He discovered extreme haplotype variation among inbred maize lines and developed heterologous transposon markers to isolate genes of agricultural importance. His lab studies transposon structure and interactions to elucidate gene function and create more efficient resources for reverse genetics. Dr. Dooner is primarily known for his research on maize (maize) genetics, which demonstrated the fitness of its genome and its propensity to recombine mobile DNA elements that carry genes.