Professor Julian Eaton-Rye

Biochemistry Department
School of Medical Sciences
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
710 Cumberland St
Dunedin 9054 , New Zealand
Tel.: +64 3 479-7865
FAX: +64 3 479-7866
e-mail:julian.eaton-rye@otago.ac.nz

Life on our planet is driven by Photosystem II that captures sunlight and extracts electrons from H₂O to reduce CO₂ into sugars while releasing the O₂ we breathe. My laboratory concentrates on structure-function studies of Photosystem II in plants and cyanobacteria.

Currently we are working on protein-protein interactions that facilitate sustained water-splitting activity by Photosystem II in response to changing environmental conditions such as fluctuating light levels, temperature and pH. We are also interested in protein factors that are required for the assembly of Photosystem II.

Since the sun provides more energy in 1 h than our entire global energy consumption in 1 year, we are also working on metabolic engineering to couple the harvesting of light by photosynthetic protein complexes to the efficient production of biofuels in cyanobacteria.

Media appearances

Professor Julian Eaton-Rye was on Australia's Radio National in May 2012

Go to the RadioNational page to hear the audio

Members of Professor Julian Eaton-Rye's laboratory were featured on the TVNZ 7 programme "Ever Wondered" in early August 2011

Watch the video at TVNZ On Demand (go to chapter 3)

Recent Publications

Summerfield, T.C., Crawford, T.S., Young, R.D., Chua, J.P.S., Macdonald, R.L., Sherman, L.A. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Environmental pH affects photoautotrophic growth of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 strains carrying mutations in the lumenal proteins of Photosystem II. Plant & Cell Physiology, in press (2013)

Lamb, J.J., Eaton-Rye, J.J. and Hohmann-Marriott, M.F. A cost effective solution to reliable determination of cell numbers of microorganisms in liquid culture. Current Microbiology, in press (2013)

Najafpour, M.M., Tabrizi, M.A., Haghighi, B., Eaton-Rye, J.J., Carpentier, R. and Allakhverdiev, S.I. Imidazolium or guanidinium/layered manganese (III, IV) oxide hybrid as a promising structural model for the water-oxidizing complex of Photosystem II for artificial photosynthetic systems. Photosynthesis Research, in press (2013)

Burut-Archanai, S., Eaton-Rye, J.J., Incharoensakdi, A. and Powtongsook, S. Phosphorus removal in a closed recirculating aquaculture system using the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 strain lacking the SphU regulator of the Pho regulon. Biochemical Engineering Journal 74: 69-75 (2013)

Jackson, S.A., Hinds, M.G. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Solution structure of CyanoP from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803: New insights on the structural basis for functional specialization amongst PsbP family proteins. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1817: 1331-1338 (2012)

Shevela, D., Eaton-Rye, J.J., Shen, J.-R. and Govindjee. Photosystem II and the unique role of bicarbonate: A historical perspective. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1817: 1134-1151 (2012)

Najafpour, M.M., Moghaddam, A.N., Yang, Y.N., Aro, E.-M., Carpentier, R., Eaton-Rye, J.J., Lee, C.-H. and Allakhverdiev, S.I. Biological water-oxidizing complex: A nano-sized manganese-calcium oxide in a protein environment. Photosynthesis Research 114: 1-13 (2012)

Lamb, J.J., Eaton-Rye, J.J. and Hohmann-Marriott, M.F. An LED-based fluorometer for chlorophyll quantification in the laboratory and in the field. Photosynthesis Research 114: 59-68 (2012)

Bricker, T.M., Roose, J.L., Fagerlund, R.D., Frankel. L.K. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. The extrinsic proteins of photosystem II. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1817: 121-142 (2012)

Vos, M.H., Bouzhir-Sima, L., Lambry, J.-C., Luo, H., Eaton-Rye, J.J., Ioanoviciu, A., Ortiz de Montellano, P.R. and Liebl, U. Ultrafast ligand dynamics in the heme-based GAF sensor domains of the histidine kinases DosS and DosT from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Biochemistry 51: 159-166 (2012)

Eaton-Rye, J.J., Tripathy, B.C. and Sharkey, T.D. eds Photosynthesis: Plastid Biology, Energy Conversion and Carbon Assimilation. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration 34. Springer, Dordrecht, 892 pages (2012)

McConnell, I.L., Eaton-Rye, J.J. and Van Rensen, J.J.S. Regulation of photosystem II electron transport by bicarbonate. In Photosynthesis: Plastid Biology, Energy Conversion and Carbon Assimilation, J.J. Eaton-Rye, B.C. Tripathy and T.D. Sharkey, eds. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration 34. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 475-500 (2012)

Burut-Archanai, S., Eaton-Rye, J.J. and Incharoensakdi, A. Na⁺-stimulated phosphate uptake system in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 with Pst1 as a main transporter. BMC Microbiology 11: 225 (2011)

Ehimen, E.A., Sun, Z.F., Carrington, C.G., Birch, E.J. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Anaerobic digestion of microalgae residues resulting from the biodiesel production process. Applied Energy 88: 3454-3463 (2011)

Fagerlund, R.D. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. The lipoproteins of cyanobacterial photosystem II. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology 104: 191-203 (2011)

Nagarajan, A., Winter, R., Eaton-Rye, J. and Burnap, R. A synthetic DNA and fusion PCR approach to the ectopic expression of high levels of the D1 protein of photosystem II in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology 104: 212-219 (2011)

Eaton-Rye, J.J. Construction of gene interruptions and gene deletions in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803. In Photosynthesis Research Protocols, 2nd Edition. R. Carpentier, ed., Methods in Molecular Biology 684. Humana Press, Springer, New York, pp 295-312 (2011)

Jackson, S.A., Fagerlund, R.D., Wilbanks, S.M. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Crystal structure of PsbQ from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 at 1.8 Å: Implications for binding and function in cyanobacterial photosystem II. Biochemistry 49: 2765–2767 (2010)

Hohmann-Marriott, M.F., Takizawa, K., Eaton-Rye, J.J., Mets, L. and Minagawa, J. The redox state of the plastoquinone pool directly modulates minimum chlorophyll fluorescence yield in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Federation of European Biochemical Societies Letters 584: 1021–1026 (2010)

Mabbitt, P.D., Rautureau, G.J.P., Day, C.L., Wilbanks, S.M., Eaton-Rye, J.J. and Hinds, M.G. Solution structure of Psb27 from cyanobacterial photosystem II. Biochemistry 48: 8771-8773 (2009)

Burut-Archanai, S., Incharoensakdi, A. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. The extended N-terminal region of SphS is required for detection of external phosphate levels in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 378: 383-388 (2009)

Luo, H. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Directed mutagenesis of the transmembrane domain of the PsbL subunit of photosystem II in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Photosynthesis Research 98: 337-347 (2008)

Bentley, F.K., Luo, H., Dilbeck, P., Burnap, R.L. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Effects of inactivating psbM and psbT on photodamage and assembly of photosystem II in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Biochemistry 47: 11637-11646 (2008)

Eaton-Rye, J.J. ed. Govindjee special issue: Part B, Celebrating Govindjee's 50 years in photosynthesis research and his 75th birthday. Photosynthesis Research 94: 153-466 (2007)

Eaton-Rye, J.J. ed. Govindjee special issue: Part A, Celebrating Govindjee's 50 years in photosynthesis research and his 75th birthday. Photosynthesis Research 93: 1-244 (2007)

Juntarajumnong, W., Hirani, T.A., Simpson, J.M., Incharoensakdi, A. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Phosphate sensing in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803: SphU and the SphS-SphR two-component regulatory system. Archives of Microbiology 188: 389-402 (2007)

Summerfield, T.C., Eaton-Rye, J.J. and Sherman, L.A. Global gene expression of a ΔPsbO:ΔPsbU mutant and a spontaneous revertant in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803. Photosynthesis Research 94: 265-274 (2007)

Juntarajumnong, W., Eaton-Rye, J.J. and Incharoensakdi, A. Two-component signal transduction in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 under phosphate limitation: Role of acetyl phosphate. Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 40: 708-714 (2007)

Juntarajumnong, W., Incharoensakdi, A. and Eaton-Rye, J.J. Identification of the start codon for sphS encoding the phosphate-sensing histidine kinase in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Current Microbiology 55: 142-146 (2007)