Our research characterizes fungal mitochondrial genomes. Fungi are important organisms that have large mitochondrial genomes (compared to metazoans). We study the molecular evolution of mitochondrial mobile introns within the fungi: The focus is on the characterization of mitochondrial genomes of plant pathogens, with an emphasis on the molecular evolution and biology of group-I and group-II introns (ribozymes). This includes the characterization of intron encoded proteins such as homing endonucleases (HEases). HEases are DNA cutting enzymes that have applications in biotechnology. In addition we work on aspects of fungal taxonomy using various molecular tools and we collect fungi from the environment as potential sources for novel enzymes and antimicrobial compounds (the latter is in collaboration with Dr. Kumar’s research group).
