Research Interests

Over the past 10 years, my research interests have focused on the use of genomics to identify genes associated with quality traits and characteristics for forestry species (Pinus and Eucalyptus - wood quality and development, reproductive control, stress tolerance) and agricultural species (Potato - tuber health and processing quality). This research has primarily used high throughput EST generation from cDNA libraries, in silico expression profiling, as well as some microarray expression profiling for the data mining.

My current research interests at the ISRR relate to the following areas:

1) Candidate gene mining and analysis (through currently available EST collections, expression profiling, and mutant generation and characterization) for potato and forestry traits of interest. In potato, I am particularly interested in tuber quality issues, such as regulation of tuber size and shape, tuber browning and the impact that soil micro-organisms may have on tuber quality. My interests in forestry species relate to the control of growth and differentiation, as well as wood quality and biomass.

2) Secreted molecules as effectors of plant development. Several studies have shown that secreted molecules, such as proteases, can have significant effects on plant development. However, little has been done to date to identify extra-cellular plant proteins and the proteases that target these molecules.

3) The development of novel products from plants. This entails the use of naturally-derived plant proteins as products, or the use of plant-production systems to express and deliver proteins of interest to novel organisms.

Selected Publications

Papers in Refereed Journals:
Flinn, B., Rothwell, C., Griffiths, R., Lague, M., DeKoeyer, D., Sardana, R., Audy, P., Goyer, C., Li, X-Q., Wang-Pruski, G. and Regan, S. 2005. Potato expressed sequence tag generation and analysis using standard and unique cDNA libraries. Plant Mol. Biol. (in press).

Regan, S.,Gustafson, V., Mallubhotla, S., Chakravarty, B., Bagchi, M., Siahbazi, M., Rothwell, C., Sardana, R., Goyer, C., Audy, P., Li, X.-Q., Wang-Pruski, G., De Koeyer, D., and Flinn, B. 2005. Finding the perfect potato: using functional genomics to improve disease resistance and tuber quality traits. Can. J. Plant Path. (in press).

Flinn, B.S., Roberts, D.R., Newton, C.H., Cyr, D.R., Webster, F.B. and Taylor, I.E.P. 1993. Storage protein gene expression in zygotic and somatic embryos of interior spruce. Physiol. Plant. 89: 719-730.

Newton, C.H., Flinn, B.S. and Sutton, B.C.S. 1992. Vicilin-like seed storage proteins in the gymnosperm interior spruce (Picea glauca/engelmanii). Plant Mol. Biol. 20: 315-322.

Flinn, B.S., Roberts, D.R. and Taylor, I.E.P. 1991. Evaluation of somatic embryos of interior spruce. Characterization and developmental regulation of storage proteins. Physiol. Plant. 82: 624-632.

Flinn, B.S., Roberts, D.R., Webb, D.T. and Sutton, B.C.S. 1991. Storage protein changes during zygotic embryogenesis in interior spruce. Tree Physiol. 8: 71-81.

Flinn, B.S., Webb, D.T. and Newcomb, W. 1989. Morphometric analysis of reserve substances and ultrastructural changes during caulogenic determination and loss of competence in eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) cotyledons in vitro. Can. J. Bot. 67: 779-789.

Flinn, B.S., Webb, D.T. and Newcomb, W. 1988. The role of cell clusters and promeristemoids in determination and competence for caulogenesis by Pinus strobus cotyledons in vitro. Can. J. Bot. 66: 1556-1565.

Book Chapters:
Merkle, S.A., Parrott, W.A. and Flinn, B.S. 1995. Morphogenic aspects of somatic embryogenesis. In Somatic embryogenesis (T.A. Thorpe, ed.). Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, pp. 155-203.

Roberts, D.R., Webster, F.B., Flinn, B.S., Lazaroff, W.R. and Cyr, D.R. 1993. Somatic embryogenesis of spruce. In SynSeeds: Application of Synthetic Seeds to Crop Improvement (K. Redenbaugh, ed.). CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 427-450.

Roberts, D.R., Webster, F.B., Flinn, B.S., Lazaroff, W.R., McInnis, S.M. and Sutton, B.C.S. 1991. Application of somatic embryogenesis to clonal propagation of interior spruce. In Woody Plant Biotechnology (M.R. Ahuja, ed.). Plenum Press, New York, pp. 157-169.

Webb, D.T. and Flinn, B.S. 1991. Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.). In Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, Vol. 16 (Y.P.S. Bajaj, ed.). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 358-382.

Patents and Patent Applications:
Compositions affecting programmed cell death and their use in the modification of forestry plant development.
Inventors: Flinn, Barry; Lashem, Annette.
Assignee: Genesis Research and Development Corp. Ltd.
Patent issued: US6451604 - 2002-09-17.

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