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LUNDQUIST LAB
We study dynamic lipid-protein particles of plant plastids called
The Lundquist Lab home is in the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department and the Plant Resilience Institute at Michigan State University. The lab joined the MSU faculty in August 2018. We are growing and actively seeking outstanding graduate students, post-docs, and technicians!
The lab is a part of several graduate training programs on campus including Molecular Plant Science, Biomolecular Science, Genetics, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
We employ a wide variety of experimental techniques, including but not limited to:
The lab is a part of several graduate training programs on campus including Molecular Plant Science, Biomolecular Science, Genetics, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
We employ a wide variety of experimental techniques, including but not limited to:
- biochemistry
- proteomics
- metabolomics
- genetics
- microscopy
the Plastoglobule
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The chloroplast is the defining organelle of photosynthetic eukaryotes. It serves as the site of photosynthesis, and is tightly integrated within the metabolic and signaling networks of the plant. As such, the chloroplast is a primary site of (a)biotic stress perception, and an important component of stress adaptation and tolerance.
In addition to the well-characterized structures of the chloroplast – the thylakoid, stroma, and envelope membranes – the chloroplast also contains highly dynamic lipid-protein particles called plastoglobules. 
Scanning electron micrograph of highly purified plastoglobules. Image credit: Lundquist, et al. 2012 Plant Physiology
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Chloroplast ultrastructure as revealed in a transmission electron micrograph and its primary compartments
Plastoglobules exist within chloroplasts - as well as many other plastid subtypes - and appear to be essential for photosynthetic life. They harbor a small core of several dozen structural and enzymatic proteins involved in various metabolic, signaling and ROS scavenging functions (and likely other yet-to-be-determined functions). As such they represent an exciting target of research, with great potential for improvement of plant stress resilience and nutritional traits, and applications to metabolic engineering, biofuels, and biopharming.
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Please continue to our RESEARCH tab to learn more about plastoglobules and the scope of our research
our objective
The Lundquist Lab seeks to bridge basic and translational research by unravelling the relationship of these dynamic particles to plant (a)biotic stress response and nutritional quality. Our research will result in important knowledge to be harnessed for improving the productivity and nutritional quality of crops through enhanced stress tolerance, photosynthetic performance, nutritive value, and by the application of metabolic channeling for production of high value compounds and biofuels.
The long term vision, driving the lab forward, is three-fold:
The long term vision, driving the lab forward, is three-fold:
- to manipulate plastoglobule-localized enzymes for crop bio-fortification by uncovering the full regulatory network of the plastoglobule
- to design and localize biosynthetic pathways to the plastoglobule - on demand - for efficient production of high-value chemicals or biofuels (e.g. via metabolic channeling), and
- to determine the mechanism(s) governing exchange of metabolites between plastoglobule and thylakoid during thylakoid membrane remodeling.
