James Brown

Head of Department

Disease and Stress Biology

Contact details

Tel: +44 (0)1603 450615
james.brown@jic.ac.uk

Research interests

There is a constant struggle between plants and their parasites: as plants evolve to become resistant to disease, parasites evolve to overcome that resistance. Consequently, crops in agriculture are exposed to a constantly changing population of different genotypes and species of parasites.

My group's research falls into two related parts. Firstly, we study processes by which plants and parasites coevolve to become adapted to one another. Secondly, we are researching ways of making high-quality crop varieties more resistant to disease.

We work on several diseases, as appropriate for the research in question. Most of our work is on fungal pathogens of cereals, especially powdery mildew of barley and wheat and septoria tritici blotch of wheat. In current projects, we are also studying ramularia leaf spot of barley, yellow rust of wheat, powdery mildew of cucurbits and Pseudomonas syringae on Arabidopsis. Our research on coevolution also makes use of mathematical and computer modelling.

Recent Publications

Brown J. K. M. (2011)
Plant breeding: its contribution to durable disease control
Outlooks on Pest Management 22 (3) 140-144
DOI: 10.1564/22jun12

Brown J. K. M. (2011)
Breeding for resistance as a component of integrated crop disease control and sustainable food protection
Modern Fungicides and Antifungal Compounds VI
DPG Spectrum Phytomedizin
(4) 27-34

Brown J. K. M., Tellier A. (2011)
Plant-parasite coevolution: bridging the gap between genetics and ecology.
Annual Reviews in Phytopathology 49 345-67
DOI:10.1146/annurev-phyto-072910-095301

López-Ruiz F. J., Chartrain L., Pérez-Garcia A., Ridout C. J., Tóres J. A., Brown J. K. M. (2011)
Exploring the molecular basis of azole resistance in powdery mildew fungi
Modern Fungicides and Antifungal Compounds VI
DPG Spectrum Phytomedizin
(20) 135-142

Orton E. S., Deller S., Brown J. K. M. (2011)
Mycosphaerella graminicola: from genomics to disease control
Molecular Plant Pathology 12 (5) 413-424
DOI:10.1111/J.1364-3703.2010.00688.X

Saville R. J., Gosman N., Burt C. J., Makepeace J., Steed A., Corbitt M., Chandler E., Brown J. K., Boulton M. I., Nicholson P. (2011)
The 'Green Revolution' dwarfing genes play a role in disease resistance in Triticum aestivum and Hordeum vulgare.
Journal of Experimental Botany
DOI:10.1093/jxb/err350

Lillemo M., Skinnes H., Brown J. K. M. (2010)
Race specific resistance to powdery mildew in Scandinavian wheat cultivars, breeding lines and introduced genotypes with partial resistance
Plant Breeding 129 (3) 297-303(7)
DOI:10.1111/j.1439-0523.2009.01691.x

López-Ruiz F. J., Pérez-García A., Fernández-Ortuño D., Romero D., García E., de Vicente A., Brown J. K. M., Torés J. A. (2010)
Sensitivities to DMI fungicides in populations of Podosphaera fusca in south central Spain.
Pest Management Science 66 (7) 801-8
DOI:10.1002/ps.1948

Spanu P. D., Abbott J. C., Amselem J., Burgis T. A., Soanes D. M., Stüber K., Ver Loren van Themaat E., Brown J. K. M., Butcher S. A., Gurr S. J., Lebrun M. H., Ridout C. J., Schulze-Lefert P., Talbot N. J., Ahmadinejad N., Ametz C., Barton G. R., Benjdia M., Bidzinski P., Bindschedler L. V., Both M., Brewer M. T., Cadle-Davidson L., Cadle-Davidson M. M., Collemare J., Cramer R., Frenkel O., Godfrey D., Harriman J., Hoede C., King B. C., Klages S., Kleemann J., Knoll D., Koti P. S., Kreplak J., López-Ruiz F. J., Lu X., Maekawa T., Mahanil S., Micali C., Milgroom M. G., Montana G., Noir S., O'Connell R. J., Oberhaensli S., Parlange F., Pedersen C., Vigouroux M., Panstruga R. (2010)
Genome expansion and gene loss in powdery mildew fungi reveal tradeoffs in extreme parasitism.
Science 330 (6010) 1543-6
DOI:10.1126/science.1194573

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