Beverley Green, University of British Columbia
Botany Professor Emeritus Vancouver, British Columbia brgreen@interchange.ubc.ca
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Bio/Research
All my research is concerned with chloroplasts, the photosynthetic organelles of eukaryotic cells. It brings together the structure of photosynthetic membrane proteins with the evolution of the gene families that encode them, as well as the evolutionary origins of the chloroplasts themselves. We ...
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Bio/Research
All my research is concerned with chloroplasts, the photosynthetic organelles of eukaryotic cells. It brings together the structure of photosynthetic membrane proteins with the evolution of the gene families that encode them, as well as the evolutionary origins of the chloroplasts themselves. We are currently investigating the amazing minicircular genes found in dinoflagellate chloroplasts‹each gene on its own individual minicircle of DNA, "one gene-one circle"! These were the first chloroplast gene sequences ever reported for dinoflagellates, a large group of unicellular marine algae.
Another project concerns how nuclear-encoded proteins are imported into the chloroplasts of chromophyte (Chl a/c-containing) algae, which are bounded by four envelope membranes rather than two. Both these groups of algae are believed to have originated by secondary endosymbiosis, where a non-photosynthetic eukaryote engulfed a photosynthetic eukaryote rather than a prokaryote. We are looking for molecular clues about how this process might have occurred.
Most of my earlier research concerned the extended family of chlorophyll (Chl) a/b and Chl a/c light-harvesting proteins in plants and algae. Now we are looking more closely at the Chl a/c family of the chromophyte alga Heterosigma, to try to determine if there is preferential association of any particular members of this family with Photosystem I or Photosystem II. From phylogenetic trees, it is clear that the Chl a/b and the Chl a/c proteins diverged from each other early in the evolution of the photosynthetic eukaryotic cell, so the organization of the chlorophyll a/c protein complexes in the thylakoid membrane may be quite different.
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Another project concerns how nuclear-encoded proteins are imported into the chloroplasts of chromophyte (Chl a/c-containing) algae, which are bounded by four envelope membranes rather than two. Both these groups of algae are believed to have originated by secondary endosymbiosis, where a non-photosynthetic eukaryote engulfed a photosynthetic eukaryote rather than a prokaryote. We are looking for molecular clues about how this process might have occurred.
Most of my earlier research concerned the extended family of chlorophyll (Chl) a/b and Chl a/c light-harvesting proteins in plants and algae. Now we are looking more closely at the Chl a/c family of the chromophyte alga Heterosigma, to try to determine if there is preferential association of any particular members of this family with Photosystem I or Photosystem II. From phylogenetic trees, it is clear that the Chl a/b and the Chl a/c proteins diverged from each other early in the evolution of the photosynthetic eukaryotic cell, so the organization of the chlorophyll a/c protein complexes in the thylakoid membrane may be quite different.
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