Director, Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory Citadel Hill, PlymouthPL1 2PB
Tel 44(0)1752 633331 or 633347Email: cbr@mba.ac.uk
Research interests
Colin Brownlee co-ordinates the Cell and Molecular Programme of the MBA. He has broad research interests in algal and plant cell biology. His primary research has a particular focus on cellular transport, homeostasis and signalling in phytoplankton and multicellular algae. He studies environmentally important groups, such as the calcifying coccolithophores and adopts a multidisciplinary approach to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying major biogeochemical processes. A key strategic driver of much of this research is to provide a better understanding of how phytoplankton populations may respond or adapt to changing conditions in the oceans, including ocean acidification. He also uses model algal systems such as Fucus and Chlamydomonas to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying signalling in cells and flagella. Along with comparative physiological and genomic studies this research is shedding new light on the evolution of signalling mechanisms in eukaryote organisms.
Flynn KJ, Blackford JC, Baird ME, Raven JA, Clarke DR, Beardall J, Brownlee C, Wheeler GL (2012) Changes in pH at the exterior surface of plankton with ocean acidification. Nature Climate Change DOI 10:1038/NClimate1489
Mackinder L, Wheeler G, Schroeder D, von Dassow P, Riebesell U, Brownlee C (2011) Expression of biomineralisation related ion transport genes in Emiliania huxleyi . Enivronmental Microbiology 13, 3250-3265.
Taylor AR, Chrachri A, Wheeler GL, Goddard H, Brownlee C (2011) A voltage-gated proton channel underlying pH homeostasis in calcifying coccolithophores. PLoS Biology 9(6): e1001085.
Cock JM, et al, (2010) The Ectocarpus genome and the independent evolution of multicellularity in the brown algae Nature 465, 617-621
Mackinder L, Wheeler, GL, Schroeder DC, Riebesell U, Brownlee C. (2010) Molecular mechanisms underlying calcification in coccolithophores. Geomicrobiology Journal 27, 585-595
Verret FJ, Wheeler GL, Taylor AR, Farnham G, Brownlee C (2010) Calcium channels and their implications for evolution of calcium signalling in photosynthetic eukaryotes. New Phytologist (Tansley Review) 187, 23-43.