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 | Biography |  |
Molecular genetics of plant disease. Don Maclean’s research uses the tools of molecular biology to characterise pathogens of plants and to investigate plant-pathogen interactions. He has pioneered the use of ‘real time PCR’ technology (PCR = polymerase chain reaction) for the sensitive and specific detection and quantification of genes and gene products. Areas of interest include:
- Cloning genes controlling virulence and pathogenicity of fungal plant pathogens including Phytophthora, Colletotrichum
- Identification of plant defence-associated genes using microarray technology
- Mutational approach to identify signalling genes in the model plant Arabidopsis that switch on defence genes after pathogen challenge, especially via the jasmonate signalling pathway
- Expression of pathogen and plant genes during infection
- Expression of genes associated with the mobilisation and deposition of cholesterol in health and disease
- Development of improved nucleic acid-based diagnostic systems for plant pathogens.
Real time PCR technology can directly detect fewer than 10 cells of a bacterial pathogen added to a single reaction tube. In some experiments we have detected a single DNA target sequence! Messenger RNA from specific genes is similarly analysed by first extracting total RNA from a sample and treating it with the purified viral enzyme reverse transcriptase.
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