Barbara B. Sears 
Professor of Plant Biology;

Ph.D., 1979, Duke University; 
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, 1980­1983,
University of Düsseldorf, 
President of the American Genetic Association, 1993 and Past President, 1994. 

Email:
sears@pilot.msu.edu
Phone: (517) 355-0132 
Lab: 355-2248
Home Department:
Plant Biology
Home Page  
Following the original endosymbiosis of the prokaryotes that gave rise to the eukaryotic organelles, the predecessors of modern­day chloroplasts and mitochondria lost much of their genetic information to the nucleus, including most genes necessary for the replication and repair of their own DNA. Thus, chloroplasts and mitochondria are quite dependent on enzymes encoded by nuclear genes for all aspects of organelle DNA metabolism. Research in the Sears laboratory has focused on understanding the coordination of replication and repair of organelle DNA. Investigations have utilized chloroplast mutators (nuclear genes that increase the mutation frequency of genes on the chloroplast DNA) for the analysis of the replication/repair process in vitro, and to obtain mutations in the chloroplast DNA that impact these processes.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Hupfer, H., M. Swiatek, S. Hornung, R. G. Herrmann, R. M. Maier, W.-L. Chiu, and B.B. Sears. (2000). Complete nucleotide sequence of the Oenothera elata plastid chromosome, representing plastome I of the five distinguishable Euoenothera plastomes. Mol Gen Genet 263:581-585.

Stoike, L. and B.B. Sears. (1998). Plastome mutator induced alterations arise in Oenothera chloroplast DNA through template slippage. Genetics 149:347-353.

Sears, B.B. (1998). Replication, recombination, and repair in the chloroplast genetic system of Chlamydomonas. In: The Molecular Biology of Chloroplasts and Mitochondria of Chlamydomonas:. Kluwer Academic Publ. Advances in Photosynthesis Series vol. 7 (J.D. Rochaix, M. Goldschmidt-Clermont and S. Merchant, Eds.), chapter 7, pg 115-138.

Chang T.L., L.L. Stoike, D. Zarka, G. Schewe, B.B. Sears. (1996). Characterization of primary lesions caused by the plastome mutator of Oenothera. Current Genetics 30: 522­530.Chang TL, et al.

Sears B.B., L.L. Stoike, W.L. Chiu. (1996). Proliferation of direct repeats near the Oenothera chloroplast DNA origin of replication. Mol. Biol. Evol. 13:850­863. Sears BB, et al.

Other Publications
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