Research Interests
My laboratory investigates the role of nuclear-mitochondrial genetic interactions in the maintenance and transmission of the mitochondrial genome in higher plants. The plant mitochondrial genome is complex in organization, and its maintenance, expression, and transmission are subject to a number of nuclear controls. Our primary interest is in dissecting the DNA maintenance apparatus and understanding the mechanisms that control genome replication and maternal inheritance. Studies of the evolutionary and developmental implications of mitochondrial mutation utilize a cytoplasmic male sterility system in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) as a model. In Arabidopsis, our laboratory has cloned a nuclear gene, CHM, that modulates relative copy number within the mitochondrial genome during plant development. The gene’s product, a protein related to MutS from E. coli, is presumed to be involved in suppressing ectopic recombination within the mitochondrion. We have also identified several other components of the DNA maintenance and transmission genetic machinery, and we now seek to understand their associations, regulation and individual contributions. Our experimental approaches integrate fundamental genetics, molecular biology, cell biology and cytology, physical mapping and proteomics.
Recent Papers
Shedge, V., Arrieta-Montiel, M., Christensen, A.C. and Mackenzie, S.A.
Plant Mitochondrial Recombination Surveillance Requires Unusual RecA and MutS Homologs.
Plant Cell 19, 1251-1264.
Mackenzie, S.
Genetic and molecular characterization of the I locus of Phaseolus vulgaris.
In Plant Mitochondria, Annual Plant Reviews (ed. D. Logan, Blackwell Publ.) in press
Sandhu, A.P., Abdelnoor, R.V., and Mackenzie, S.A.
Transgenic induction of mitochondrial rearrangements for cytoplasmic male sterility in crop plants.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104, 1766-1770 (2007)
Abdelnoor, R.V., Christensen, A.C., Mohammed, S., Munoz-Castillo, B., Moriyama, H. and Mackenzie, S.A. Mitochondrial genome dynamics in plants and animals: Convergent gene fusions of a MutS homolog. J Mol Evol. 2006 Aug;63(2):165-73
Vallejos, C.E., Astua-Monge, G., Jones, V., Plyler, T.R., Sakiyama, N.S., and Mackenzie, S.A. 2005. Genetic and molecular characterization of the I locus of Phaseolus vulgaris . Genetics, 172:1229-42(2006).
Mackenzie SA. 2005. Plant organellar protein targeting: a traffic plan still under construction.
Trends Cell Biol. 10:548-54.
Christensen AC, Lyznik A, Mohammed S, Elowsky CG, Elo A, Yule R, Mackenzie SA. 2005. Dual-domain, dual-targeting organellar protein presequences in Arabidopsis can use non-AUG start codons. Plant Cell, 10:2805-16.
Mackenzie, S.A., 2005. The influence of mitochondrial genetics on crop breeding strategies. Plant Breeding Reviews Vol 25:115-138. John Wiley and Sons
Mackenzie, S.A, 2005. The mitochondrial genome of higher plants: A target for natural adaptation. Diversity and Evolution of Plants, R. J. Henry, ed. CABI Publishers, Oxon, UK. Pp. 69-80.
Vaghchhipawala, Z.E., Schlueter, J.A., Shoemaker, R.C., and Mackenzie, S. A. 2004. Soybean FGAM synthase promoters direct ectopic nematode feeding site activity. Genome. 2:404-13.
Elo, A., Lyznik, A., Gonzalez, D.O., Kachman, S.D. and Mackenzie, S. 2003. Nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial proteins for DNA and RNA metabolism are clustered in the Arabidopsis genome. Plant Cell 15: 1619-1631.
Abdelnoor, R.V., Yule, R., Elo, A., Christensen, A., Meyer-Gauen, G. and Mackenzie, S. 2003 Substoichiometric Shifting in the Plant Mitochondrial Genome is influenced by a Gene Homologous to MutS. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100(10):5968-5973.
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