Associate Professor Phillip Dickson - Selected Publications
Dickson, P.W., Aldred, A.R., Marley, P.D., Bannister, D., and Schreiber, G. (1986) Rat choroid plexus specializes in the synthesis and the secretion of transthyretin (prealbumin). Regulation of transthyretin synthesis in choroid plexus is independent from that in liver. J. Biol. Chem. 261, 3475-3478.
During my PhD I isolated and sequenced the rat transthyretin (prealbumin) cDNA. This was the first isolation of the transthyretin cDNA from any species. I then used the cDNA to show that transthyretin was expressed in the liver is expected but I also detected expression in the brain. It turned out that the only region in the brain that expressed transthyretin was the choroid plexus and transthyretin was the major protein expressed in the choroid plexus. I went on to examine this in more detail in my initial postdoctoral period.
Teyton, L., O'Sullivan, D., Dickson, P.W., Lotteau, V., Sette, A., Fink, P., Peterson, P.A. (1990) Invariant chain distinguishes between the exogenous and endogenous antigen presentation pathways. Nature 348, 39-44.
In my postdoctoral period in the United States develop the procedures for the high-level expression of proteins in the baculovirus expression system. We then use this to develop a system to express a soluble form of the invariant chain and use this to show that the invariant chain could block peptide binding to MHC class II.
Bevilaqua, L.R.M., Graham, M.E., Dunkley, P.R., von Nagy-Felsobuki, E. I.and Dickson, P. W. (2001) Phosphorylation of Ser19 alters the conformation of tyrosine hydroxylase to increase the rate of phosphorylation of Ser40. J Biol. Chem., 276, 40411-40416.
I have developed the novel concept of hierarchical phosphorylation of tyrosine hydroxylase. This is where the phosphorylation of one site alters the phosphorylation of a second site and this alters the activity of the enzyme. This provided for the first time a clear understanding of the role of phosphorylation of serine 19 in tyrosine hydroxylase. We further confirmed this finding in situ. I was the senior author on this paper. I developed the concept and ran the project
Lehmann, I. T., Bobrovskaya, L., Gordon, S., Dunkley, P. R. and Dickson, P. W. (2006) Differential regulation of the human tyrosine hydroxylase isoforms via hierarchical phosphorylation. J. Biol. Chem. (M5:12194 Accepted April 27, 2006)
This work extended the findings of the previous paper to show that phosphorylation of serine 31 could also potentiate the phosphorylation of serine 40 and activation of tyrosine hydroxylase in a hierarchical manner. This finding has also led for the first time to an understanding of the differences between the four isoforms of human tyrosine hydroxylase despite these four isoforms being identified almost 20 years ago. Again I was the senior author on the paper, having developed the concept and ran the project.
Esteem Factors
- Dr Dickson was an invited speaker to the 13th Biennial Congress on Chromaffin Cell Biology in recognition for his work on tyrosine hydroxylase regulation.
- Dr Dickson has acted as a PhD examiner for theses from the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the University of Otago (New Zealand).
- Dr Dickson has acted as referee for a number of journals and in particular has acted as referee for the Journal of Neurochemistry on a number of occasions
- Dr Dickson has acted as a referee for both the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council and is currently is an INTREADER or “expert of international standing” with the ARC