About the School
Current Students
Prospective Students
Research
Facilities
Careers
Mark DowtonHead of School / Associate Professor 35.G19C / 35.108A +61 2 4221 5653 |
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Research Interests
- Mitochondrial genome biology
- Recombination in nematode mitochondria
- Evolutionary relationships among Hymenoptera
- Phylogenetic analysis
- Mitochondrial gene rearrangements
- Molecular diagnostics of forensically important insects
Representative Publications
M Dowton and AD Austin (1994) Molecular phylogeny of the insect order Hymenoptera: Apocritan relationships. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 9911-9915;![]()
http://intl.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/91/21/9911
M Dowton and AD Austin (1999) Evolutionary dynamics of a mitochondrial rearrangement ‘hotspot’ in the Hymenoptera. Mol. Biol. Evol. 16: 298-309;![]()
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/16/2/298
M Dowton and NJH Campbell (2001) Intramitochondrial recombination – is it why some mitochondrial genes sleep around. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16: 269-271;
M Dowton and AD Austin (2002) Increased congruence does not necessarily indicate increased phylogenetic accuracy – the behavior of the incongruence length difference test in mixed-model analyses. Syst. Biol. 51: 19-31;
AD Austin, NF Johnson and M Dowton (2005) Systematics, evolution and biology of scelionid and platygastrid wasps. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 50: 553-582;![]()
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.ento.50.071803.130500
LR Castro and M Dowton (2006) Molecular analyses of the Apocrita (Insecta: Hymenoptera) suggest that the Chalcidoidea are sister to the diaprioid complex. Invert. Syst. 20: 603-614; ![]()
http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=IS06002.pdf
LA Nelson, JF Wallman and M Dowton (2007) Using COI barcodes to identify forensically and medically important blowflies. Med. Vet. Entomol. 21: 44-52; ![]()
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2915.2007.00664.x
T Gibson, VC Blok, MS Phillips, G Hong, D Kumarasinghe, IT Riley and M Dowton (2007) The mitochondrial genomes of the nematode Globodera pallida are mosaics: evidence of recombination in an animal mitochondrial genome. J. Mol. Evol. 64: 463-471; ![]()
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l4jg8577t60v73u3/fulltext.pdf
Current Students
PhD
Angela Riepsamen, Project title: Multipartite Mitochondrial Genomes in Nematodes. (Co-supervised with Mark Walker).
Masters
Terina Bruhn, Project title: Molecular identification of blowflies.
Honours
Daniel Farrugia, Project title: Characterisation of the mitochondrial genome of Punctodera chalcoenis
Suggested Topics for Future Students
- Can complete mitochondrial genome sequences be used to trace the evolutionary relationships among the Hymenoptera, one of the largest insect orders?
- How do animal mitochondrial genomes recombine? Using the nematode mitochondrial genome as a model system
- Is the DNA barcode useful for all organisms? Investigation of its utility for the identification of forensically important insects, and agricultural pests
Abbreviated CV
Academic Degrees
- 1983 BSc (Hons), Sydney University
- 1987 PhD, Sydney University
Current/Recent Research Grants
- ARC Linkage (2004-2006): Molecular identification of blowflies of forensic importance and thermal effects on their behaviour: tools to enhance forensic entomology in Australia. $87,000
- ARC Discovery (2005-2007): The evolution of multipartite mitochondrial genomes in the cyst-forming nematodes. $180,000
- ARC Discovery (2005-2007): Structural reorganization of the hymenopteran mitochondrial genome. $180,000
- URC (2007): The discovery of protein-coding genes for phylogenetics. $15,000
- UIC (2007): Establishing a mitogenome research link with the Scottish Crop Research Institute. $9,500
- ARC Near Miss (2008) The discovery of protein-coding genes for phylogenetics. $8,000


