Gregory W. Schmidt

My long-term research interest has been to understand processes involved in the formation and maintenance of photosynthetic complexes of plants and algae. Our work pioneered understanding how nuclear-encoded proteins are transported into chloroplasts and integrated into photosynthetic membranes. Other research has concerned how regulation of formation of multi-subunit complexes is achieved, finding that it involves intricate processes that includes gene expression and subsequent control mechanisms (such as post-translational mRNA stabilization, RNA precursor maturation, translational regulation and post-translational protein stabilization and protein phosphorylation mechanisms). My laboratory also invented methods for reconstruction of the light-harvesting antenna complexes for photosynthesis from their purified apoproteins and purified chlorophylls and carotenoids. With molecular mutagenesis techniques, the latter work enabled mapping the proteins’ pigment binding sites, identification of the important roles in light absorption efficiency due to protein-protein interactions, and elucidation of light energy transfer/photoprotection pathways.

Our laboratory has focused in recent years on understanding the genotypic and physiological diversity of the symbiotic algae in corals and their related cnidarian species in reefs around the globe. A major question addressed in current work is why are some corals less susceptible than others to bleaching as a consequence or ocean warming. The evidence points to different capacities of the divergent symbiotic dinoflagellates to maintain photosynthetic efficiencies when subjected to extremes of temperature and light.