Professor John Doonan

Professor of Phenomics
BSc Hons (Leeds), PhD (Leeds) Photograph of Professor John Doonan.

Contact

Email: john.doonan@aber.ac.uk
Office: Room 223, William Davis Building, Gogerddan Campus
Phone: 01970 823080

Responsibilities

Director of the National Plant Phenomics Centre

Research

Plant growth underpins the productivity of both natural and agricultural ecosystems.  Our group uses both induced (mutants) and natural variation in experimental model systems and wheat to understand how plants grow and respond to their environment.  Current research focuses on cyclin dependent protein kinase targets (a) in the microtubule system and (b) in the protein translation machinery.  We are developing high throughput high content phenotyping technologies at the National Plant Phenomics Centre that will allow the better exploitation of genomic-type information in the process of both gene discovery and plant breeding.


Our lab welcomes visiting students, post-doc and academics on short and longer term training visits. Please contact us by email.

Research is supported by grants from the BBSRC, Leverhulme, FP7, BEAA, and the Welsh Government.

Biography

John Doonan has more than 25 years experience in genetics and developmental cell biology of plants and fungi.  Before joining IBERS as Director of the National Plant Phenomics Centre , he was Group Leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. Previous to that he worked at the Robert Wood Johnston Medical School in New Jersey, USA and obtained his PhD from Leeds University.

Staff Publications

  • Bush, M.S., et al., Selective recruitment of proteins to 5' cap complexes during the growth cycle in Arabidopsis. Plant J, 2009. 59(3): p. 400-12.
  • Doonan, J.H. and G. Kitsios, Functional evolution of cyclin-dependent kinases. Mol Biotechnol, 2009. 42(1): p. 14-29.
  • Drea, S., et al., In situ analysis of gene expression in plants. Methods Mol Biol, 2009. 513: p. 229-42.
  • Pignocchi, C., et al., ENDOSPERM DEFECTIVE1 Is a Novel Microtubule-Associated Protein Essential for Seed Development in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell, 2009. 21(1): p. 90-105.
  • Wargent, J.J., et al., UVR8 in Arabidopsis thaliana regulates multiple aspects of cellular differentiation during leaf development in response to ultraviolet B radiation. New Phytol, 2009. 183(2): p. 315-26.
  • Wortman, J.R., et al., The 2008 update of the Aspergillus nidulans genome annotation: a community effort. Fungal Genet Biol, 2009. 46 Suppl 1: p. S2-13.
  • Agrawal, G.K., et al., Plant organelle proteomics: Collaborating for optimal cell function. Mass Spectrom Rev, 2010.
  • Buschmann, H., et al., Cytoskeletal dynamics in interphase, mitosis and cytokinesis analysed through Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation of tobacco BY-2 cells. New Phytol, 2010.
  • Doonan, J.H. and R. Sablowski, Walls around tumours - why plants do not develop cancer. Nat Rev Cancer, 2010. 10(11): p. 794-802.
  • Dvorackova, M., et al., AtTRB1, a telomeric DNA-binding protein from Arabidopsis, is concentrated in the nucleolus and shows highly dynamic association with chromatin. Plant J, 2010. 61(4): p. 637-49.
  • Gaamouche, T., et al., Cyclin-dependent kinase activity maintains the shoot apical meristem cells in an undifferentiated state. Plant J, 2010. 64(1): p. 26-37.
  • Gegas, V.C., et al., A genetic framework for grain size and shape variation in wheat. Plant Cell, 2010. 22(4): p. 1046-56.
  • Havecker, E.R., et al., The Arabidopsis RNA-directed DNA methylation argonautes functionally diverge based on their expression and interaction with target loci. Plant Cell, 2010. 22(2): p. 321-34.
  • Wang, Y., et al., Polyploidy-associated genomic instability in Arabidopsis thaliana. Genesis, 2010. 48(4): p. 254-63.
  • Kitsios, G. and J.H. Doonan, Cyclin dependent protein kinases and stress responses in plants. Plant Signal Behav, 2011. 6(2): p. 204-9.
  • Opanowicz, M., et al., Endosperm development in Brachypodium distachyon. J Exp Bot, 2011. 62(2): p. 735-48.
  • Pignocchi, C. and J.H. Doonan, Interaction of a 14-3-3 protein with the plant microtubule-associated protein EDE1. Ann Bot, 2011. 107(7): p. 1103-9.
  • Spadafora, N.D., et al., Arabidopsis T-DNA insertional lines for CDC25 are hypersensitive to hydroxyurea but not to zeocin or salt stress. Ann Bot, 2011. 107(7): p. 1183-92.
  • Vain, P., et al., A T-DNA mutation in the RNA helicase eIF4A confers a dose-dependent dwarfing phenotype in Brachypodium distachyon. Plant J, 2011. 66(6): p. 929-40.
  • Vernoux, T., et al., The auxin signalling network translates dynamic input into robust patterning at the shoot apex. Mol Syst Biol, 2011. 7: p. 508.