Our laboratory studies the cyto-chromes that cells use to generate energy.
Cytochromes are one of many proteins whose activity requires the specific binding of a ligand.
Therefore, our long range goals are to understand how cytochromes function, how cyto-chromes bind their heme ligand, and how cytochrome synthesis is regulated. There are several reasons why the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides is an excellent model for these studies. R. sphaeroides contains several well characterized cytochromes, it alters its cytochrome content in response to well defined environmental signals, and it is amenable to molecular genetic analyses. This protein is a homologue of mitochondrial cyt c and it participates in respiratory and photosynthetic electron transport chains similar to those of eucaryotes. The questions and approaches our laboratory uses to study cytochrome biosynthesis are illustrated below.