Post Doctoral Research Fellowship in Plant Biology

根据叶绿体进化的多系假说，现在的植物细胞是由无色的类动物细胞吞噬光合细菌进化而来的。随后，被吞噬的细菌和宿主细胞形成了一种共生关系，因此任何一方都不能单独生存。这一过程的一部分涉及两个细胞基因文库中遗传信息的丢失，以及基因从细菌染色体转移到宿主细胞染色体。这一建议是为了阐明参与决定哪些基因在叶绿体中被维持，哪些被转移，哪些从宿主细胞/共生体复合体中被消除的机制。初步实验将确定叶绿体染色体中单个基因的性质和位置。随后的研究将确定从叶绿体转移到宿主的基因。总体目标是通过检验其预测的有效性来检验内共生假说。

According to the polyphyletic hypothesis of chloroplast evolution, present day plant cells evolved from the engulfment of photosynthetic bacteria by colorless animal-like cells. Subsequently, the engulfed bacteria and host cell developed a symbiotic relationship, so that neither could survive alone. Part of this process involved the loss of hereditary information from the two cells' gene libraries and a transfer of genes from the bacterial chromosome to the host cell chromosome. This proposal is to elucidate the mechanisms involved in determining which genes are to be maintained in the chloroplast, which are to be transferred, and which are to be eliminated from the host cell/symbiont complex. Initial experiments will identify the nature and location of individual genes in the chloroplast chromosome. Subsequent studies will identify genes that have been transferred from chloroplast to host. The overall goal is to test the endosymbiont hypothesis by examining the validity of its predictions.