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AG Hughes
Phytochrome, photobiology and molecular genetics
- 3D structure and action mechanism of the phytochrome molecule using molecular genetics, biochemistry, spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and NMR
- Phytochrome signalling in higher and lower plants
- Molecular genetics in Physcomitrella and Arabidopsis
Hello! I'm Jon Hughes, retired Professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Giessen. I was born near Cardiff in the UK, studying at at London University, way back in the 70s when punk was young, and gained my PhD at Nottingham University in 1983. After that I was a postdoc in Germany for four years, funded by the Royal Society in Freiburg and the EU in Bochum. I did a further postdoc in the USA at the University of Georgia at Athens before returning to Berlin in 1990 just after the Wall was opened, working at the Free University and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics. I habilitated in 1998 and was subsequently Head of Department in Giessen from 2000 to 2023.
Although I'm interested in plant molecular genetics and photobiology in general, my research in Giessen was focused on phytochrome, a photoreceptor plants and other organisms use to perceive their light environment. We studied the phytochrome systems in both higher and lower plants as well as that in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803. For this we combined a wide range of physiological, genetic, biochemical and biophysical methods, using E. coli and yeast to do most of the work. Our research is summarised in the Projects section and our papers are listed under Publications - see also Mathias Zeidler's homepage.
These days I live in Berlin ;-)