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3258 TAMU Office: Lab: Fax: 979-862-1922 |
Biography |
| James Manhart received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology from Kansas State University, a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Georgia, and postdoctoral training at the University of Georgia and the University of Michigan (NSF Fellow). He joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1988 and is currently an Associate Professor of Biology. | |
| Plant Molecular Systematics | |
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The main focus of research in my lab is the use of molecular characters to increase our understanding of phylogenetic relationships of green algae and land plants. We are currently using both structural characteristics and gene sequences from chloroplast genomes as characters in phylogenetic analyses. The placement of members of the group of green algae known as the charophytes closest to the land plant lineage has been corroborated by comparisons of chloroplast genome structures and DNA sequences of genes encoding the large subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcL), and the rRNA small subunit. The most recent project in my lab is a collaboration with Dr. Mary Rumpho, Horticulture, on photosynthetic marine slugs (Elysia chlorotica). These slugs consume a marine alga, Vancheria litoreq and sequester the algal chloroplasts in the digestive epithelium. Elysia is then able to subsist in culture exclusively by photoheterotrophic CO2 fixation for eight months. This is a very unusual symbiosis and the factors involved in maintaining chloroplast function in the slugs for at least eight months are unknown. We are currently characterizing the Vancheria chloroplast genome to determine if it contains genes not found in other chloroplast genomes. |
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| Selected Publications | |
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Mujer, C.V., D.L. Andrews, J.R. Manhart, S.K. Pierce, and M.E. Rumpho. 1996. Chloroplast genes are expressed during intracellular symbiotic association of Vaucheria litorea plastids with the sea slug Elysia Chlorotica. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 93: 12333-12338. Manhart, J.R. 1995. Chloroplast 16S rDNA sequences and phylogenetic relationships of fern allies and ferns. Am. Fern. J. 85: 182-192. Manhart, J.R., G.A. Fryxell, M.C. Villas, and L.Y. Segura. 1995. Pseudo-nitzschia pungeus and P. multiseries (Bacillariophyceae): nuclear rDNA's and species differences. J. Phycol. 31:421-427. Manhart, J.R. 1994. Phylogenetic analysis of green plant rbcL sequences. Molec. Phylo. and Evol. 3: 114-127. |
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