RESEARCH PROFILE

John's main research interests focus on the elemental nutrition of plants. In crop systems, many of the elements required for plant growth are supplied as inorganic fertilisers, which have economic and environmental costs if not used appropriately. He is currently contributing to several projects investigating plant responses to phosphorus deficiency and reducing our reliance on inorganic phosphorus fertilisers. John's research portfolio has spanned a wide range of areas relating to plant mineral nutrition, collaborating closely with Prof. Philip White (SCRI) and Dr Martin Broadley (University of Nottingham). These have included (i) applied agronomic solutions to reducing fertiliser inputs, such as the placement of fertiliser into the rooting zone of the crop, trials of renewable sources of phosphorus as alternatives to non-renewable inorganic phosphate fertilisers, such as struvite, and identifying crop varieties that use fertilisers more efficiently, (ii) basic research into the genetic responses of various species to mineral deficiencies and toxicities using transcriptional profiling and phylogenetic variation in plant mineral traits both within and between species and (iii) research to inform decisions on national and international policy issues, such as the EU Water Frame Work Directive.  

The majority of John's work utilises microarray technology to investigate the changes in the gene expression of plants subjected to different nutrient regimes. This work has involved developing techniques, in collaboration with Prof. Philip White (SCRI), Dr Martin Broadley (University of Nottingham) and the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre, to use microarrays designed for model organisms to monitor the transcriptome of organisms for which the arrays were not originally designed.

BACKGROUND

John graduated from the University of York with a BSc in Applied and Environmental Biology (2000). He then continued his studies with Prof. Malcolm Bennett (University of Nottingham) and Prof. Philip White and Dr Martin Broadley at Horticulture Research International, where he completed a PhD in Plant and Crop Science (2004). During the course of his PhD John was awarded 3rd Prize in the Promega "Young Experimental Biologist of the Year 2004" competition at the Annual Main Meeting of the SEB. Upon completion of his PhD, John was awarded the Edward Cocking Prize in Plant Science by the University of Nottingham. John is currently the Research Leader for the Plant Mineral Nutrition group at Warwick HRI. 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• White PJ, Hammond JP, King GJ, Bowen HC, Hayden RM, Meacham MC, Spracklen WP, Broadley MR (2009) Genetic analysis of potassium use efficiency in Brassica oleracea L. Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcp253. [article]
• Hammond JP, Broadley MR, White PJ, King GJ, Bowen HC, Hayden R, Meacham MC, Mead A, Overs T, Spracklen WP, Greenwood DJ (2009) Shoot yield drives phosphorus use efficiency in Brassica oleracea and correlates with root architectural traits. Journal of Experimental Botany, 60, 1953-1968. [article]
• Yang D, Zhang T, Zhang K, Greenwood DJ, Hammond JP, White PJ (2009) An easily implemented agro-hydrological procedure with dynamic root simulation for water transfer in the crop–soil system: Validation and application. Journal of Hydrology, 370, 177–190. [article]
• Broadley MR, White PJ, Hammond JP, Graham NS, Bowen HC, Emmerson ZF, Fray RG, Iannetta PPM, McNicol JW, May ST (2008) Evidence of neutral transcriptome evolution in plants. New Phytologist, 180, 587–593 [article]
• Kloosterman B, De Koeyer D, Griffiths R, Flinn B, Steuernagel B, Scholz U, Sonnewald S, Sonnewald U, Bryan GJ, Prat S, Bánfalvi Z, Hammond JP, Geigenberger P, Nielsen KL, Visser RGF, Bachem CWB (2008) Genes driving potato tuber initiation and growth: identification based on transcriptional changes using the POCI array. Functional & Integrative Genomics, doi 10.1007/s10142-008-0083-x [article]
• Broadley MR, Hammond JP, King GJ, Astley D, Bowen HC, Meacham MC, Mead A, Pink DAC, Teakle GR, Hayden RM, Spracklen WP, White PJ (2008) Shoot calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) concentrations differ between subtaxa, are highly heritable, and associate with potentially pleiotropic loci in Brassica oleracea. Plant Physiology, 146, 1707-1720. [article]
• Hammond JP, White PJ (2008) Sucrose transport in the phloem: integrating root responses to phosphorus starvation. Journal of Experimental Botany 59, 93-109. [article]