Julian Schwerdt

School of Agriculture, Food and Wine

Faculty of Sciences

I'm a computational biologist and began my scientific career as a software developer building biological databases in the UK. I returned to Australia to take up a position at the South Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (SAPAC) as a Bioinformatics Specialist. This involved a close association with the Australian Centre for Plant Function Genomics (ACPFG) which in turn lead to a Ph.D and post-doctoral position at the ACPFG and the ARC CoE for Plant Cell Walls. My interests are in protein family evolution, coevolution networks and recently biological applications for machine learning.

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My Ph.D research focused on the evolutionary history and dynamics of the cellulose synthase superfamily in the angiosperms (flowering plants). This aimed to explore how a family of proteins have evolved to produce the diversity of carbohydrates we consume for food, fuel and materials. We reconstructed molecular sequence evolution to infer when protein families evolved and how natural selection has shaped this process. The association of this snippet of evolution with other observed changes such as morphology and protein structural elements can now be used to predict protein function and other characteristics of a stubbornly inscrutable protein superfamily.

Tree

As a postdoctoral researcher at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls, my present research focuses on understanding the synthesis and interactions of cell wall carbohydrates and their evolution in the context of plant survival strategies and interactions with fungal pathogens. I use computational methods related to phylogenetics, genomics, transcriptomics, and homology modeling. My currents projects include:

Plant genome assembly
Phylogenetics of cell wall associated enzyme pathway
Reconstructing the sequences of ancestral proteins
Coevolution network analysis
Applications of machine learning methodologies to phenotyping

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Appointments

Date	Position	Institution name
2017	Post-doctoral researcher	ARC CoE Plant Cell Walls
2012	Bioinformatician	ARC CoE Plant Cell Walls
2004 - 2008	Bioinformatics Computer Specialist	South Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing

Research Interests

Bioinformatics

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Journals

Year	Citation
2019	Little, A., Lahnstein, J., Jeffery, D., Khor, S., Schwerdt, J., Shirley, N., . . . Bulone, V. (2019). A novel (1,4)-β-linked glucoxylan is synthesized by members of the cellulose synthase-like F gene family in land plants. ACS Central Science, 5(1), 73-84. DOI Scopus1 WoS2 Europe PMC1
2019	Crowe-Riddell, J., Simões, B., Partridge, J., Hunt, D., Delean, S., Schwerdt, J., . . . Sanders, K. (2019). Phototactic tails: evolution and molecular basis of a novel sensory trait in sea snakes. Molecular Ecology, 28(8), 1-16. DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC2
2019	Bulone, V., Schwerdt, J. G., & Fincher, G. B. (2019). Co-evolution of enzymes involved in plant cell wall metabolism in the grasses. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10, 13 pages. DOI
2018	Little, A., Schwerdt, J., Shirley, N., Khor, S., Neumann, K., O'Donovan, L., . . . Burton, R. (2018). Revised phylogeny of the Cellulose Synthase gene superfamily: insights into cell wall evolution. Plant Physiology, 177(3), 1124-1141. DOI Scopus17 WoS14 Europe PMC12
2017	Chowdhury, J., Lück, S., Rajaraman, J., Douchkov, D., Shirley, N., Schwerdt, J., . . . Little, A. (2017). Altered expression of genes implicated in xylan biosynthesis affects penetration resistance against powdery mildew. Frontiers in Plant Science, 8, 445-1-445-12. DOI Scopus3 WoS3 Europe PMC1
2017	Hassan, A., Houston, K., Lahnstein, J., Shirley, N., Schwerdt, J., Gidley, M., . . . Burton, R. (2017). A Genome Wide Association Study of arabinoxylan content in 2-row spring barley grain. PLoS ONE, 12(8), e0182537-1-e0182537-19. DOI Scopus5 WoS4 Europe PMC3
2016	Dimitroff, G., Little, A., Lahnstein, J., Schwerdt, J., Srivastava, V., Bulone, V., . . . Fincher, G. (2016). (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan biosynthesis by the CSLF6 enzyme: position and flexibility of catalytic residues influence product fine structure. Biochemistry, 55(13), 2054-2061. DOI Scopus10 WoS9 Europe PMC9
2016	Marcotuli, I., Houston, K., Schwerdt, J., Waugh, R., Fincher, G., Burton, R., . . . Gadaleta, A. (2016). Genetic diversity and genome wide association study of β-glucan content in tetraploid wheat grains. PLoS One, 11(4), e0152590-1-e0152590-15. DOI Scopus15 WoS13 Europe PMC10
2016	Sato, K., Yamane, M., Yamaji, N., Kanamori, H., Tagiri, A., Schwerdt, J., . . . Komatsuda, T. (2016). Alanine aminotransferase controls seed dormancy in barley. Nature Communications, 7, 11625-1-11625-9. DOI Scopus26 WoS25 Europe PMC17
2016	Paull, R., Chen, N., Ming, R., Wai, C., Shirley, N., Schwerdt, J., & Bulone, V. (2016). Carbon Flux and Carbohydrate Gene Families in Pineapple. Tropical Plant Biology, 9(3), 200-213. DOI Scopus6 WoS6
2015	Ermawar, R., Collins, H., Byrt, C., Betts, N., Henderson, M., Shirley, N., . . . Burton, R. (2015). Distribution, structure and biosynthetic gene families of (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan in Sorghum bicolor. Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 57(4), 429-445. DOI Scopus9 WoS10 Europe PMC9
2015	Wong, S., Shirley, N., Little, A., Khoo, K., Schwerdt, J., Fincher, G., . . . Mather, D. (2015). Differential expression of the HvCslF6 gene late in grain development may explain quantitative differences in (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan concentration in barley. Molecular Breeding, 35(1), 20-1-20-12. DOI Scopus5 WoS5 Europe PMC1
2015	Schwerdt, J., MacKenzie, K., Wright, F., Oehme, D., Wagner, J., Harvey, A., . . . Fincher, G. (2015). Evolutionary dynamics of the cellulose synthase gene superfamily in grasses. Plant Physiology, 168(3), 968-983. DOI Scopus20 WoS20 Europe PMC13
2015	Ermawar, R., Collins, H., Byrt, C., Henderson, M., O'Donovan, L., Shirley, N., . . . Burton, R. (2015). Genetics and physiology of cell wall polysaccharides in the model C₄ grass, Setaria viridis spp. BMC Plant Biology, 15(1), 236-1-236-18. DOI Scopus5 WoS4 Europe PMC3
2014	Schreiber, M., Wright, F., MacKenzie, K., Hedley, P., Schwerdt, J., Little, A., . . . Halpin, C. (2014). The barley genome sequence assembly reveals three additional members of the CslF (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan synthase gene family. PLoS One, 9(3), e90888-1-e90888-9. DOI Scopus25 WoS21 Europe PMC16
2008	Jones, C., Schwerdt, J., Bretag, T., Baumann, U., & Brown, A. (2008). GOSLING: a rule-based protein annotator using BLAST and GO. Bioinformatics, 24(22), 2628-2629. DOI Scopus9 WoS8 Europe PMC5

2008 - Grains Research & Development Corporation GRS Post-graduate scholarship.

2010 to present, Master of Plant Biotechnology (bioinformatics course)

Email: julian.schwerdt@adelaide.edu.au
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Julian Schwerdt

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