John N. Reeve

reeve.2@osu.edu

B.Sc.:  Bacteriology, University of Birmingham, UK.
Ph.D.:  Microbiology, University of British Columbia, Canada
Postdoctoral Training: Microbiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ;  Microbiology, Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, UK;
 Molecular Genetics, Max Planck Institute, Berlin, Germany

Rod Sharp Professor of Microbiology
Member, MCDB

Molecular biology of archaea/molecular adaptations to extreme environments.

Archaea are prokaryotes, many of which have unusual life-styles and unique metabolic abilities. Some live in very extreme environments, such as the boiling water surrounding volcanic vents, in saturated salt, highly acidic and alkaline lakes, and in the complete absence of oxygen. Our research interests are in the molecular biology of gene expression in two thermophilic Archaea, a methanogen (Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus) that grows optimally at 65°C, and a fermentative heterotroph (Thermococcus kodakarensis) that grows optimally at 85°C. Research has established that the DNA, RNA and protein synthesizing machineries in Archaea are simpler but apparently closely related and likely ancestral to their counterparts in the eukaryotic nucleus. Our experiments combine in vivo genetics and in vitro biochemistry to identify the components and determine the mechanics and regulation of these archaeal molecular biology machines. Some Archaea also have histones, small DNA-binding proteins that are homologues of the nucleosome core histones that compact nuclear DNA into chromatin and provide the targets for epigenetic regulation eukaryotic chromosomal DNA. We are determining the structures, functions and evolutionary relationships of archaeal histones to their eukaryotic counterparts.

Biological methane (natural gas) and hydrogen production are now widely considered as potentially very competitive and attractive microbial processes for renewable energy production from biomass.  Our research is specifically focused on understanding and manipulating gene expression in thermophilic methane and hyperthermophilic hydrogen producing Archaea and therefore also has considerable economic value in facilitating the genetic manipulation of these microorganisms for industrial scale bio-energy production, and for waste management. Furthermore, as many of the enzymes present in these species are thermostable, they are attractive as industrial catalysts and our research is also contributing to the development of heat-resistant archaeal enzymes for commercial uses.

Santangelo, T.J., Cubonova, L., Skinner, K.M., and Reeve, J.N. 2009.  Archaeal intrinsic transcription termination in vivo.  J. Bacteriol. 191: In Press

Dev, K., Santangelo, T.J., Rothenburg, S., Neculai, D., Dey, M., Sicheri, F., Dever, T.E., Reeve, J.N., and Hinnebusch, A.G. 2009. Archaeal aIF2B interacts with eukaryotic translation initiation factors eIF2alpha and eIF2Balpha: implications for aIF2B function and eIF2B regulation. J. Mol. Biol. 392: In Press

Louvel, H., Kanai, T., Atomi, H., and Reeve, J.N. 2009. The Fur iron regulator-like protein is cryptic in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakaraensis. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 295:117-128.

Friedrich-Jahn, U., Aigner, J., Längst, G., Reeve, J.N., and Huber, H. 2009. Nanoarchaeal origin of histone H3? J. Bacteriol. 191:1092-1096.

Hirata, A., Kanai, T., Santangelo, T.J., Tajiri, M., Manabe, K., Reeve, J.N., Imanaka, T., and Murakami. K.S. 2008. Archaeal RNA polymerase subunits E and F are not required for transcription in vitro, but a Thermococcus kodakarensis mutant lacking subunit F is temperature-sensitive. Mol. Microbiol. 70:623-633.

Sandman, K., Louvel, H., Samson, R.Y., Pereira, S.L., and Reeve, J.N. 2008. Archaeal chromatin proteins histone HMtB and Alba have lost DNA-binding ability in laboratory strains of Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus. Extremophiles 12:811-817.

Santangelo, T.J., Cubonová, L., and Reeve, J.N. 2008. Shuttle vector expression in Thermococcus kodakaraensis: contributions of cis elements to protein synthesis in a hyperthermophilic archaeon. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74:3099-3104.

Karr, E.A., Sandman, K., Lurz, R., and Reeve, J.N. 2008. TrpY regulation of trpB2 transcription in Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus. J. Bacteriol. 190:2637-2641.

Santangelo, T.J., Cubonová, L., Matsumi, R., Atomi, H., Imanaka, T., and Reeve, J.N. 2008. Polarity in archaeal operon transcription in Thermococcus kodakaraensis. J. Bacteriol. 190:2244-2248.

Weidenbach, K., Glöer, J., Ehlers, C., Sandman, K., Reeve, J.N., and Schmitz, R.A. 2008. Deletion of the archaeal histone in Methanosarcina mazei Gö1 results in reduced growth and genomic transcription. Mol. Microbiol. 67:662-671.

Shin, J-H., Santangelo, T.J., Xie, Y., Reeve, J.N., and Kelman, Z. 2007. Archaeal MCM helicase can unwind DNA bound by archaeal histones and transcription factors. J. Biol. Chem. 282:4908-4915.

Reeve, J.N., Xie, Y., and Santangelo, T.J. 2007. Regulation of transcription initiation and termination in Archaea. Proc Int. Symp Extremophiles and their Applications. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. pp 2-8.

Reeve, J.N., and Sandman, K. 2007. Chromatin and regulation. In Archaea: Evolution, Physiology, and Molecular Biology. Eds Garrett, R., and Klenk, H-P. Blackwell Publ., Oxford UK. pp 147-158.

Santangelo, T.J., Cubonova, L., James, C.L., and Reeve, J.N. 2007. TFB1 or TFB2 is sufficient for Thermococcus kodakaraensis viability and basal transcription in vitro. J. Mol. Biol. 367:344-357.

French, S.L, Santangelo, T.J, Beyer, A.L., and Reeve, J.N. 2007. Transcription and translation are coupled in Archaea. Mol. Biol. Evol. 24:893-895.

Cubonova, L, Sandman, K., Karr, E.A., Cochran, A.J., and Reeve, J.N. 2007. Spontaneous mutagenesis of trpY and mutational analysis of the TrpY archaeal transcription regulator. J. Bacteriol. 189:4338-4342.

Samson, R., and Reeve, J.N. 2007. DNA binding proteins and chromatin. In Archaea: Molecular and Cellular Biology. Ed. Cavicchioli, R. ASM Press, Washington, DC. USA. pp. 110-119.

Sandman, K., and Reeve, J.N. 2006. Archaeal histones and the origin of the histone fold. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 9:520-525.

Santangelo, T.J. and Reeve, J.N. 2006. Archaeal RNA polymerase is sensitive to intrinsic termination directed by transcribed and remote sequences. J. Mol. Biol. 355:196-210.