BACKGROUND

In 1990 I moved to Wye College and took the opportunity to move into research on the pathology of the then developing model plant Arabidopsis. In an ongoing collaboration with Eric Holub and Ian Crute at HRI I became involved in the cloning of disease resistance genes from Arabidopsis as the first step to understanding of disease resistance mechanisms in plants. To further cement this collaboration I joined HRI in 1997. We have published on the cloning of three such genes (a further gene is the late stages of research) all of which tell unique stories in terms of gene evolution and disease resistance mechanisms. One of these genes, RPP13, shows the greatest variation between alleles of any plant gene cloned to date and we believe it will become a key gene in understanding the evolution of resistance gene structure and function.

Fellow, The Society of Biology
Member, International Society for Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions
Member, British Society for Plant Pathology
Committee member, International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium (IAIC)
Member, Exeter University Systems Biology Advisory Board
Member, Scottish Crop Research Institute advisory group on plant pathogen research
External examiner since 2007, Nottingham University degree in Plant Sciences

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

• GARNet: Genomic Arabidopsis Research Network and MASC, Funded by: BBSRC, Project Start Date: 01/12/2009 Project End Date: 30/11/2014
• What are the roles of oomycete RxLR effectors in the establishment of plant disease, Funded by: BBSRC, Project Start Date: 01/04/2009 Project End Date: 31/03/2014
• Elucidating Signalling Networks in Plant Stress Responses - SABR 1, with Ott, Sascha~Denby, Katherine J~Rand, David A~Finkenstadt, Barbel F~Buchanan-Wollaston, Vicky~Beynon, Jim L~Wild, David L~ Systems Biology Centre~Warwick HRI~Mathematics~Statistics~Systems Biology Centre~Warwick HRI~Systems Biology Centre~, Funded by: BBSRC, Project Start Date: 07/04/2008 Project End Date: 06/04/2013
• BSPP Undergraduate Vacation Bursary for Lorna Cox, Funded by: British Society for Plant Pathology, Project Start Date: 02/07/2012 Project End Date: 02/09/2012
• RDF 2011/12 Strategic Award: The Role of Transcription Factories in Plant Responses to Environmental Stress, Funded by: Research Development Fund, Project Start Date: 01/08/2011 Project End Date: 31/07/2012
  
  

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Rehmany A P, Paniwnyk Z, Whisson S C, Birch P R J, Beynon J L(2003) 'A genetic interval and physical contig spanning the Peronospora parasitica (At) avirulence gene locus ATR1Nd' Fungal Genetics And Biology 38 33 - 42 (1087-1845)
• Kate Bailey, Volkan Çevik, Nicholas Holton, Jane Byrne-Richardson, Kee Hoon Sohn, Mary Coates, Alison Woods-Tör, H. Murat Aksoy, Linda Hughes, Laura Baxter, Jonathan D. G. Jones, Jim Beynon, Eric B. Holub, and Mahmut Tör(2011) 'Molecular Cloning of ATR5Emoy2 from Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis, an Avirulence Determinant That Triggers RPP5-Mediated Defense in Arabidopsis' Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 24 (7), 827 - 838 (0894-0282)
• M. Shahid Mukhtar, Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis, Matija Dreze, Petra Epple, Jens Steinbrenner, Jonathan Moore, Murat Tasan, Mary Galli, Tong Hao, Marc T. Nishimura, Samuel J. Pevzner, Susan E. Donovan, Lila Ghamsari, Balaji Santhanam, Viviana Romero, Matthew M. Poulin, Fana Gebreab, Bryan J. Gutierrez, Stanley Tam, Dario Monachello, Mike Boxem, Christopher J. Harbort, Nathan McDonald, Lantian Gai, Huaming Chen, Yijian He, European Union Effectoromics Consortium, Jean Vandenhaute, Frederick P. Roth, David E. Hill, Joseph R. Ecker, Marc Vidal, Jim Beynon, Pascal Braun, and Jeffery L. Dangl (2011) 'Independently Evolved Virulence Effectors Converge onto Hubs in a Plant Immune System Network' Science 333 596 - 601 (0036-8075)
• Breeze, E., Harrison, E., McHattie, S., Hughes, L., Hickman, R.D.G., Hill, C., Kiddle, S.J., Kim, Y.-S., Penfold, C.A., Jenkins, D.J., Zhang, C., Morris, K., Jenner, C.E., Jackson, S.D., Thomas, B., Tabrett, A., Legaie, R., Moore, J.D., Wild, D.L., Ott, S., Rand, D.A., Beynon, J., Denby, K.J., Mead, A. and Buchanan-Wollaston, V.(2011) 'High-resolution temporal profiling of transcripts during Arabidopsis leaf senescence reveals a distinct chronology of processes and regulation' The Plant Cell 23 (3), 873 - 894 (1040-4651) [article]
• Fabro G, Steinbrenner J, Coates M, Ishaque N, Baxter L, Studholme DJ, Körner E, Allen RL, Piquerez SJM, Rougon-Cardoso A, Greenshields D, Lei R, Badel JL, Caillaud M-C, Kee-Hoon Sohn Van den Ackerveken G, Parker JE, Beynon J, Jones JDG.(2011) 'Multiple Candidate Effectors from the Oomycete Pathogen Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis Suppress Host Plant Immunity' PLoS Pathogens 7 (11), e1002348 (1553-7366) [article]

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RESEARCH DEGREES SUPERVISED

• Sarah Harvey is studying how the plant immune network responds to pathogen attack using the Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis/ Arabidopsis interaction., Date of Completion: 2013
• Laura Lewis is analysing the effects of oomycete effector proteins on plant immunity regulatory networks., Date of Completion: 2012
• Sarat Bimanadham is analysing the role of pathogen effector proteins in causing plant disease., Date of Completion: 2011
• Using yeast two hybrid approaches, Sue Donovan is studying the host protein targets of oomycete pathogenicity effectors in Arabidopsis., Date of Completion: 2010
• Linda Hughes began by carrying out bioinformatic analyses of the evolution of oomycete genomes. She then used Systems Biology approaches to analyse micro-array data., Date of Completion: 2009
• Julia Meitz studied allelic variation in Peronospora parasitica effector molecules and assessed the conservation of such genes in strains of the pathogen that infect Brassica crops., Date of Completion: 2008
• Mary Coates carried out EST sequencing to identify candidate effector molecules from the oomycete Hyaloperonospora parasitica. These effectors along with putative effectors predicted from the genome sequence were mapped onto pathogen populations segregating for avirulence genes. Genetic maps were built around four avirulence loci, enabling a map-based cloning approach to be adopted. , Date of Completion: 2007
• Laura Grenville mapped avirulence genes in Peronospora parasitica. She successfully defined the mapping interval of the ATR13gene , Date of Completion: 2003
• Anna Gordon analysed the complex disease resistance locus (RPP1) on chromosome 3 of Arabidopsis. She studied the function of the paralogues present and their evolutionary strategy, Date of Completion: 2002
• Lucy Nott studied multi-gene resistance in Arabidopsis. She cloned a two component resistance locus (RPP2) from Arabidopsis chromosome 4, Date of Completion: 2002
• Niaz Sepahvand has analysed a cDNA clone that appears to map near a previously uncharacterised disease resistance gene cluster in Arabidopsis. He has shown this to be the RPP28 gene for isolate specific recognition of P.parasitcia isolate Hind2, Date of Completion: 2001