Prof John Doonan

BSc Hons (Leeds), PhD (Leeds)

Prof John Doonan

Chair (DLM)

IBERS

Contact Details

Profile

John Doonan has more than 30 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.

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 for crops and model plants grown in either controlled environments and the field.  Collaborations with computer scientists, both locally within Aberystwyth and globally, aim to develop and exploit emerging data acquisition technologies and image interrogation methods based on Artificial Intelligence to provide new knowledge on the basis of productivity in natural and agricultural ecosystems.  

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

Research is or has been supported by grants from the BBSRC, Leverhulme, Interreg Funds, Horizon2020, NSF, FP7, BEAA, and the Welsh Government.

Publications

Evershed, D, Durkan, EJ, Hasler, R, Corke, F, Doonan, JH & Howarth, CJ 2024, 'Critical Evaluation of the Cgrain Value™ as a Tool for Rapid Morphometric Phenotyping of Husked Oat (Avena sativa L.) Grains', Seeds, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 436-455. 10.3390/seeds3030030
Balouri, C, Poulios, S, Tsompani, D, Spyropoulou, Z, Ketikoglou, M-C, Kaldis, A, Doonan, JH & Vlachonasios, KE 2024, 'Gibberellin Signaling through RGA Suppresses GCN5 Effects on Arabidopsis Developmental Stages', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 25, no. 12, 6757. 10.3390/ijms25126757
van de Koot, WQM, Msonda, J, Olver, OP, Doonan, JH & Nibau, C 2024, 'Variation in Water-Holding Capacity in Sphagnum Species Depends on Both Plant and Colony Structure', Plants, vol. 13, no. 8, 1061. 10.3390/plants13081061
Yang, W, Doonan, JH, Guo, X, Yuan, X & Ling, F 2023, 'State-of-the-art technology and applications in crop phenomics, volume II', Frontiers in Plant Science, vol. 14, 1195377. 10.3389/fpls.2023.1195377
Jin, X, Yang, W, Doonan, JH & Atzberger, C 2022, 'Crop phenotyping studies with application to crop monitoring', Crop Journal, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 1221-1223. 10.1016/j.cj.2022.09.001
More publications on the Research Portal