Rewiring Photosynthetic Pathways in a Purple Bacterium

The University of East Anglia is offering a fully funded 4-year PhD studentship within the School of Biological Sciences, supported by the Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Programme. The project focuses on engineering the purple phototrophic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris to simultaneously perform light-driven iron oxidation and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) reduction. The successful candidate will apply molecular biology, protein extraction, Cryo-EM, and spectroscopic techniques to assemble, characterize, and optimize these metabolic pathways both in vitro and in vivo. The student will also participate in a mandatory three-month professional internship placement during their studies.

• Design and assemble plasmids using molecular biology techniques to express dual metabolic pathways in Rhodopseudomonas palustris under phototrophic conditions.
• Extract and characterise the novel PioAB complex iron-oxidising system using Cryo-EM.
• Investigate electron transfer mechanisms between component proteins through spectroscopy and spectrophotometry.
• Evaluate the in vitro and in vivo energetics and performance of the engineered reaction pathways.
• Test the capacity of engineered bacterial strains to oxidise iron and reduce DMSO simultaneously.
• Adapt the established pathways for utilisation with alternative metals and industrial organic materials.
• Complete a mandatory three-month professional internship placement during the doctoral programme.