This study shows that cytochrome c6A enhances growth of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under fluctuating light by maintaining light harvesting balance between photosystems I and II.

bioRxiv · Mar 29, 2026 · PreprintPlant Biology

Dissecting bioelectrical networks in photosynthetic membranes with electrochemistry

Joshua M. Lawrence, Rachel M. Egan, Laura T. Wey, Karan Bali, Xiaolong Chen, Darius Kosmützky, Mairi Eyres, Lan Nan, Mary H. Wood, Marc M. Nowaczyk, Christopher J. Howe, Jenny Zhang

This paper demonstrates wiring photosynthetic membranes from cyanobacteria to electrodes to study their electron transfer networks, revealing new insights into redox activities and potential applications in biotechnology.

Journal of the American Chemical Society · Jul 21, 2025Peer-reviewedBiochemistry

Bioelectricity generation by Symbiodinium microadriaticum: a symbiont-forming photosynthetic dinoflagellate alga from coral reefs

Loris Marcel, James T. Simon, Joshua M. Lawrence, Svetlana Menkin, Adrian C. Barbrook, R. Ellen R. Nisbet, Christopher J. Howe, Jenny Zhang

This study measures extracellular electron transfer in Symbiodinium microadriaticum to assess bioenergetic fluctuations and environmental stress impacts on coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis.

bioRxiv · May 16, 2025 · PreprintMicrobiology

A modular toolset for electrogenetics

Joshua M. Lawrence, Yutong Yin, Paolo Bombelli, Alberto Scarampi, Marko Storch, Laura T. Wey, Alicia Climent-Catala, PixCell iGEM team, Geoff S. Baldwin, Danny O’Hare, Christopher J. Howe, Jenny Zhang, Thomas E. Ouldridge, Rodrigo Ledesma‐Amaro

The paper develops a modular toolset to improve the performance and standardization of electrogenetic systems for spatiotemporal gene expression control.

Science Advances · May 4, 2022Peer-reviewedSynthetic Biology

Genetic transformation of the dinoflagellate chloroplast

Isabel C. Nimmo, Adrian C. Barbrook, Imen Lassadi, Jit Ern Chen, Katrin Geisler, Alison Gail Smith, Manuel Aranda, Saul Purton, Ross F. Waller, R. Ellen R. Nisbet, Christopher J. Howe

The paper demonstrates stable genetic transformation of dinoflagellate chloroplasts using a plasmid-like fragmented chloroplast genome, showing long-term expression and maintenance of introduced genes.

eLife · Jul 18, 2019Peer-reviewedGenetics

CyanoGate: A Golden Gate modular cloning suite for engineering cyanobacteria based on the plant MoClo syntax

Ravendran Vasudevan, Grant A. R. Gale, Alejandra A. Schiavon Osorio, Anton Puzorjov, John Malm, Michael D. Gillespie, Konstantinos Vavitsas, Valentin Zulkower, Baojun Wang, Christopher J. Howe, David J. Lea‐Smith, Alistair J. McCormick

The paper introduces CyanoGate, a modular cloning system for cyanobacteria based on the plant MoClo syntax, enabling knock-outs, integrations, and multigene expression.

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY · Feb 28, 2019Peer-reviewedSynthetic Biology

A Pentatricopeptide Repeat Protein in the Plasmodium apicoplast is essential and shows sequence-specific RNA binding

Joanna L. Hicks, Imen Lassadi, Emma Carpenter, Madeleine Eno, Alexandros Vardakis, Ross F. Waller, Christopher J. Howe, R. Ellen R. Nisbet

This study identifies and characterizes PPR1, an essential apicoplast-targeted PPR protein in Plasmodium that binds specific RNA sequences and protects transcripts from degradation.

bioRxiv · Sep 19, 2018 · PreprintMicrobiology

The Genetic Intractability Of Symbiodinium microadriaticum To Standard Algal Transformation Methods

Jit Ern Chen, Adrian C. Barbrook, Guoxin Cui, Christopher J. Howe, Manuel Aranda

This study attempts to transform Symbiodinium microadriaticum using various methods but fails to confer antibiotic or herbicide resistance.

bioRxiv · Mar 3, 2018 · PreprintMolecular Biology