Current Position
Professor, Molecular Plant Physiology
Projects Available for PhD and Honours Students
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Research Interests
My research focuses on CO2 uptake by plants
and, in particular, on the central CO2-fixing
enzyme, Rubisco. I have general interests in photosynthesis (natural
and artificial), catalytic chemistry, protein engineering, and
plant molecular genetics, biochemistry and physiology.
The Rubisco conundrum - All plant life appears to be hamstrung
by the inefficiency of the photosynthetic CO2-fixing
catalyst, the enzyme known as Rubisco. This protein's curious
resistance to evolutionary refinement for catalytic speed and
specificity has set a fundamental limit on the size of the biosphere
and the dynamics of its carbon cycle. The program seeks reasons
for Rubisco's slow evolutionary adaptation in its multi-step catalytic
chemistry, its complex subunit structure, its unusual inheritance
(which requires cooperation between nuclear and plastid genomes
in plants) and its need to respond to long-term changes in the
composition of the atmosphere. The sharp rise in atmospheric CO2
that is occurring currently challenges protein engineers and plant
molecular biologists to consider ways of manipulating Rubisco
in its physiological context in crop plants to take better advantage
of this environmental change. Tools used in this research include
expression of recombinant foreign proteins in Escherichia coli,
cyanobacteria and higher plants, directed and random mutagenesis,
reaction intermediate and by-product characterisation, X-ray crystallography,
modelling the reaction mechanism using computational chemistry,
methods for assessing interactions between proteins, and biochemical
and bioinformatic methods for studying natural variation in Rubisco's
structure and function.
Manipulation of Rubisco and photosynthesis in transgenic plants
- The nuclear and plastid genomes of higher plants (mostly tobacco)
are transformed to assess the consequences of engineered changes
in the content or properties of Rubisco and its attendant regulatory
protein, Rubisco activase. Techniques used include antisense-RNA
suppression of nuclear gene expression, homologous replacement
of plastid genes, gas-exchange measurement of photosynthetic parameters
coupled with biochemical measurements of metabolite pools and
mathematical modelling of regulatory processes.
Selected Publications
Andrews,T.J. and Whitney,S.M. (2003) Manipulating ribulose bisphosphate
carboxylase/oxygenase in the chloroplasts of higher plants. Archives
of Biochemistry and Biophysics 414, 159-169.
Lilley,R.McC., Wang,X.Q., Krausz,E. and Andrews,T.J. (2003) Complete
spectra of the far-red chemiluminescence of the oxygenase reaction
of Mn2+ -activated ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase
establish excited Mn2+ as the source. Journal of Biological Chemistry
278, 16488-16493.
Hanson,D., Andrews,T.J. and Badger,M.R. (2002) Variability of
the pyrenoid-based CO2 concentrating mechanism
in hornworts (Anthocerotophyta). Functional Plant Biology 29,
407-416.
Whitney,S.M. and Andrews,T.J. (2001) Plastome-encoded bacterial
ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO) supports
photosynthesis and growth in tobacco. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences USA 98, 14738-14743. Abstract
Mauser,H., King,W.A., Gready,J.E. and Andrews,T.J. (2001) CO2
fixation by Rubisco: Computational dissection of the key steps
of carboxylation, hydration, and C-C bond cleavage. Journal of
the American Chemical Society 123, 10821-10829.
Whitney,S.M., Baldet,P., Hudson,G.S.
and Andrews,T.J. (2001) Form I Rubiscos from non-green algae are
expressed abundantly but not assembled in tobacco chloroplasts.
The Plant Journal 26, 535-547. Full
paper thanks to The Plant Journal of Blackwell
Publishing
Whitney,S.M. and Andrews,T.J. (2001) The gene for the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate
carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) small subunit relocated to the
plastid genome of tobacco directs the synthesis of small subunits
that assemble into Rubisco. The Plant Cell 13, 193-205. Abstract
thanks to The Plant Cell and the American Society of Plant Biologists
Barbour,M.M., Andrews,T.J. and Farquhar,G.D. (2001) Correlations
between oxygen isotope ratios of wood constituents of Quercus
and Pinus samples from around the world. Australian Journal of
Plant Physiology 28, 335-348.
Sharkey,T.D., Badger,M.R., von Caemmerer,S. and Andrews,T.J.
(2001) Increased heat sensitivity of photosynthesis in tobacco
plants with reduced Rubisco activase. Photosynthesis Research
67, 147-156.
Duff,A.P., Andrews,T.J. and Curmi,P.M.G. (2000) The transition
between the open and closed states of rubisco is triggered by
the inter-phosphate distance of the bound bisphosphate. Journal
of Molecular Biology 298, 903-916.
Roy,H. and Andrews,T.J. (2000) Rubisco: Assembly and Mechanism.
In "Photosynthesis: Physiology and Metabolism" (Leegood,R.C.,
Sharkey,T.D. and von Caemmerer,S.eds) : Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Dordrecht, pp. 53-83.
Ruuska,S.A., Andrews,T.J., Badger,M.R., Price,G.D. and von Caemmerer,S.
(2000) The role of chloroplast electron transport and metabolites
in modulating rubisco activity in tobacco. Insights from transgenic
plants with reduced amounts of cytochrome b/f complex or glyceraldehyde
3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Plant Physiology 122, 491-504. Full
paper thanks to Plant
Physiology
Ruuska,S.A., von Caemmerer,S., Badger,M.R., Andrews,T.J., Price,G.D.
and Robinson,S.A. (2000) Xanthophyll cycle, light energy dissipation
and electron transport in transgenic tobacco with reduced
carbon assimilation capacity. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology.
27, 289-300.
Ruuska,S.A., Badger,M.R., Andrews,T.J. and von Caemmerer,S.
(2000) Photosynthetic electron sinks in transgenic tobacco with
reduced amounts of Rubisco: little evidence for significant Mehler
reaction. Journal of Experimental Botany 51, 357-368.
Whitney,S.M., von Caemmerer,S., Hudson,G.S. and Andrews,T.J.
(1999) Directed mutation of the Rubisco large subunit of tobacco
influences photorespiration and growth. Plant Physiology 121,
579-588. Full paper thanks to
Plant Physiology
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