Barbara Jane Howlett (/ˈhaʊlɪt/) is an Australian fungal plant pathologist.
[5][6] In 2011 Howlett led an Australian team of researchers who, along with scientists from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, sequenced the genome of the blackleg fungus (Leptosphaeria maculans), which attacks canola crops and, in 2003, caused 90% yield losses in parts of Australia.
[7][8] Howlett was able to identify the pathogenicity gene which encodes for isocitrate lyase, an enzyme that is necessary for the fungus to colonize canola.
[9] The research saved canola farmers on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, at least $18 million in 2012.
[12] Howlett has published numerous scholarly works and edited two books:[2]