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- Control of Chloroplast Gene Expression: The lab studies how chloroplast gene expression in green alga is under the control of nuclear factors, with an emphasis on the role of Octotricopeptide Repeat Proteins (OPRs), particularly prominent in green algae. OPRs bind to chloroplast mRNA in a sequence-specific way to promote various aspects of chloroplast RNA metabolism, such as mRNA stabilization, maturation and translation activation. We recently showed that a subset of OPR-RAP members act as specific chloroplast RNA endonucleases. We study their binding specificity in order to decipher the OPR code. Chloroplast translation not only depends on activator proteins but is also feedback-regulated by a process called Control by Epistasy of Synthesis (CES). Over the years we have shown that the translation efficiency of many chloroplast-encoded subunits is linked to their proper assembly within the photosynthetic complex they belong to. In Chlamydomonas, the laboratory continues to characterize the CES process governing Rubisco Large Subunit translation by testing the involvement of assembly chaperones in the process.
- Protein Assembly and Degradation: The lab investigates the role of chaperones and proteases in the assembly and degradation of photosynthetic complexes. Among our specific interests are to characterize the roles of Rubisco chaperones in Rubisco assembly, the characterization of an alternative pathway that allows the cpSRP43/cpSRP54-independent assembly of some LHC and the response of the FstH-EGY1 proteolytic hub in nutrient stresses. We are also interested in unraveling the factors controlling the relative stoichiometry of photosynthetic protein complexes.
- Diatom Plastid Biogenesis and Genetics: The lab develops tools to characterize essential plastid function in diatoms and still unknown processes controlling plastid biogenesis. While these approaches have been until now hampered by the obligate phototrophic mode of current diatom models, we have recently succeeded in developing a novel facultative autotroph experimental model system: Cyclotella cryptica. This diatom is amenable to nuclear genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9. Moreover, we can now transform diatom plastomes to create photosynthetic mutants with the aim to explore the genome organization and gene expression in the diatom plastid and to shed new light on the evolution of plastid gene expression. This question is also approached by functional genomics approaches and developed in theme 2.
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