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Timothy Donohue

Professor of Bacteriology

Timothy Donohue
Address:
5159 Microbial Sciences Building
Telephone:
262-4663
Email:
tdonohue@bact.wisc.edu
Research Fields:
Gene Expression
Genomics
Microbial Genetics

Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, 1980

Postdoctoral Research: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests

Deciphering the fundamental problem of biological energy generation

Research Description

Our laboratory takes an integrative approach to analyze the pathways and regulatory networks that allow microbes to generate biomass or biofuels from sunlight and other renewable resources. To dissect this fundamentally important problem, we are studying metabolic and regulatory networks of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. By taking advantage of the R. sphaeroides genome sequence, whole genome microarrays and proteomics, we are mapping metabolic and regulatory circuits in this bacterium. Among our long terms goals are to determine how the energy in sunlight or renewable nutrients influences growth, biomass production or formation of biofuels. The long range goals are to identify metabolic and regulatory activities that are critical to bioenergy formation, to obtain a thorough understanding of energy-generating pathways of agricultural, environmental and medical importance, and to use computational models to help design microbial machines with increased capacity to utilize solar energy, generate renewable sources of energy, remove toxic compounds, or synthesize biodegradable polymers.

Representative Publications

  • Kyung-Cho, Y., Donohue, T. J., Tejedor, I., Anderson, M.A.., McMahon, K. D., and D.R. Noguera. Development of a solar-powered microbial fuel cell. J. Applied Microbiol. (In Press)
  • Zeng, X., Roh, J.H., Callister, S.J., Tavano, C.L., Donohue, T.J., Lipton, M.L., and S. Kaplan. 2007. Proteomic characterization of the Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 photosynthetic membrane: Identification of new proteins. J. Bacteriol. 189:7464-7474.
  • Campbell, E., Greenwell, R., Anthony, J.R., Wang, S., Lim, L., Sofia, H.J., Donohue, T.J., and S.A. Darst. 2007. A conserved structural module regulates bacterial transcriptional responses to diverse signals. Molecular Cell. 27:793-805.
  • Tavano, C.L. and T.J. Donohue. 2006 Development of the bacterial photosynthetic apparatus. Current Opinion in Microbiology 9:625-631.
  • Green, H. and T.J. Donohue. 2006. Activity of Rhodobacter sphaeroides RpoHII, a second member of the heat shock sigma factor family. J. Bacteriol. 188:5712-5721.