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Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences

Profile for Prof. Hatch Stokes

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in understanding the role of mobile DNA in bacterial evolution.  Specifically, much of my work involves the study of the integron/gene cassette system as a contributor to the movement of DNA between cells and the capture and expression of genes within cells by this system.

This work involves the application of a number of techniques in molecular biology and is directed towards understanding the system at a number of levels.  These include:

  • The role of the integron/gene cassette system in contributing to the spread of multi-drug resistance in hospitals
  • The biochemistry of the site-specific recombination process that allows the system to function
  • Using molecular techniques to prospect for novel proteins encoded by gene cassettes
  • Using molecular techniques to assess the diversity in natural populations of both integrons and the associated mobile gene cassettes

Selected Publications

  1. Stokes, H W and Hall, R M (1989).  A novel class of potentially mobile DNA elements encoding site-specific gene integration functions: integrons.  Molecular Microbiology 3 : 1669 - 1683.
  2. Hall, R M, Brookes, D E and Stokes, H W (1991).  Site-specific insertion of genes into integrons:  Role of the 59-base element and determination of the recombination crossover point.  Molecular Microbiology 5 : 1941 - 1959.
  3. Stokes, H W, O'Gorman, D B, Recchia, G D, Parsekhian, M and Hall, R M. (1997).  Structure and function of 59-base element recombination sites associated with mobile gene cassettes. Molecular Microbiology 26: 731 - 745.
  4. Nield, B S, Holmes, A J, Gillings, M R, Recchia, G D, Mabbutt, B C, Nevalainen, K M H and Stokes, H W. (2001).  Recovery of new integron classes from environmental DNA. FEMS Microbiology Letters . 195: 59 - 65.
  5. Partridge, S R, Recchia, G D, Stokes, H W and Hall, R M. (2001). A family of class 1 integrons related to In4 from Tn 1696 .  Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.   45: 3014 - 3020.
  6. Stokes, H W, Holmes, A J, Nield, B S, Holley, M P, Nevalainen, K M H, Mabbutt, B C and Gillings, M R. (2001). Gene cassette PCR: sequence-independent recovery of entire genes from environmental DNA. Applied and Environmental Microbiology . 67: 5240 - 5246.
  7. Collis, C M, Kim, M-J, Partridge, S R, Stokes, H W and Hall, R M.  (2002). Characterization of the class 3 integron and the site-specific recombination system it determines. Journal of Bacteriology.   184: 3017 – 3026.
  8. Holmes, A J, Gillings, M R, Nield, B S, Mabbutt, B C, Nevalainen, K M H, and Stokes, H W.  (2003).  The gene cassette metagenome is a basic resource for bacterial genome evolution.  Environmental Microbiology. 5 : 383 – 394. 
  9. Michael , C.A. , Gillings, M.R., Holmes, A.J., Hughes, L., Andrew, N.R. Holley M.P. and Stokes, H.W.  (2004).  Mobile gene cassettes: a fundamental resource for bacterial evolution.  American Naturalist 164:1 - 12.
  10. Gillings, M.R., Holley, M.P., Stokes, H.W. and Holmes, A.J. (2005).  Integrons in Xanthomonas : A source of species genomic diversity.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( USA ) . 102: 4419 – 4424.
  11. Boucher, Y., C.L. Nesbø, M.J. Joss, A. Robinson, B.C. Mabbutt, M.R. Gillings, W.F. Doolittle and H.W. Stokes. ( 18 January 2006 ). Recovery and evolutionary analysis of complete integron gene cassette arrays from Vibrio. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2006 6:3 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/6/3 .
  12. Jian-Wei Liu, Yan Boucher, H. W. Stokes and David L. Ollis. (2006). Improving protein solubility: the use of the Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase gene as a fusion reporter. Protein Expression and Purification. 47 :258 - 263.

Contact Details

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portrait
Professor

Qualifications

BSc(Hons)
Monash University
PhD
Monash University