Introduction

Research Groups

Select Research Group Head Prof. Sir Tom Blundell Prof. Kevin Brindle Dr Bill Broadhurst Dr Guy Brown Dr Mark Carrington Prof. Paul Dupree Prof. Gerard Evan - Head of Dept Prof. Richard Farndale Dr Giorgio Favrin Dr Jenny Gallop Dr Nick Gay Dr Andrew Grace Dr Jules Griffin Dr Brian Hendrich Dr Andrew Hesketh Dr Robin Hesketh Dr Matt Higgins Dr Florian Hollfelder Dr Hee-Jeon Hong Prof. Chris Howe Dr Marko Hyvonen Prof. Steve Jackson Dr Tony Jackson Prof. Richard Jackson Prof. Ernest Laue Prof. Peter Leadlay Dr Kathryn Lilley Dr Karen Lipkow Dr Rick Livesey Prof. Ben Luisi Dr Sarah Lummis Dr Juan Mata Dr John McCafferty Prof. Jim Metcalfe Dr Masanori Mishima Dr Eric Miska Dr Tom Monie Dr Helen Mott Dr Natasha Murzina Dr Daniel Nietlispach Dr Darerca Owen Prof. Steve Oliver Dr Luca Pellegrini Dr Markus Ralser Dr Nick Robinson Prof. George Salmond Dr Deirdre Scadden Dr José Silva Prof. Austin Smith Prof. Chris Smith Dr Nancy Standart Prof. Dame Jean Thomas Dr Aviva Tolkovsky Dr Martin Welch Dr Joyce Wong Dr Nianshu Zhang

Service & Research Support Facilities

Select by Subject or Manager DNA Sequencing Facility . . . . . Mr John Lester _______________________________ Quantitative Proteomics . . . . . Dr Kathryn Lilley _______________________________ Proteomics Core Services . . . . . Dr Mike Deery _______________________________ Protein & Nucleic Acid Chemistry . . . . . Dr Len Packman _______________________________ Metabolomics . . . . . Dr Jules Griffin _______________________________ Baculovirus Facility . . . . . Dr Darerca Owen _______________________________ Biophysics Facility . . . . . Dr Katherine Stott _______________________________ Crystallographic X-ray Facility . . . . . Dr Dima Chirgadze _______________________________ NMR spectroscopy . . . . . Dr Daniel Nietlispach _______________________________ Fermentation Facility . . . . . Dr Nianshu Zhang _______________________________ Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Services . . . . . Dr Jenny Barna _______________________________ Computer & IT Support . . . . . Dr Erik Timmers _______________________________

Past members last known active weblink

Select past member of Department Dr Stephen Bell Prof. Jonathan Blackburn Dr David Brown Dr Pak-Lee Chau Dr Hal Dixon (deceased) Dr Jessica Downs Prof. David Ellar Dr Paul Kemp Dr Simon Lovell Dr Kenji Mizuguchi Dr Massimo Paoli Prof. Richard Perham Dr Peter Reynolds Dr Philip Rubery Dr Gerry Smith Dr Margaret Sunde Prof. Jamie Vandenberg Dr Kira Weissman

Reset Menus

Visit Howe group web site

Biochemistry of photosynthesis; Molecular Evolution

Plastocyanin from the cyanobacterium Phormidium laminosum

Research Groupings: Plant Biology | Structural and molecular cell biology | Evolutionary biology

Biochemistry of Photosynthesis
We are interested in how components of the photosynthetic machinery interact to allow electron transfer. The proteins involved have a dilemma in that they need to interact closely for efficient electron transfer, but also transiently to allow the system to turn over. We use proteins from the cyanobacterium (oxygenic photosynthetic bacterium) Phormidium laminosum as a model system, and are looking at the interaction of plastocyanin and cytochrome c₆ with cytochrome f, photosystem I and cytochrome oxidase, using kinetic analysis of site-directed mutants.

Recently we discovered the existence of a modified form of cytochrome c₆ in plants and the green alga Chlamydomonas. It has a cysteine-rich insertion not found in the more primitive cyanobacterial form. We are trying to establish the function of the new cytochrome c₆, and believe it may be involved in a redox-linked signalling process.

We are also interested in the biogenesis of photosynthetic membranes, and in particular how the proteins responsible for photosynthesis are targeted within cyanobacterial cells.

The marine dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae

Molecular Evolution
Chloroplasts possess their own genome, which is a remnant of the genome of the photosynthetic bacteria from which they evolved by endosymbiosis. The chloroplast genome typically contains 120 or more genes on a single molecule. However, in dinoflagellates (the algae that cause toxic red tides), the chloroplast genome seems to have disintegrated. Most of the genes have been lost to the nucleus, and the few that remain are located on small circles of around 3 kbp, most of which carry only a single gene. We are interested in how this extraordinary organelle genome is maintained and controlled, and how the genes that have moved to the nucleus are organized. We are also interested in the reasons why organelle genes should move to the nucleus and how it happens.

Illustration of the  Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, GG.4.27(1) University Library Cambridge. By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

There are striking parallels between how mutations accumulate in DNA sequences as they evolve, and how changes were incorporated into manuscripts when they were copied by scribes in the days before printing. In a novel interdisciplinary collaboration with manuscript scholars around the world, we are applying the techniques of molecular evolutionary biology to the analysis of a range of texts from the Bible to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We are also interested in trying to recover DNA from the parchment that texts were written on.

Lab members
Adrian Barbrook, Derek Bendall, P Bombelli, Mim Bower, Robert Bradley, Harriet Hunt, David Lea-Smith, Diane Lister, Edmund Nash, Robert Nimmo, Sarah Tarr, Heather Windram

References