John Brookfield (geneticist)

John Brookfield, born in 1955, is a British population geneticist. He is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Nottingham, in the School of Biology.

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Research summary

Brookfield is interested in how the genomes evolve and has recently focussed on the evolution of DNA sequences which control development, particularly in Drosophila, and on the evolution of transposable elements.

Education, appointments and honours

John Brookfield received his BA in Zoology from the University of Oxford 1976. He received his Ph.D. in Population Genetics at the University of London in 1980. Following a post as Research Demonstrator in Genetics at the University College of Swansea from 1979-1981, he became a Visiting Fellow in the Laboratory of Genetics at The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, North Carolina from 1981-1983. Returning to the UK, he became a Lecturer in Genetics at the University of Leicester from 1983-1986. He is now Professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham.

Selected bibliography

Carr, M., Soloway, J.R., Robinson, T.E., and Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2001) An investigation of the cause of low variability on the fourth chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster. Molecular Biology and Evolution 18, 2260-2269.

Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2001) Genome evolution. Pp. 351-372 in: Handbook of Statistical Genetics. Eds. M. Bishop, D. Balding & C. Cannings John Wiley Chichester.

Johnson, L.J. and Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2002) Evolutionary dynamics of a selfishly spreading gene that stimulates sexual reproduction in a partially sexual population. J. Evolutionary Biology 15, 42-48.

Carr, M., Soloway, J.R., Robinson, T.E. and Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2002) Mechanisms regulating the copy numbers of six LTR retrotransposons in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. Chromosoma 110, 511-518.

Edwards, R.J., Sockett, R.E., and Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2002) A simple method for genome-wide screening for advantageous insertions of mobile DNAs in Escherichia coli. Current Biology 12, 863-867.

Edwards, R. J. and Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2003) Transiently beneficial insertions could maintain mobile DNA sequences in variable environments. Molecular Biology and Evolution 20, 30-37.

Johnson, L.J. and Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2003) Evolution of spatial expression pattern. Evolution and Development 5, 593-599.

Phinchongsakuldit, J., MacArthur, S., and Brookfield, J.F.Y. (2004) Evolution of developmental genes: Molecular microevolution of enhancer sequences at the Ubx locus in Drosophila and its impact on developmental phenotypes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 21, 348-363.