WELCOME to the Inoue Lab homepage
131/222 Asmundson Hall, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616.
Tel: (530) 754-4177 (lab); (530) 752-7931 (office)
We are interested in addressing various biological questions using biochemical, molecular biological, genetic, and cytological tools. More specifically, we study "plastids", the cellular compartments (organelles) essential and specific to all photosynthetic eukaryotes (higher plants and various algae), and some non-photosynthetic eukaryotes (those belonging to Apicomplexa, a group of protists including malaria parasite). Addressing a question often leads us to formulate new questions that allow us to better understand what "nature is trying to tell us". Find more detailed descriptions of our research program. Also learn how our research questions have been "evolving" (preliminary version).
News in 2009 November • Shih-Chi's review on the essential chloroplast outer membrane proteins was published. BamA homologs play an essential role in Gram negative bacteria and endosymbiotic organelles (mitochondria and chloroplasts) in eukaryotic cells. In contrast to the case in bacteria and mitochondria, in which a single essential homolog exists, there are two distinct BamA homologs in chloroplasts of higher plants. One of them (Toc75) forms a preprotein translocation channel, whereas the function of another protein (OEP80) remains elusive. This review covers the current knowledge of BamA homologs and emphasizes the relevance of studying the chloroplast homologs.
June
• Joanna joined the lab as our new lab organizer.
• Sherry, Patricia, and Chi graduated.
• Rebecca graduated.
April
• Joshua joined the lab as a graduate student researcher.
Joshua is a Plant Biology Graduate Group student, and has done rotations in several laboratories in Fall and Winter quarters. He will be working on the DOE-funded project about Plsp1.
March
• Rebecca's paper on suborganellar localization of Plsp1 was published.
Our previous genetic study showed that plastidic type I signal peptidase 1 (Plsp1) is involved in protein maturation in two distinct locations, i.e., the envelope and thylakoids of Arabidopsis thaliana chloroplasts. Rebecca's work provides biochemical and cytological evidence to indicate the interesting suborganellar-localization pattern of Plsp1 and its biological relevance.
January
• Rebecca received The Beverley Green Award at 18th Western Photosynthesis Conference.
• Nick joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher.
Nick received PhD from Indiana University. He will be working on the DOE-funded project about the biological relevance of gene duplications.
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Last updated on November 12th, 2009
Kentaro Inoue(C) 2009
