Darius Kosmützky
 Visiting PhD student in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge

Asiantuntijuusalueet
photosynthesis, photosynthetic electron transport chain, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, cytochromes c6A and c6B

Biografia

Visiting PhD student supervised by Laura Wey in the Photosynthetic Microbes group of Yagut Allahverdiyeva-Rinne, Molecular Plant Biology, University of Turku, Finland (February-May 2023)

PhD in Biochemistry supervised by Professor Chris Howe, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (since 2020)

Master of Philosophy in Biological Sciences (Biochemistry) supervised by Professor Chris Howe, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (2019-2020)

Master of Science in Biochemistry (discontinued), Bielefeld University, Germany (2018-2019)

Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, Bielefeld University, Germany (2015-2018)



Tutkimus

My research interests lie within the fascinating process of photosynthesis, the basics of which have been long known. However photosynthetic regulation and adaptations to environmental conditions are actively investigated. For my PhD, I aim to uncover the function of cytochrome c6A (c6A) which is likely involved in photosynthesis or its control. c6A is a homologue of the soluble electron carrier protein c6 and is ubiquitous and highly conserved within the plant and green algal lineage. Despite its structure and sequence similarity with c6, c6A was found to be unable to replace c6 or plastocyanin functionally in the photosynthetic electron transport chain (PETC) due to a much lower redox midpoint potential and opposite surface charge. Hence, c6A’s function is yet to be understood.

To investigate the function of c6A, I’m employing a combination of bioinformatic, biochemical and biophysical approaches. Those cover evolutionary analysis of the protein family; microbiological, biochemical and biophysical analysis of a c6A knock-out and overexpression strains; and biochemical determination of interaction partners of c6A.

I'm mainly working with the single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, however cyanobacteria, plants and dinoflagellates are also recurrent organisms used in my research.




Last updated on 2024-24-01 at 01:22