My lab works concurrently on two aspects of membrane biochemistry related to photosynthesis: Chloroplast protein import and Applied photosynthesis. I have a long-standing interest in on the biogenesis of organelles and in particular the family of organelles specific to plants, known as plastids. This family includes a divers set of organelles that perform an extensive set of biochemical reactions including the process of photosynthesis, which takes place in chloroplasts. This diverse metabolic activity is the enabled via the import of several thousand nuclear encoded proteins from the cytosol. This targeting and import process is critical to many if not most of the key metabolic processes associated with plants. WE are specifically interested in how chloroplast destined precursors are targeted, recognized and translocated into the plastid via two translocons, TIC and TOC, that are found in the chloroplast inner and outer envelope membranes, respectively. This process is mediated by selective recognition of the transit peptide by one or more of the TOC components. We are working to explain the biochemistry and biophysics of how these proteins are translocated across the plastid membranes. A second area of research is how we may exploit the ultra efficient process of solar energy capture and conversion of natural photosynthesis into hybrid devices that will provide either direct photovoltaic electricity or be stored in some form of fuel such as molecular hydrogen. To date we have help design build and characterize novel: 1) luminescent solar concentrators, 2) hybrid Bio-organic thin-film photovoltaic devices, 3) hydride bio-inorganic photovoltaic devices, and 4) bio-Pt hydrogen evolving nanoparticles.
Reviews
Liposomal Nanocapsules in Food Science and Agriculture (with T.M. Taylor, P.M. Davidson, and J. Weiss), Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (2005)
Liposomes, spherical bilayer vesicles from dispersion of polar lipids in aqueous solvents, have been widely...
The Paradox of Plastid Transit Peptides: Conservation of Function Despite Divergence in Primary Structure, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (2001)
Transit peptides are N-terminal extensions that facilitate the targeting and translocation of cytosolically synthesized precursors...
Chloroplast Transit Peptides: Structure, Function, and Evolution, Trends in Cell Biology (2000)
It is thought that two to three thousand different proteins are targeted to the chloroplast,...
Research Papers
Antimicrobial efficacy of eugenol microemulsions in milk against Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157:H7 (with S. Gaysinsky, T.M. Taylor, P.M. Davidson, and J. Weiss), Journal of Food Protection (2008)
The antimicrobial activity of eugenol microemulsions (eugenol encapsulated in surfactant micelles) in ultrahigh-temperature pasteurized milk...
Characterization of Antimicrobial-Bearing Liposomes by Zeta-Potential, Vesicle Size, and Encapsulation Efficiency (with T.M. Taylor, S. Gaysinsky, P.M. Davidson, and J. Weiss), Food Biophysics (2007)
Liposome entrapment may improve activity of protein or polypeptide antimicrobials against a variety of microorganisms....
In vitro comparative kinetic analysis of the chloroplast Toc GTPases (with E.L. Reddick, M. Vaughn, S.J. Wright, and I. Campbell), Journal of Biological Chemistry (2007)
A unique aspect of protein transport into plastids is the coordinate involvement of two GTPases...
Structural and Functional Changes in High-intensity Ultrasonicated Bovine Serum Albumin (with I. Gulseren, D. Guzey, and J. Weiss), Ultrasonics Sonochemistry (2007)
Effects of high-intensity ultrasonication on functional and structural properties of aqueous bovine serum albumin (BSA)...
A Simple Atomic Force Microscopy Method The Visualization of Polar and Non-Polar Parts Organic Films (with A.A. Yu, P.R. Stoney, J.E. Norvillez, M. Vaughn, E.J. Pascial, M. Baldo, and F. Stellacci), Journal of Experimental Nanoscience (2006)
Here we present a scanning probe microscopy method that allows for the identification of regions...
No subject area
Modulation of cyanobacterial photosystem I deposition properties on alkanethiolate Au substrate by various experimental conditions (with Dibyendu Mukherjee, Michael Vaughn, and Bamin Khomami), Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces (2011)
We present results from atomic force microscopy (AFM) images indicating various experimental conditions, which alter...
Optimization of photosynthetic hydrogen yield from platinized photosystem I complexes using response surface methodology (with Ifeyinwa J. Iwuchukwu, Ernest Iwuchukwu, Rosemary Le, Caitlin Paquet, Rapinder Sawhney, and Paul Frymier), International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2011)
Light-dependent hydrogen production by platinized Photosystem I isolated from the cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1 was...
Controlling the Morphology of Photosystem I Assembly on Thiol-Activated Au Substrates (with Dibyendu Mukherjee, Mark May, Michael Vaughn, and Bamin Khomami), Langmuir (2010)
Morphological variations of Photosystem I (PS I) assembly on hydroxyl-terminated alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayer (SAM)/Au substrates...