Dr. Janneke Balk, John Innes Centre, Norwich
Tuesday 31st October, 1.00 p.m., Stacey Lecture Theatre 1
Plants have two bioenergetic organelles, plastids and mitochondria. In the light, chloroplasts (the photosynthetic form of plastids) convert light energy to ATP and NADPH, which is then used to fix carbondioxide. The plastids also harbour many biosynthetic pathways, such as for haem, iron-sulphur and thiamine, which in non-photosynthetic eukaryotes are located in mitochondria. So, what role is left for mitochondria in plants, if not generating ATP and NAD(P)H or making enzyme cofactors? In this seminar I will present our studies on mutants in iron-sulphur cluster assembly and respiratory complex I in the model plant species Arabidopsis, an put our data in the light of the evolution of the eukaryotic cell.