Ph. D., University of California, Irvine

   

Office:   523 Life Sciences Building

Phone:   1-419-372-8568

Email:     ddeters@bgsu.edu

   

Research:

Microbiology; Molecular biology of yeasts

   

 

   

Research Interests:

Mitochondrial DNA of most eukaryotes encodes three subunits of cytochrome oxidase, one or more subunits of ATP synthetase, cytochrome b and a few additional proteins that are essential to the life of all higher cells. We are examining yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase deficient mutants in order to define mutations that affect the structure of the gene product and also mutations that affect mitochondrial gene expression. Several mutations have been identified that affect the physical properties and the enzyme activity of cytochrome oxidase, and other mutations have been identified that specifically affect gene expression. We are also investigating the targeting and import of mitochondrial proteins in order to understand better the machinery involved in import.

Selected Publications:

Ribot, E. and D.W. Deters. Mutations in intron 5 of the yeast mitochondrial COX1 gene that affect RNA splicing and are overcome by intron deletion. In press.

Simitsopoulou, M. and D.W. Deters. 1994. Reversion analysis of two point mutations in Cox1, the mitochondrial gene coding for subunit I of cytochrome c oxidase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In press.

Lawson, J.E. and D.W. Deters. 1985. Nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial oxidase subunit II gene in the yeast Hansenula saturnus. Current Genetics 9:351-360.