Faculty Mentors:
Dr. Judith Brusslan (Biological Sciences)
Education:
B.A. Biology, Middlebury College (1982)
Ph.D. Genetics, University of Chicago (1988)
Research Interests:
Our laboratory is taking a molecular genetic approach towards understanding the regulation of chlorophyll b synthesis in the model plant system, Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants have two types of chlorophyll, a and b. Chlorophyll a is essential for photosynthesis while chlorophyll b functions to harvest light for maximal rates of photosynthesis. In the past we have shown that mutants, that cannot synthesize chlorophyll b have mutations in the gene encoding chlorophyll a oxygenase, AtCAO. We are in the process of expressing the AtCAO gene at high levels in Arabidopsis to determine if we can manipulate chlorophyll b levels in the plant. We are also raising antibodies to the AtCAO gene product, which will permit the quantitation and localization of the protein. Other projects in the lab focus on the metabolic regulation of light harvesting proteins which bind and are stabilized by chlorophyll b. We are also using molecular tagging as well as positional cloning methods to determine the molecular basis of several novel chlorophyll b-deficient mutants.
Office location:
MLSC 203
Campus Phone:
(562 ) 985-8133
Email:
Webpage:
