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Contact Details

Phone
64 3 479 7865
Email
hod.biochemistry@otago.ac.nz
Position
Professor and Head of Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences
Department
Department of Biochemistry
Qualifications
BSc(Manc) PhD(Ill)
Research summary
Photosynthesis

Research

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 hour 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

Publications

Majhi, B. K., & Eaton-Rye, J. J. (2026). A simple and easy method for RNA extraction from the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Bio-protocol, 16(7), e5654. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.5654 Journal - Research Other

Zhong, V., Vass, I., & Eaton-Rye, J. J. (2026). The contribution of D2-Arg265 to the molecular architecture of the quinone-Fe-bicarbonate acceptor complex of photosystem II. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta: Bioenergetics, 1867, 149578. doi: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2025.149578 Journal - Research Article

Arshad, F., Forsman, J. A., & Eaton-Rye, J. J. (2026). The contribution of CP43:Phe345 to the oxygen-evolving complex of Photosystem II is essential for stable water splitting. Biochemical & Biophysical Research Communications, 794, 153061. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2025.153061 Journal - Research Article

Majhi, B. K., & Eaton-Rye, J. J. (2025). PsbE:Phe10 of cytochrome b(559) modifies inactivation and recovery of photosystem II in response to high-light stress. Physiologia Plantarum, 177, e70585. doi: 10.1111/ppl.70585 Journal - Research Article

Zhong, V., Vass, I., Patil, P. P., & Eaton-Rye, J. J. (2025). Met246 and Asn250 in the D2 protein are essential for the operation of the quinone-Fe-acceptor complex of Photosystem II. Plant & Cell Physiology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1093/pcp/pcaf078 Journal - Research Article

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