Associate Professor L Slade Lee PhD(Wollongong) DipTch(MtGravattTC) GAppSc(Hons)(QldAgcoll) Slade Lee is Principal Research Leader CRC-REP with the Division of Research. His previous role was as Deputy Director (Operations) for the former Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics, and one of the three Platform Leaders for the Grain Foods CRC Ltd. This role managed a series of grain food research projects sponsored by Grain Foods CRC Ltd aimed at discovering genetic solutions to improving the quality of a diverse range of grain crop products. He was also involved in smaller plant improvement and genetics research projects in other fields including grapevine, cotton, hemp and coffee. In 2001 he was invited to serve as a six-month term as a consultant molecular plant breeding expert with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria assisting in the management of projects which convey agricultural biotechnology to developing countries. Prior to that he was project leader of the genetic research on Tea Tree and the projects on Table & Wine Grape Genetics at the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics. Before joining the Centre, he led the citrus breeding program of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. As Senior Scientist he managed collaborative projects with CSIRO and other State Agriculture Departments, and research associations with colleagues in USA and other countries. During this period he built his laboratory at Bundaberg Research Station into a well-equipped and staffed facility for utilising biotechnology in plant breeding. He and his staff employed methods including quantitative isozyme densitometry in studies of citrus polyploids, tissue culturing for embryo rescue and micropropagation, gamma radiation mutagenesis for citrus breeding, polymerase chain reaction and the random amplified polymorphic DNA technique for marker-assisted tomato breeding. Concurrently Slade became associated with Central Queensland University as supervisor of post-doctoral research and postgraduate students working in his laboratory, and later as a visiting lecturer at the University's Bundaberg Campus. Early in 1997, Slade accepted an Associate Professorship in the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics at Southern Cross University, Lismore, to lead a team of field biologists, laboratory technicians and molecular biologists in a very detailed genetic study of the tea tree species used for commercial essential oil production. This work entailed development of DNA microsatellite markers and use of gas chromatography to study the genetic and phenotypic structure of the tea tree population throughout the entire known range of the species. In 1998 he also assumed the role of project leader of the grape genetics projects which involved a team of scientists at the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics working to genetically improve table grapes and wine grapes. The methods in use included DNA microsatellite marker technology, development of cDNA libraries and BAC libraries for the identification and characterisation of specific expressed grape genes, tissue culturing and transformation to introduce novel genes into grapevines.
Journal articles
Horticultural development of bush food plants and rights of Indigenous people as traditional custodians – the Australian Bush Tomato (Solanum centrale) example: a review, The Rangeland Journal (2012)
New crops are regularly being introduced into cultivation, typically accompanied by a very small agricultural...
Variation in sorghum starch synthesis genes associated with differences in starch phenotype (with Helen Hill and Robert J. Henry), Food Chemistry (2012)
Eucalypts as a biofuel feedstock (with M Shepherd, John Bartle, Jeremy Brawner, J Bush, Paul Turnbull, P MacDonnell, Troy R. Brown, Blake Simmons, and R J. Henry), Biofuels (2011)
Aleurone and subaleurone morphology in native Australian wild cereal relatives (with Frances M. Shapter, Maxine P. Dawes, 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 Frances M. Shapter, Peter Eggler, and Robert J. Henry), Journal of Cereal Science (2009)
A complex cascade of enzymes is responsible for the development of starch granules in grain...
Book chapters
Commercial applications of plant genotyping (with Robert J. Henry), Plant genotyping: the DNA fingerprinting of plants (2001)
Molecular analysis of wild plant germplasm: the case of tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) (with Maurizio Rossetto, Laura E. Homer, and Robert J. Henry), Plant genotyping: the DNA fingerprinting of plants (2001)
Conference publications
Variation in starch genes explain differences in phenotypic properties in sorghum (with H Hill and Robert J. Henry), 2010 Australian Summer Grains Conference (2010)
Sorghum is an important grain exploited for a wide variety of uses in the food,...
CEL I and the EMAIL mutation scanning assay (with Michael J. Cross, Daniel LE Waters, and Robert J. Henry), International Plant and Animal Genome XVI Conference (2008)
Scanning for unknown mutations has been advanced by mismatch cleavage techniques. Pioneering methods include the...
EMAIL - a highly sensitive tool for specific mutation detection in plant improvement programs (with Michael J. Cross and Robert J. Henry), IAEA International Symposium on Induced Mutation in Plants (ISIM) (2008)
TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes) is a useful tool for discovery of specific...
Identification of novel starch traits in sorghum (with Helen Hill and Robert J. Henry), 58th Australian Cereal Chemistry Conference (2008)
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) is the fifth most important cereal grain crop in the world...
A novel detection strategy for scanning multiple mutations using CEL I mismatch cleavage and capillary electrophoresis (with Michael J. Cross, Daniel LE Waters, and Robert J. Henry), Plant and Animal Genomes XV Conference (2007)
CEL I endonuclease cleavage of heteroduplex DNA is noted as an efficient, high-throughput technique for...