Chloroplast biogenesis and light acclimation
Genetics of Photosynthesis
Chloroplasts are organelles of the plant cell that specialize in photosynthesis. In this process, light energy from the sun is converted into chemical energy in the form of sugars and other compounds that feed the plant and indirectly fuel most of the biosphere. Chloroplast biogenesis is governed by two genomes, in the nucleus and in the organelles. Thus gene expression in the two compartments has to be tightly coordinated to ensure the assembly of the photosynthetic machinery and its acclimation to the environment, particularly to light.
Our genetic studies with the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas have revealed many nucleus-encoded factors which are imported into the chloroplast where they play very specific roles in post-transcriptional steps of chloroplast gene expression such as RNA splicing, RNA processing and translation. We are also investigating a regulatory network of conserved protein kinases and phosphatases that are involved in light acclimation in Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis.
Research topics
Chloroplast RNA splicing and processing, translation
Nucleus-encoded factors involved in chloroplast gene expression
Light acclimation and state transitions
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Arabidopsis thaliana
Chloroplast genetic engineering
Interdisciplinary
SystemsX.ch “Plant Growth in a changing environment”
NCCR “Plant Survival”
NRP59 “Benefits and Risks of the Deliberate Release of Genetically Modified Plants”
FP7-KBBE-2009-3: “SUNBIOPATH”
