| Lee-Feng Chien Assistant Professor
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ResearchˇG
- 1. Research Area: Control analysis of energy metabolism
- 2. Research Interests:
- a. Interaction of the bioenergetic processes between photophosphorylation and oxidative phosphorylation in algae and plants Living organisms require energy supplement from environment to maintain its life. Many plants and bacteria are capable of survival under extreme natural environment, e.g. with respect to the change of water, air, soil, temperature and light, etc. Furthermore, in many instances, species of plants can tolerate large and/or rapid variation in these conditions. It is also clear, for example, that when aquatic plants began to colonise the land and adapt to terrestrial environment, they needed to develop new systems and alter their energy metabolism due to different geological factors that prevailed and dramatic ecological implications for terrestrial vegetation. The terrestrial ecosystem with the cycles of elements is driven by the thermodynamic forces. There are two sources of energy that can be tapped by living organisms - light energy and energy from oxidations (Figure 1). Therefore the interest of my research is to answer the question of how the control of photosynthesis and oxidative phosphorylation is relative to imposed environmental stress, geological factors and evolutionary impetus.
- b. Application of top-down approach to metabolic control analysis Top-down approach to 'metabolic control analysis' is applied to understand the control of photosynthesis and/or oxidative phosphorylation. Metabolic control analysis is a method to quantify the significance of any step within the metabolic pathway (Figure 2).
- 3. Current Projects:
- (a) Control of photophosphorylation and oxidative phosphorylation in blue-green algae during cold acclimation (2000)
- (b) The correlation of enzymatic antioxidant system and photosynthesis in cyanobacterium under the stress of chilling photoinhibition (2001)
Publications
A.Reference papers 2001~1991 (Full list of publication):1. Chien, L.-F. & Kuo, T.-T. (2001) Reduction of mitochondrial respiratory capacity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae induced by expression of heterologous protein hepatitis B virus surface antigen. Microbios., 105:29-41.
2. Chien, L.-F. & Brand, M.D. (1996) The effect of chloroform on mitochondrial energy transduction. Biochem. J. 320: 837-845.
3. Brand, M.D., Chien, L.-F., Ainscow, E.K., Rolfe, D.F.S. & Porter, R.K. (1994) The causes and functions of mitochondrial proton leak. Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 1187:132-139.
4. Brand, M.D., Chien, L.-F. & Diolez, P. (1994) Experimental discrimination between proton leak and redox slip during mitochondrial electron transport. Biochem. J. 294: 27-29
5. Brand, M.D., Chien, L.-F. & Rolfe, D.F.S. (1993) Regulation of oxidative phosphorylation Biochem. Soc. Trans. 21: 757-762.
6. Chien, L.F., Wu, J.J., Tzeng, C.M. & Pan, R.L. (1993) ATPase of Rhodospirillum rubrum requires three functional copies of s subunit as determined by radiation inactivation analysis. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology International, 31: 13-18.
B.Conference abstracts 2001~1998:1. Chien, L.-F., & A. Vonshak (2000) Cold acclimation of two strains of the cyanobacteria, Spirulina platensis. Abstract: Phycology Society of American 54th Meeting, San Diego, California USA, 15-19 July, 2000. Journal of Phycology, vol. 36, p12.
Teaching
Biophysics, Biophysical Chemistry, Spectroscopy of Biological Systems, Bioenergetics