Professor John Gray, Professor of Plant Molecular Biology & Head of Department
Chloroplast Biogenesis
Chloroplasts are unique to plants and are the principal site of energy transduction and biosynthetic reactions. Chloroplasts also contain a small genome encoding about 80 proteins. The aim of our research is to understand how the expression of genes in the chloroplast and nuclear genomes is coordinated to ensure the biogenesis of functional chloroplasts. This includes studying retrograde signalling from chloroplasts to the nucleus to control nuclear gene expression, and the effects of chromatin structure on nuclear gene expression. We use chloroplast transformation to study aspects of the regulation of chloroplast gene expression, and to express bacterial and viral antigens for the development of edible vaccines. We are also studying the structure and functions of stromules, highly dynamic stroma-filled tubules that extend from the chloroplast surface and permit the exchange of material between interconnected chloroplasts.
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Department of Plant Sciences
University of Cambridge
Downing Site Downing Street
CAMBRIDGE CB2 3EA
Email: jcg2@cam.ac.uk
Office +44 (0)1223 333925
Lab +44 (0)1223 330223
Stromules extending from plastid bodies in a tobacco leaf trichome expressing a chimeric gene encoding plastid-targeted GFP.