Dr. Hoober received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan in 1965 and then spent postdoctoral years at Vanderbilt University and the Rockefeller University. He held faculty positions at Rutgers University Medical School and Temple University School of Medicine before coming to Arizona State University and joining the Department of Plant Biology and the Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis in 1991.
Productive photosynthesis depends upon assembly of a functional photosynthetic apparatus.
Formation of thylakoid membranes is being examined during chloroplast development in the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . These proteins are synthesized in the cytosol and then imported into the chloroplast, where they combine with chlorophyll and xanthophylls. Recent evidence has indicated that the proteins are associated in the cytosol with molecular chaperones, which apparently facilitate entrance of the proteins into the chloroplast. Integration of the proteins into the membrane seems to be regulated by the rate of chlorophyll synthesis. Electron microscopic and immunocytochemical data suggest that initial thylakoid membranes are assembled in association with the chloroplast envelope.