Academician of Science Eva-Mari Aro - UTU Research Portal

Eva-Mari Aro
Academician of Science

Molecular Plant Biology (Department of Life Technologies)

Molecular Plant Biology

evaaro@utu.fi

+358 29 450 4200

+358 50 430 4639

Tykistökatu 6

Turku

: 6207

: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2922-1435

	Aro_publ_Dec2024.pdf
	Aro_CV_Apr2022.pdf

NordAqua

Photosynthesis, regulation of photosynthetic light reactions, photoprotection, evolution of photoprotection mechanisms, chloroplast signaling, cyanobacterial cell factories.

Eva-Mari Aro is a research director and professor (emeritus) of Molecular Plant Biology in the Department of Life Technologies at the University of Turku. She received the honorary title of Academician of Science in 2017 and was awarded as Commander First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland (Suomen Leijonan I luokan komentajamerkki) in 2019. In 2018 Aro was elected as foreign fellow to the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS). She is a member of the Finnish Technical Sciences Academy (2012) and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2002), and an honorary doctor of University of Helsinki (2014) and Umeå University (2012) as well as an honorary professor of the Chinese Academy of Science (2006).

Aro has published over 350 peer reviewed scientific papers, mostly on biophysics, biochemistry and molecular biology of the photosynthetic apparatus, and how the function of the photosynthetic apparatus guides plant acclimation to environmental changes. More recently, her research interests have extended to applied bioenergy research and synthetic biology approaches, in applying photosynthetic principles towards production of sustainable fuels and chemicals in cyanobacteria cell factories.

Aro currently chairs a project “Opportunities of Finnish Molecular Photosynthesis Research” and co-chairs a Nordic CoE “NordAqua” project (2017-2022) with nine other partners from Nordic counties. Aro has chaired two Academy of Finland Centres of Excellence (AFCoE): “Integrative photosynthesis, bioactive compound and biohydrogen research” (2008-2013) and “Molecular biology of primary producers” (2014-2019) and was awarded an Academy of Finland Professorship for the years 1998-2008 and 2014-2019. Aro has been a partner and coordinator of several EU and Nordic research networks, and she is also a foreign partner of an Australian CoE (ARC) on Plant Energy Biology (2014-2021).

Aro has had many research- and science policy-related national and international duties of trust. She has served the European Academies of Sciences Advisory Council (EASAC)since 2014, first as a board member and 2017-2019 as a vice-president. Aro also served the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 2010-2015, first as a board member, then as a vice president and president, and acted during 2004-2010 as a board member, president and past president of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research. She was a founding partner of EU funded CSA initiative “SUNRISE: Solar Energy for a Circular Economy” (https://sunriseaction.com/, EU R&T Roadmap 2019) and currently serves as a Finnish contact for SunERGY EU CSA (https://www.sunergy-initiative.eu) in promotion of emerging biotechnologies for industrial applications. She has served in the board/search committee for big European prizes, the Millenium Prize and the Körber European Science Prize.

Our basic research focuses on
regulation of photosynthesis, which is intimately linked with plant
stress responses and signalling cascades to regulate nuclear gene
expression. Particular emphasis is also put on evolutionary aspects of
regulation of thylakoid light harvesting and energy conversion systems. A
diverse set of photoautotrophic oxygen evolving organisms, from
cyanobacteria, green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and diatoms to a
moss Physcomitrella patens and ferns as well as to the model higher
plants Arabidopsis thaliana and spruce, are used in our research. We aim
at understanding (i) the mechanisms and dynamic regulation of the rapid
photophysical and photochemical processes of the light energy capture
and the photosynthetic electron transfer, (ii) how the structure and
organisation of the thylakoid protein complexes dynamically respond to
environmental changes, and (iii) how the signals originating from the
photosynthetic apparatus relay information to the nuclear genome for
regulation of gene expression and subsequent acclimation of the
photosynthetic organism to changing environmental conditions. Likewise
(iv) the evolution of thylakoid regulatory mechanisms, with special
emphasis on the replacement of the cyanobacterial flavodiiron proteins
with other regulatory mechanisms in higher plants, is investigated to
understand how it was possible for photosynthetic organisms to move from
oceans to the land.

Our applied research focuses on replacement
of fossil raw materials and aims at production of carbon-neutral
biosolarfuels and chemicals using cyanobacteria as a production chassis.
In the synthetic biology program, we aim at production of fuels and
chemicals with high photon conversion efficiency, significantly higher
compared to natural pathways. The main goal is economically viable
conversion of solar energy to a fuel using inexhaustible raw materials:
sunlight, water and CO2. Applied research is intimately integrated with
our basic research and comprises the designing, engineering and
optimisation of light harvesting, electron transfer and metabolic
pathways.

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Structure and Physiological Function of NDH-1 Complexes in Cyanobacteria (2011) Bioenergetic Processes of Cyanobacteria - From Evolutionary Singularity to Ecological Diversity Battchikova N, Aro E-M, Nixon PJ
Structure of the Chloroplast NADH Dehydrogenase-Like Complex: Nomenclature for Nuclear-Encoded Subunits (2011)
- Plant and Cell Physiology
Kentaro Ifuku, Tsuyoshi Endo, Toshiharu Shikanai, Eva-Mari Aro
The Thylakoid Membrane Proteome of Two Marine Diatoms Outlines Both Diatom-Specific and Species-Specific Features of the Photosynthetic Machinery (2011)
- Journal of Proteome Research
Grouneva I, Rokka A, Aro EM
Thylakoid phosphoproteins: identification of phosphorylation sites (2011)
- Methods in Molecular Biology
Photosynthesis Research Protocols Rokka A, Aro EM, Vener A
Drought stress-induced upregulation of components involved in ferredoxin-dependent cyclic electron transfer (2010)
- Journal of Plant Physiology
Lehtimaki N, Lintala M, Allahverdiyeva Y, Aro EM, Mulo P
Electron transfer routes in cyanobacterial thylakoid membranes - Impact on biohydrogen production (2010)
- BBA - Bioenergetics
Aro EM, Zhang PP, Eisenhut M, Allahverdiyeva Y, Battchikova N
Electron transfer routes in photosynthetic membranes - impact on biohydrogen production (2010)
- FEBS Journal
Aro EM, Zhang P, Eisenhut M, Allahverdiyeva Y, Battchikova N
Possibilities of subunit localization with fluorescent protein tags and electron microscopy examplified by a cyanobacterial NDH-1 study (2010)
- BBA - Bioenergetics
Birungi M, Folea M, Battchikova N, Xu M, Mi HL, Ogawa T, Aro EM, Boekema EJ
Purification and characterization of photosystem I complex from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 by expressing histidine-tagged subunits (2010)
- BBA - Bioenergetics
Kubota H, Sakurai I, Katayama K, Mizusawa N, Ohashi S, Kobayashi M, Zhang P, Aro E-M , Wada H
Role of Thylakoid ATP/ADP Carrier in Photoinhibition and Photoprotection of Photosystem II in Arabidopsis (2010)
- Plant Physiology
Yin L, Lundin B, Bertrand M, Nurmi M, Solymosi K, Kangasjarvi S, Aro EM, Schoefs B, Spetea C
Screening for biohydrogen production by cyanobacteria isolated from the Baltic Sea and Finnish lakes (2010)
- International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Yagut Allahverdiyeva, Hannu Leino, Lyudmila Saari, David P Fewer, Sumathy Shunmugam, Kaarina Sivonen, Eva-Mari Aro
Small chloroplast-targeted DnaJ proteins are involved in optimization of photosynthetic reactions in Arabidopsis thaliana (2010)
- BMC Plant Biology
Chen KM, Holmstrom M, Raksajit W, Suorsa M, Piippo M, Aro EM
Thylakoid Protein Phosphorylation in Higher Plant Chloroplasts Optimizes Electron Transfer under Fluctuating Light (2010)
- Plant Physiology
Mikko Tikkanen, Michele Grieco, Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi, Eva-Mari Aro
Two Proteins Homologous to PsbQ are Novel Subunits of the Chloroplast NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase (2010)
- Plant and Cell Physiology
Suorsa M, Sirpio S, Paakkarinen V, Kumari N, Holmstrom M, Aro EM
AtCYP20-2 is an auxiliary protein of the chloroplast NAD(P)H dehydrogenase complex (2009)
- FEBS Letters
Sirpio S, Holmstrom M, Battchikova N, Aro EM
Cell-specific mechanisms and systemic signalling as emerging themes in light acclimation of C3 plants (2009)
- Plant, Cell and Environment
Kangasjarvi S, Nurmi M, Tikkanen M, Aro EM
Comparison of the electron transport properties of the psbo1 and psbo2 mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana (2009)
- BBA - Bioenergetics
Allahverdiyeva Y, Mamedov F, Holmstrom M, Nurmi M, Lundin B, Styring S, Spetea C, Aro EM
Flavodiiron Proteins in Oxygenic Photosynthetic Organisms: Photoprotection of Photosystem II by Flv2 and Flv4 in Synechocystis sp PCC 6803 (2009)
- PLoS ONE
Zhang PP, Allahverdiyeva Y, Eisenhut M, Aro EM
Novel Nuclear-encoded Subunits of the Chloroplast NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase Complex (2009)
- Journal of Biological Chemistry
Sirpio S, Allahverdiyeva Y, Holmstrom M, Khrouchtchova A, Haldrup A, Battchikova N, Aro EM
The flow of solar energy to biofuel feedstock via photosynthesis (2009)
- International Sugar Journal
Tikkanen M, Suorsa M, Aro EM