Dr Frances Shapter BAgSc(Qld), GradCert ResMgt, PostGradDipEd(UQ), PhD(SCU) Frances Shapter is a project leader on an Australian Research Council Linkage grant awarded to the Centre for plant Conservation Genetics and Native Seeds Pty Ltd for the accelerated domestication of Australian Native Grasses using molecular tools. Frances was awarded her PhD in molecular genetics in July 2008, having been funded by a Grain Foods CRC scholarship designed to determine the potential of utilising Australian native grasses as sources of novel germplasm for cereal improvement programs. Whilst undertaking her PhD Frances attained a Post Graduate Certificate in Research management and is currently enrolled in a Diploma of Business Administration. Frances completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1997 following which she taught secondary school science and agriculture, and had an extended period of overseas travel. Frances began working at the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics as a research assistant in March, 2003. She worked on the discovery of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes from wheat and barley using conventional sequencing and Pyrosequencing, and developing new genetic markers for barley, based on in silico data mining techniques. Frances has attended several international conferences since commencing her work with the CPCG. In 2007 Frances was selected to represent Australia at the World Congress of Young Farmers in Buenos Aires and in 2008 attended the 2020 summit.
Journal articles
Whole grain morphology of Australian rice species (with Shabana Kasem, Daniel LE Waters, Nicole F. Rice, and Robert J. Henry), Plant Genetic Resources (2010)
The grain morphology of 17 wild rice relatives were studied by light and scanning electron...
Aleurone and subaleurone morphology in native Australian wild cereal relatives (with Maxine P. Dawes, L Slade Lee, and Robert J. Henry), Australian Journal of Botany (2009)
The pericarp and aleurone layer of cereal grains are associated with the accumulation of anti-nutritional...
Variation in Granule Bound Starch Synthase I (GBSSI) loci amongst Australian wild cereal relatives (Poaceae) (with Peter Eggler, L Slade Lee, and Robert J. Henry), Journal of Cereal Science (2009)
A complex cascade of enzymes is responsible for the development of starch granules in grain...
Endosperm and starch granule morphology in wild cereal relatives (with L Slade Lee and Robert J. Henry), Plant Genetic Resources (2008)
Australia's native grass species contain a diverse array of wild cereal relatives which are adapted...
Domestication to crop improvement: genetic resources for sorghum and saccharum (Andropogoneae) (with Sally L. Dillon, Robert J. Henry, Giovanni Cordeiro, Liz Izquierdo, and L Slade Lee), Annals of Botany (2007)
Background: Both sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) are members of the Andropogoneae tribe...
Conference publications
Accelerated domestication of an Australian native grain utilising advances in molecular technology (with Silvia Malory, Ian Chivers, and Robert J. Henry), 14th Australasian Plant Breeding Conference (APBC) held in conjunction with the 11th Society for the Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO) Congress (2009)
Domestication of a wild relative of rice, Microlaena stipoides (with Sylvia Malory, Robert J. Henry, and Ian Chivers), Plant Genomics and Beyond (2009)
Accelerated domestication of Australian grasses as new sustainable food and fodder crops (with Sylvia Malory, Ian Chivers, and Robert J. Henry), 58th Australian Cereal Chemistry Conference (2008)
Global cereal production is sourced from approximately only 0.2% of the world’s grass (Poaceae) species....
Accelerated domestication of Australian native grasses (with Robert J. Henry), Native Grasses Workshop (2008)
Australia is home to 10% of the world’s 10,000 grass species (Figure 1) and yet...
Australian Wild Rice: an opportunity to develop new sustainable food crops (with Sylvia Malory, Ian Chivers, and Robert J. Henry), 1st Australian Wild Rice Symposium: Australia, a major centre of diversity for rice (2008)
With global cereal production sourced from approximately only 0.2% of the world’s grass (Poaceae) species,...