Professor Jonathan Jones FRS

Jonathan Jones (JJ) investigates mechanisms of disease resistance in plants, and how plant pathogens overcome host resistance using defence-suppressing ‘effectors’. He studies the model systems of Arabidopsis resistance to bacterial pathogens and to the oomycete pathogens that cause downy mildew and white rust. JJ pioneered genomics methods to accelerate the analysis of plant immune receptor diversity and evolution. He has isolated and characterized many resistance (R) genes that encode plant NLR immune receptors, and revealed how such receptors can recognize pathogen molecules and activate defence by mechanisms that resemble those of animal NLR immune receptors. 

Potato late blight is an important potato disease. The Jones group is isolating and deploying multiple immune receptor genes from wild potato relatives to confer durable resistance to late blight and other diseases.

JJ engages with the public to make the case for controlling crop disease using immune receptor genes from wild relatives introduced via genetic modification and/or gene editing. He conducts field trials to evaluate the use of such immune receptor genes to confer late blight resistance in GM potato. With colleagues in Kenya, he is developing potato lines resistant to late blight, viruses and bacterial wilt. He coauthored "Reaping the Benefits" and led the writing of “Enabling genetic technologies for food security” . He was elected Foreign Associate of US NAS in 2015.