Ángel Vergara-Cruces

Chloroplasts are the organelles of plant cells that perform photosynthesis. They descend from ancient bacteria that were incorporated within a larger eukaryotic cell. One consequence of this is that chloroplasts have their own set of genes. These genes dictate chloroplast activity and photosynthesis and chloroplasts have dedicated molecular machines that “read” chloroplast genes.

Angel’s work focuses on understanding the molecular details of how chloroplasts read their genes.

This involves 1) purification of protein complexes from plants 2) analysis of their composition and activity and 3) visualisation of their structure (ie their shape) by cryogenic electron microscopy.

A better understanding of how chloroplast genes function can enable the engineering of more resilient crops as well as more effective deployment of plant chloroplasts as biotechnological platforms.