Christine
Chase
- Research
Horticultural
Sciences Department
Graduate
Program in Plant
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Graduate Program in Genetics
University
of Florida / IFAS
Research Overview
Mitochondria, the
site of the TCA cycle,
respiratory
electron transfer and ATP synthesis, are essential to higher eukaryotic
life. Mitochondrial function depends upon the coordinate action of
mitochondrial
and nuclear genomes. Our research is focused on the molecular-genetic
dissection
of mitochondrial biogenesis and function in higher organisms. This
presents
a challenge because mutations disrupting mitochondrial function are
lethal
in obligate aerobes. The cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) systems of
higher
plants provide a solution to this dilemma. The mitochondrial genome
encodes
CMS, the maternally inherited failure to produce functional pollen.
Nuclear
fertility restoration genes block or compensate for the expression of
CMS
genes in the mitochondria, resulting in a male-fertile phenotype. We
investigate
molecular and genetic mechanisms of CMS and nuclear fertility
restoration
systems to understand how mitochondria effect cell death in plants and
the ways in which nuclear genes influence the
organization, inheritance and expression of mitochondrial genomes.
In addition to my work on mitochondrial
biogenesis and function, I have been involved in a number of other
projects
that exploit techniques of plant molecular biology to facilitate plant
improvement.
(a) Collapsed pollen of CMS-S maize
exhibits
morphological and molecular features of programmed cell death.
[photo
by Dr. Lanying Wen] (b) Nuclear restorer-of-fertility mutations
rescue the function of CMS-S pollen. These mutations are observed as
sectors
of male fertility on otherwise male-sterile plants. The mutation is
recovered
by using pollen from the sector to perform genetic crosses. [Photo by
Dr.
Susan Gabay-Laughnan] (c) Many restorer-of-fertility mutations
are
homozygous-lethal, leading to kernel abortion as seen on the bottom ear
in panel c. The restorer-of-fertility lethal 1 (rfl1)
locus functions in the biogenesis of mitochondrial ATP synthase, and
kernels
with rfl1/rfl1 embryos homozygous abort. [Photo by Dr.
Susan
Gabay-Laughnan]
Research Projects & Publications
Contact Information
Horticultural Sciences
Department
Box 110690 Gainesville, FL 32611-0690
Office - 2215 Fifield Hall; Lab - 2219
Fifield Hall
tel - 352-392-1928 ext 316; fax -
352-392-5653;
e-mail - ctdc@.ifas.ufl.edu
webpage
maintained by CD
Chase | updated 08/10/06
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