Anthony (Tony) H. D. Brown

Chief Research Scientist

Ph D University of California, Davis, California, USA, 1969

Phone (+61) 02 6246 5081
Fax: (+61) 02 6246 5000

E-mail: Tony.Brown@csiro.au

Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research
CSIRO Plant Industry
GPO Box 1600
Canberra ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA

The major aims of my research are first to determine the kinds, amounts and organization of genetic variation within natural or agricultural plant populations, the factors maintaining this variation, its role in adapting plants to their environment and the systematic and evolutionary relationships between crops and their related wild species. The second aim is to exploit the variation present in natural populations of crop wild relatives (barley, soybeans, cotton) in plant improvement. Both the experimental determination of variation and theoretical analysis are important components of this work. These studies furnish the basic data and germplasm essential to efficient programs for the optimal sampling, conservation and use of plant gene pools. National and internatiosnal collaborative research activities include an Honorary Fellowship with International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and technical advisor on IPGRI's global project developing the scientific basis of In Situ conservation on-farm.

Plant genetic resources

• Brown AHD , (2010) Variation under domestication in plants – 1859 and today Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365:2523-2530.

• Brown, A.H.D. (2008) Indicators of genetic diversity, genetic erosion and genetic vulnerability for plant genetic resources. Thematic Background Study, State of Worlds Plant Genetic Resources, Food & Agriculture Organization. http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1500e/i1500e20.pdf

• Jarvis DI, Brown AHD, et al. (2008) A global perspective of the richness and evenness of traditional crop-variety diversity maintained by farming communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America105: 5326-5331. Corrigendum 105: 8160.

• Rau D, Brown AHD, Brubaker CL, Attene G, Balmas V, Saba E, Papa R (2003) Population genetic structure of Pyrenophora teres Drechs. the causal agent of net blotch in Sardinian landraces of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics106: 947-959.

• Teshome, A., Brown, A.H.D., and Hodgkin, T. (2001). Diversity in landraces of cereal and legume crops. Plant Breeding Reviews, 21, 221-261.

• Brown, A.H.D. and Hardner, C.M. (2000). Sampling the gene pools of forest trees for ex situ conservation. In: Forest Conservation Genetics: Principles and Practice. A. Young, T. Boyle, and D. Boshier (eds.) CSIRO, Melbourne pp. 185-196.

• Young, A.G., Brown, A.H.D., Murray, B.G., Thrall, P.H., Millar, C.H. (2000). Genetic erosion, restricted mating and reduced viability in fragmented populations of the endangered grassland herb: Rutidosis leptorhynnchoides . In: Genetics, Demography and Viability of Fragmented Populations, Young, A. & Clarke, G. (eds.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 335-359.

Glycine molecular systematics and polyploid evolution

• Pfeil BE, Craven LA, Brown AHD, Murray BG, Doyle JJ (2006) Three new species of northern Australian Glycine (Fabaceae, Phaseolae), G-gracei, G-montis-douglas and G-syndetika. Australian Systematic Botany19: 245-258.

• Doyle JJ, Doyle JL, Rauscher JT, Brown AHD (2004) Diploid and polyploid reticulate evolution throughout the history of the perennial soybeans (Glycine subgenus Glycine). New Phytologist161: 121-132.

• Doyle JJ, Doyle JL, Rauscher JT, Brown AHD (2004) Evolution of the perennial soybean polyploid complex (Glycine subgenus Glycine): a study of contrasts. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society82: 583-597.

• Joly S, Rauscher JT, Sherman-Broyles SL, Brown AHD, Doyle JJ (2004) Evolutionary dynamics and preferential expression of homeologous 18S-5.8S-26S nuclear ribosomal genes in natural and artificial Glycine allopolyploids. Molecular Biology and Evolution21: 1409-1421.

• Rauscher JT, Doyle JJ, Brown AHD (2004) Multiple origins and nrDNA internal transcribed spacer homeologue evolution in the Glycine tomentella (Leguminosae) allopolyploid complex. Genetics166: 987-998.

• Murray BR, Brown AHD, Dickman CR, Crowther MS (2004) Geographical gradients in seed mass in relation to climate. Journal of Biogeography31: 379-388.

• Murray BR, Brown AHD, Grace JP (2003) Geographic gradients in seed size among and within perennial Australian Glycine species. Australian Journal of Botany51: 47-56.

• Brown, A.H.D., Doyle, J.L., Grace, J.P., Doyle, J.J. 2002. Molecular phylogenetic relationships within and among diploid races of Glycine tomentella (Leguminosae). Australian Systematic Botany, 15, 37-47

• Doyle JJ, Doyle JL, Brown AHD, Palmer RG (2002) Genomes, multiple origins, and lineage recombination in the Glycine tomentella (Leguminosae) polyploid complex: Histone H3-D gene sequences. Evolution56: 1388-1402.

• Brown AHD , Doyle JL, Grace JP, Doyle JJ (2002) Molecular phylogenetic relationships within and among diploid races of Glycine tomentella (Leguminosae). Australian Systematic Botany15: 37-47.

Gossypium genetic resources and risk assessment

• Brubaker CL, Brown AHD (2003) The use of multiple alien chromosome addition aneuploids facilitates genetic linkage mapping of the Gossypium G genome. Genome46: 774-791.

Hordeum molecular markers and disease resistance

• Genger RK, Nesbitt K, Brown AHD, Abbott DC, Burdon JJ (2005) A novel barley scald resistance gene: genetic mapping of the Rrs15 scald resistance gene derived from wild barley, Hordeum vulgare ssp spontaneum. Plant Breeding124: 137-141.

• Genger RK, Williams KJ, Raman H, Read BJ, Wallwork H, Burdon JJ, Brown AHD (2003) Leaf scald resistance genes in Hordeum vulgare and Hordeum vulgare ssp spontaneum: parallels between cultivated and wild barley. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research54: 1335-1342.

• Population genetics of in situ conservation – traditional crop varieties and endangered plants

• Molecular systematics and conservation of Australian Glycine species