wang K, Schwinn K, Thomson S, Fiers M, Frew T, Murray S, Hofer J, Jacobs J, Davies K, Allan A, Bendahmane A, Coyne C, Timmerman-Vaughan G, Ellis N, (2010) Identification of Mendel's white flower character, PLoS One, 5 (10), pp. 1-8.
- Velasco R, Zharkikh A, Affourtit J, Dhingra A, Cestaro A, Kalyanaraman A, Fontana P, Bhatnagar S, Troggio M, Pruss D, Hellens R, other a, (2010) The genome of the domesticated apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.), Nature Genetics, 42 (10), pp. 833-839.
- Espley R, Brendolise C, Chagne D, Kutty-Amma S, Green S, Volz R, Putterill J, Schouten H, Gardiner S, Hellens R, Allan A, (2009) Multiple repeats of a promoter segment causes transcription factor autoregulation in red apples, Plant Cell, 21 (1), pp. 168-183.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Roger, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).