Find Anthony James on
Anthony James's full profile, contact information and publications are available on:
Doctor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology), Master of Plant Protection (University of Queensland), Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) (Life Science) (Queensland University of Technology), Bachelor of Applied Science (Queensland University of Technology)
Biography: Anthony joined the Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities in 2006 as a Research Scientist and completed his PhD studies in 2011. Initially Anthony worked on a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded project to develop biofortified bananas for East Africa. Anthony's work focussed on implementing diagnostics assays for banana viruses with three partner organisations in East Africa as well as identifying and characterising banana viruses from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya in cooperation with scientists in each country. This work led to the development of a novel diagnostic assay for detecting banana streak viruses and the molecular characterisation of a number of BSV species. From 2010 Anthony worked on the ARC-Linkage project "Generation of Bananas with Resistance to Fusarium Wilt" with a focus on using stress tolerance genes and disease resistance genes to develop transgenic or cisgenic bananas resistant to Tropical Race 4 of banana Fusarium wilt. The identification of promoters for root-specific transgene expression in banana was an additional focus area of this work. Recently Anthony has been working in several project areas including developing infectious clones of banana streak virus for gene expression and gene silencing in bananas, a Horticulture Innovation Australia funded project titled "A platform for the continuous genetic improvement of accepted cultivars of vegetatively propagated horticultural crops" and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded project “Virus resistant bananas for Africa”. Anthony supervises post-graduate (PhD) research students working in a range of project areas including:- Development of bananas with resistance to banana bunchy top virus using RNAi
- Development of Banana streak virus-based vectors for efficient gene expression in banana
- Characterisation of taro viruses and development of diagnostic assays
- Characterisation and diagnostics for badnaviruses of yam
Additional information
Professional Experience:
- 2006–Current Research Scientist (Plant virology/Plant biotechnology), Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
- Development of infectious clones of banana streak viruses for gene expression and gene silencing in banana
- Development of transgenic bananas with resistance to Fusarium wilt race 1 and Tropical race 4 caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense
- Development of transgenic bananas with resistance to Banana bunchy top virus
- Characterisation of promoters for root-specific transgene expression in banana
- Development of diagnostic assay and characterisation of viruses infecting bananas, taro and yam
- 2000–2006 Research Scientist (Plant pathology and Quarantine), BSES Limited, David North Plant Research Centre, Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia
- 1999–2000 Research Assistant (Quarantine), BSES Limited, David North Plant Research Centre, Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia
- 2003 Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Program, Yunnan Sugar Research Institute, Yunnan province, P.R. China
- Dale J, James A, Harding R, Sukal A, Kidanemariam D, (2017) Characterization of badnaviruses infecting Dioscorea spp. in the Pacific reveals two putative novel species and the first report of dioscorea bacilliform RT virus 2, Virus Research, 238, pp. 29-34.
- Paul J, Khanna H, Kleidon J, Hoang P, Geijskes J, Daniells J, Zaplin E, Rosenberg Y, James A, Mlalazi B, Deo P, Arinaitwe G, Namanya P, Becker D, Tindamanyire J, Tushemereirwe W, Harding R, Dale J, (2017) Golden bananas in the field: elevated fruit pro-vitamin A from the expression of a single banana transgene, Plant Biotechnology Journal, 15 (4), pp. 520-532.
- Dale J, James A, Paul J, Khanna H, Smith M, Peraza-Echeverria S, Garcia-Bastidas F, Kema G, Waterhouse P, Mengersen K, Harding R, (2017) Transgenic Cavendish bananas with resistance to Fusarium wilt tropical race 4, Nature Communications, 8, pp. 1-8.
- Higgins C, Bejerman N, Li M, James A, Dietzgen R, Pearson M, Revill P, Harding R, (2016) Complete genome sequence of Colocasia bobone disease-associated virus, a putative cytorhabdovirus infecting taro, Archives of Virology, 161 (3), pp. 745-748.
- Kidanemariam D, Abraham A, Sukal A, Holton T, Dale J, James A, Harding R, (2016) Complete genome sequence of a novel zantedeschia mild mosaic virus isolate: the first report from Australia and from Alocasia sp., Archives of Virology, 161 (4), pp. 1079-1082.
- James A, Geijskes R, Dale J, Harding R, (2011) Development of a novel rolling-circle amplification technique to detect Banana streak virus that also discriminates between integrated and episomal virus sequences, Plant Disease, 95 (1), pp. 57-62.
- James A, Geijskes R, Dale J, Harding R, (2011) Molecular characterisation of six badnavirus species associated with leaf streak disease of banana in East Africa, Annals of Applied Biology, 158 (3), pp. 346-353.