Research in our department focuses on organelle biogenesis in plants. We are investigating transcription on mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes and post-transcriptional processes in these energy-converting organelles. We are also focussing on mitochondrial biogenesis, in particular the biogenesis of the Oxidative Phosphorylation system. Additionally, we are studying the role of mitochondria in energy metabolism. Most of our work is done using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
Our research uses
- Transgenic plants for reverse-genetic approaches
- Various techniques for high- and low-throughput analyses of organelle transcripts and for transcript end mapping
- differential RNA sequencing (dRNA-Seq) and nascent transcript sequencing (GRO-Seq, 5’ GRO-Seq)
- Cell fractionation technique
- In organello assays for monitoring mitochondrial transcription and translation
- Native PAGE and respiration assays for studying the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation system
- Protein interaction approaches
- Proteomics