Research

My research program focuses on the structure, expression and evolution of mitochondrial genes in plants - events that are essential for respiratory function. Plant mitochondrial genomes are very large and recombinogenic, and as yet relatively little is known about gene regulation or the nature of molecular interactions among the nucleus, mitochondrion, and chloroplast. Nor is it understood why the mitochondria of various eukaryotes have evolved such different strategies of organizing and expressing their genes.

The production of mature messenger RNA in plant mitochondria involves complex processing events (such as RNA editing, and in some cases trans-splicing) and we are studying these events in NADH dehydrogenase gene expression during wheat embyro germination and early seedling development. We are particularly interested in understanding how genes that have been fragmented into short and scrambled segments by DNA rearrangements are expressed. These studies are also providing evolutionary information about the group II class of introns involved in this process.

We are also interested in understanding why genetic information can move so easily from one compartment to another within plant cells and how it does so. We are focusing on ribosomal protein genes which are encoded in the mitochondrion in some plants but in the nucleus in others, and the implications that such translocation has for gene expression and gene evolution.