Professor Robert J Henry BSc(Hons)(UQ) MSc(Hons) (Maquarie) Ph D(La Trobe) DSc (UQ) 

Prof Robert Henry studies plants using molecular tools. His interests include the
Australian flora and plants of economic or social importance. He is a graduate of the
University of Queensland (B Sc (Hons)), Macquarie University (M Sc (Hons)) and La Trobe
University (Ph D). He was awarded a higher doctorate (D Sc) by the University of
Queensland (UQ) for his work on analysis of variation in plants. 

He worked with CSIRO on fruit and vegetable biochemistry and the Queensland Department of
Primary Industries(QDPI) as a cereal chemist and became Senior Principal Scientist at the
Queensland Wheat Research Institute. His work with the QDPI included assessment of
quality in barley for use in malting and brewing and research on the impact of
pre-harvest sprouting on the end-use quality of wheat. Many internationally significant
methods for the analysis of plant carbohydrates (sugars, starch and cell-wall
polysaccharides) were developed at La Trobe University and QDPI. 

A Fellowship from the Science and Technology Agency of Japan took him to work on plant
molecular biology in the National Institute of Agrobiological Resources. He became
Research Program Leader (Plant Biotechnology) at the Queensland Agricultural
Biotechnology Centre at the UQ on the establishment of the centre and was appointed
Professor of Plant Conservation Molecular Genetics at Southern Cross University to
establish the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics. He was a foundation member of the
Program Management Committee of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Tropical Plant
Pathology. Prof Henry has been a member of the Market Advisory Group of the Grains
Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). He is a past Chairman of the Royal
Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), Cereal Chemistry Division, member of the Northern
Panel of the GRDC, the GRDC board and the Sugar Research and Development Corporation,
Plant Improvement Working Party. Robert was a Deputy Director of the CRC for Sustainable
Production Forestry. He is also a researcher in the Molecular Plant Breeding CRC,
Sugarcane Biotechnology CRC and Forestry CRC. He is Research Director (Genome Technology)
in the Grain Foods CRC. 

He initiated a large international program of research on grape genomics in 1997. His
research interests include, plant molecular biology with a special interest in analysis
of plant genomes for plant identification and analysis of biodiversity. His work has
included the study of DNA-based methods for identification of plants and their pathogens,
the development of molecular markers for plant breeding and the genetic transformation of
plants. A common focus of much of this work has been the application of DNA technology to
the improvement of the quality of crops and agricultural and food products. Analysis of
wild plant populations especially in Australia has been used to support their
conservation and use in agriculture or forestry. 

Prof Henry is one of the leading plant scientists in Australia. He is widely recognised
internationally and has written and edited several books on plant molecular biology and
product quality and published more than 200 refereed scientific papers and more than 400
national and international conference papers. The ISI has identified him as one of the
100 most cited scientists in agriculture in the international scientific literature over
the last 20 years. He is a senior editor of the Plant Biotechnology Journal (Blackwell
Publishing Ltd), Associate Editor of Conservation Genetics (Springer Science), member of
the Editorial Board of Recent Patents on Biotechnology and Open Biotechnology (Bentham
Science Ltd). He was made a fellow of the RACI in 1993, received the Guthrie Award in
2000, is Managing Director of Puragrain Pty Ltd and Australian Plants Pty Ltd. Prof Henry
established the Australian Plant DNA Bank in 2001, and he is CEO of Australian Plant DNA
Bank Ltd. 

Journal articles

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Novel microsatellite markers for the endangered Australian rainforest tree Davidsonia jerseyana (Cunoniaceae) and cross-species amplification in the Davidsonia genus (with Frances G. Eliott, C Connelly, M Rossetto, Mervyn Shepherd, and Nicole Rice), Conservation Genetics Resources (2013)
 

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Analysis of adaptive ribosomal gene diversity in wild plant populations from contrasting climatic environments (with Frances M. Shapter, Tim L. Fitzgerald, Daniel LE Waters, Stuart McDonald, Ian H. Chivers, and Eviatar Nevo), Plant Signaling and Behavior (2012)
 

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Analysis of starch gene diversity in the wild relatives of Oryza sativa (with Shabana Kasem and Daniel LE Waters), Tropical Plant Biology (2012)
 

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Application of large-scale sequencing to marker discovery in plants (with Mark Edwards, Daniel LE Waters, Gopala Krishnan S, Peter Bundock, Timothy R. Sexton, Ardashir K. Masouley, Catherine J. Nock, and Julie Pattemore), Journal of Biosciences (2012)
 

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Chloroplast genome sequence confirms distinctness of Australian and Asian wild rice (with Daniel LE Waters, Catherine J. Nock, Nicole Rice, and Ryuji Ishikawa), Ecology and Evolution (2012)
 

Books

Genetics, genomics and breeding of sugarcane (with Chittaranjan Kole), Southern Cross Plant Science (2010)
 

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Plant resources for food, fuel and conservation, Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics Papers (2010)
 

Plant genotyping II: SNP technology, Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics Papers (2008)
 

Plant conservation genetics, Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics Papers (2006)
 

Book chapters

Genomics for bioenergy production, Handbook of bioenergy crop plants (2012)
 

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Sorghum (with Anjanabha Bhattacharya, Nicole Rice, Frances M. Shapter, and Sally L. Norton), Wild crop relatives: genomic and breeding resources: cereals (2011)
 

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An overview of advances in plant genomics in the new millennium, Principles and Practices of Plant Genomics (2010)
 

Basic information on the sugarcane plant (with C Kole), Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Sugarcane (2010)
 

Enzymes and enzyme inhibitors endogenous to wheat (with Kristof Brijs, Christophe M. Courtin, Hans Goesaert, Kurt Gebruers, Jan A. Delcour, Peter R. Shewry, Jacques Nicolas, Jacques Potus, Rebeca Garcia, and Sylvie Davidou), Wheat Chemistry and Technology (2009)
 

Reports

Eucalypts for biofuel production in Northern Australia: identifying species from current and future testing programs (with Mervyn Shepherd, David Lee, Paul Turnbull, Troy Brown, David Bush, Jeremy Brawner, John Bartle, and Paul Macdonell), (2011)
 

The International Oryza map alignment project: a golden path to unlock the genetic potential of the wild relatives of rice (with Rod A. Wing, Scott Jackson, Steve Rounsley, Mingsheng Chen, Antonio Costa de Oliveira, Bin Han, Yue-ie Hsing, Fengyi Hu, Nori Kurata, Yann-Rong Lin, and Wen Wang), 21st International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (2010)
 

Conference publications

Chloroplast genome sequence indicates Australian wild rice represents a source of diversity for rice improvement (with Daniel LE Waters, Catherine J. Nock, Nicole Rice, Stirling G. Bowen, and R Ishikawa), Plant and Animal Genome XIX Conference (2011)
 

Eucalypt comparative genomics identifies model genes to study the effect of domestication or range depletion on adaptive variation (with Timothy Sexton, Dane Thomas, Michael Henson, and Mervyn Shepherd), IBC XVIII International Botanical Congress (2011)
 

Long range PCR, deep parallel sequencing and multiplexed Maldi-TOF mass spectrometry reveals new SNP variants associated with starch functional properties (with Daniel LE Waters, Ardashir K. Masouleh, and Russell F. Reinke), 15th Australian Barley Technical Symposium: Barley for business (2011)
 

Mining homologues of rice domestication genes in an Australian wild grass species (with Sylvia Malory, Frances M. Shapter, Martin S. Elphinstone, and Ian Chivers), Plant and Animal Genome XIX Conference (2011)
 

Plant DNA barcoding using chloroplast genome sequences (with Catherine J. Nock, Daniel LE Waters, Mervyn Shepherd, and Peter C. Bundock), IBC XVIII International Botanical Congress (2011)
 

Patents

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Use of bifunctional alpha-amylase subtilisin inhibitor promoter sequence of barley to confer expression in seeds (with Agnelo Furtado and Kenneth John Scott), Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics Papers (1999)