Central project Gene Expression and Proteome Dynamics in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

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All projects are dealing with the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which emerged as eukaryotic model system during the past years since it offers similar advantages than yeast. For this reason, genome projects of this alga have been initiated in Japan as well as in the USA and have proceeded very rapidly. Currently, the entire chloroplast and mitochondria genomes have been sequenced. There are more than 136,000 ESTs available and the entire nuclear genome is presently sequenced by the Department of Energy in the USA. The numerous methods available and the further development of innovative procedures offer new possibilities for studying the gene expression and proteome dynamics of specific scientific questions. The research group aims to use this potential in a cooperative manner in order to investigate these aspects. Thereby, the focus will be on selected topics, which are especially suitable with C. reinhardtii as a model system. These include the biogenesis and function of the chloroplast and its interaction with the nucleus, the composition and function of the basal apparatus and of the circadian clock regulating tactic processes. Thereby, the conservation of certain proteins from C. reinhardtii to humans (e.g. flagella/basal apparatus, circadian system) offers the possibility to study exemplary processes in this alga and transfer the knowledge to the mammalian system. In addition, new molecular mechanisms of controlled overexpression of selected genes, gene silencing, position effects of transgenes within the genome, the characterization of chromatin remodeling factors and their influence on foreign gene expression will be worked out. For all proteome based projects it is highly relevant that this alga, in contrast to higher plant model systems like Arabidopsis thaliana, can be easily and quickly grown in large quantities. Therefore, it offers excellent conditions for identifying regulatory factors, which are often minimally present in cells. These advantages will be used to apply functional proteomics within the chloroplast (nucleoid, RNA-binding proteins, photosystem I assembly), the circadian regulatory system (clock-controlled nucleic acid-binding- and phospo-proteins) and the basal body. For this purpose, we want to establish a proteome center that provides a platform for all proteomic tools.