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Dr ELLEN NISBET's Outputs (21)

A Game of Tag: A Review of Protein Tags for the Successful Detection, Purification and Fluorescence Labelling of Proteins Expressed in Microalgae (2025)
Journal Article
Scarfe, J., Kosmützky, D., & Nisbet, E. (in press). A Game of Tag: A Review of Protein Tags for the Successful Detection, Purification and Fluorescence Labelling of Proteins Expressed in Microalgae. The Plant Journal,

Recombinant proteins play a crucial role in both fundamental research and biotechnology. In the laboratory, recombinant proteins are used in a myriad of ways, including to label cells, localize proteins and isolate complexes. In the clinic, antibody-... Read More about A Game of Tag: A Review of Protein Tags for the Successful Detection, Purification and Fluorescence Labelling of Proteins Expressed in Microalgae.

Phasing out photosynthesis -and weaponising chlorophyll? (2025)
Journal Article
Howe, C. J., & Nisbet, R. E. R. (2025). Phasing out photosynthesis -and weaponising chlorophyll?. Trends in Parasitology, 41(5), 339-340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2025.03.014

Photosynthesis has been lost independently many times in the evolutionary history of eukaryotes. Surprisingly, the ability to synthesise chlorophyll has sometimes been retained after the loss of photosynthesis. Jacko-Reynolds et al. show this has hap... Read More about Phasing out photosynthesis -and weaponising chlorophyll?.

Practical paths towards quantifying and mitigating agricultural methane emissions (2025)
Journal Article
Nisbet, E. G., Manning, M. R., Lowry, D., Fisher, R. E., Lan, X. (., Michel, S. E., France, J. L., Nisbet, R. E. R., Bakkaloglu, S., Leitner, S. M., Brooke, C., Röckmann, T., Allen, G., Denier Van Der Gon, H. A., Merbold, L., Scheutz, C., Woolley Maisch, C., Nisbet-Jones, P. B., Alshalan, A., Fernandez, J. M., & Dlugokencky, E. J. (2025). Practical paths towards quantifying and mitigating agricultural methane emissions. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 481(2309), Article 20240390. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2024.0390

This review summarizes the rapid advances in direct practical methods to quantify and reduce agricultural methane emissions worldwide. Major tasks are location, identification, quantification and distinction between different specific sources (often... Read More about Practical paths towards quantifying and mitigating agricultural methane emissions.

Multiplexing projects: supervising undergraduate research projects with larger cohorts (2024)
Journal Article
Nisbet, R. E. R., Scott, D. J., & Campeotto, I. (2024). Multiplexing projects: supervising undergraduate research projects with larger cohorts. The Biochemist, 46(5), 18-23. https://doi.org/10.1042/BIO_2024_897

Almost all undergraduate students in the UK complete a final year research project or dissertation. In the molecular biosciences field, these projects are often based in individual research laboratory. However, with increasing student numbers, fallin... Read More about Multiplexing projects: supervising undergraduate research projects with larger cohorts.

Evolution: The plasticity of plastids (2023)
Journal Article
Howe, C. J., Nisbet, R. E. R., & Barbrook, A. C. (2023). Evolution: The plasticity of plastids. Current Biology, 33(20), R1058-R1060. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.025

Many chloroplast-bearing plants and algae lost their photosynthetic activity during evolution but retained their chloroplasts for other functions. A group of dinoflagellate algae apparently lost one half of their photosynthetic machinery but retained... Read More about Evolution: The plasticity of plastids.

Evolution: The great photosynthesis heist (2023)
Journal Article
Howe, C. J., & Nisbet, R. E. R. (2023). Evolution: The great photosynthesis heist. Current Biology, 33(5), R185-R187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.030

Many eukaryotes acquired chloroplasts by endosymbiotic acquisition of photosynthetic bacteria or already-domesticated chloroplasts from other eukaryotes. However, the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum acquires the nucleus of a photosynthetic eukaryote, as we... Read More about Evolution: The great photosynthesis heist.

Establishment of a novel set of vectors for transformation of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae (2022)
Preprint / Working Paper
Nimmo, I., Geisler, K., Barbrook, A., Kleiner, F., Scarampi, A., Kosmützky, D., Nisbet, R., & Howe, C. Establishment of a novel set of vectors for transformation of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae

Peridinin-containing dinoflagellate algae have a chloroplast genome formed from plasmid-like minicircles. This fragmented genome has allowed us to develop a genetic modification methodology involving the use of biolistics to introduce artificial mini... Read More about Establishment of a novel set of vectors for transformation of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae.

In silico identification of Theileria parva surface proteins (2022)
Journal Article
Gurav, N., Macleod, O. J., MacGregor, P., & Nisbet, R. E. R. (2022). In silico identification of Theileria parva surface proteins. The Cell Surface, 8, Article 100078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcsw.2022.100078

East Coast Fever is a devastating African cattle disease caused by the apicomplexan parasite, Theileria parva. Little is known about the cell surface, and few proteins have been identified. Here, we take an in silico approach to identify novel cell s... Read More about In silico identification of Theileria parva surface proteins.

Tackling protozoan parasites of cattle in sub-Saharan Africa (2021)
Journal Article
MacGregor, P., Nene, V., & Nisbet, R. E. R. (2021). Tackling protozoan parasites of cattle in sub-Saharan Africa. PLoS Pathogens, 17(10), Article e1009955. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009955

Cattle are an incredibly valuable asset to farmers throughout the world (Fig 1). They provide power, transport, fertiliser, fuel, and nutrition. In some areas, cattle guarantee a family’s food and economic security and act as important indicators of... Read More about Tackling protozoan parasites of cattle in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Evolution of the Cytochrome c6 Family of Photosynthetic Electron Transfer Proteins (2021)
Journal Article
Slater, B., Kosmützky, D., Nisbet, E. R., & Howe, C. J. (2021). The Evolution of the Cytochrome c6 Family of Photosynthetic Electron Transfer Proteins. Genome Biology and Evolution, 13(8), Article evab146. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evab146

During photosynthesis, electrons are transferred between the cytochrome b6f complex and photosystem I. This is carried out by the protein plastocyanin in plant chloroplasts, or by either plastocyanin or cytochrome c6 in many cyanobacteria and eukaryo... Read More about The Evolution of the Cytochrome c6 Family of Photosynthetic Electron Transfer Proteins.

Genetic tool development in marine protists: emerging model organisms for experimental cell biology (2020)
Journal Article
Faktorová, D., Nisbet, R. E. R., Fernández Robledo, J. A., Casacuberta, E., Sudek, L., Allen, A. E., Ares, M., Aresté, C., Balestreri, C., Barbrook, A. C., Beardslee, P., Bender, S., Booth, D. S., Bouget, F.-Y., Bowler, C., Breglia, S. A., Brownlee, C., Burger, G., Cerutti, H., Cesaroni, R., …Lukeš, J. (2020). Genetic tool development in marine protists: emerging model organisms for experimental cell biology. Nature Methods, 17, 481–494. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-020-0796-x

Diverse microbial ecosystems underpin life in the sea. Among these microbes are many unicellular eukaryotes that span the diversity of the eukaryotic tree of life. However, genetic tractability has been limited to a few species, which do not represen... Read More about Genetic tool development in marine protists: emerging model organisms for experimental cell biology.

An essential pentatricopeptide repeat protein in the apicomplexan remnant chloroplast (2019)
Journal Article
Hicks, J. L., Lassadi, I., Carpenter, E. F., Eno, M., Vardakis, A., Waller, R. F., Howe, C. J., & Nisbet, R. E. R. (2019). An essential pentatricopeptide repeat protein in the apicomplexan remnant chloroplast. Cellular Microbiology, 21(12), Article e13108. https://doi.org/10.1111/cmi.13108

The malaria parasite Plasmodium and other apicomplexans such as Toxoplasma evolved from photosynthetic organisms and contain an essential, remnant plastid termed the apicoplast. Transcription of the apicoplast genome is polycistronic with extensive R... Read More about An essential pentatricopeptide repeat protein in the apicomplexan remnant chloroplast.

Genetic transformation of the dinoflagellate chloroplast (2019)
Journal Article
Nimmo, I. C., Barbrook, A. C., Lassadi, I., Chen, J. E., Geisler, K., Smith, A. G., Aranda, M., Purton, S., Waller, R. F., Nisbet, R. E. R., & Howe, C. J. (2019). Genetic transformation of the dinoflagellate chloroplast. eLife, 8, Article e45292. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.45292

Coral reefs are some of the most important and ecologically diverse marine environments. At the base of the reef ecosystem are dinoflagellate algae, which live symbiotically within coral cells. Efforts to understand the relationship between alga and... Read More about Genetic transformation of the dinoflagellate chloroplast.

Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Peridinin Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae Plastid (2019)
Journal Article
Dorrell, R. G., Nisbet, R. E. R., Barbrook, A. C., Rowden, S. J., & Howe, C. J. (2019). Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Peridinin Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae Plastid. Protist, 170(4), 358-373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protis.2019.06.001

The plastid genomes of peridinin-containing dinoflagellates are highly unusual, possessing very few genes, which are located on small chromosomal elements termed "minicircles". These minicircles may contain genes, or no recognisable coding informatio... Read More about Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Peridinin Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae Plastid.

Transcription of the apicoplast genome (2016)
Journal Article
Nisbet, R., & McKenzie, J. (2016). Transcription of the apicoplast genome. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, 210(1-2), 5-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molbiopara.2016.07.004

Many members of the Apicomplexa contain a remnant chloroplast, known as an apicoplast. The apicoplast encodes numerous genes, and loss of the organelle is lethal. Here, we present a summary of what is known about apicoplast transcription. Unlike plan... Read More about Transcription of the apicoplast genome.

Transcripts in the Plasmodium Apicoplast Undergo Cleavage at tRNAs and Editing, and Include Antisense Sequences (2016)
Journal Article
Nisbet, R. E. R., Kurniawan, D. P., Bowers, H. D., & Howe, C. J. (2016). Transcripts in the Plasmodium Apicoplast Undergo Cleavage at tRNAs and Editing, and Include Antisense Sequences. Protist, 167(4), 377-388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protis.2016.06.003

The apicoplast, an organelle found in Plasmodium and many other parasitic apicomplexan species, is a remnant chloroplast that is no longer able to carry out photosynthesis. Very little is known about primary transcripts and RNA processing in the Plas... Read More about Transcripts in the Plasmodium Apicoplast Undergo Cleavage at tRNAs and Editing, and Include Antisense Sequences.

Identification of Sequences Encoding Symbiodinium minutum Mitochondrial Proteins (2016)
Journal Article
Butterfield, E. R., Howe, C. J., & Nisbet, R. E. R. (2016). Identification of Sequences Encoding Symbiodinium minutum Mitochondrial Proteins. Genome Biology and Evolution, 8(2), 439-445. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evw002

The dinoflagellates are an extremely diverse group of algae closely related to the Apicomplexa and the ciliates. Much work has previously been undertaken to determine the presence of various biochemical pathways within dinoflagellate mitochondria. Ho... Read More about Identification of Sequences Encoding Symbiodinium minutum Mitochondrial Proteins.

Viewing Animal Models for Tuberous Sclerosis Complex in the Light of Evolution (2014)
Book Chapter
Howe, C. J., Serfontein, J., Nisbet, R. E. R., & de Vries, P. J. (2015). Viewing Animal Models for Tuberous Sclerosis Complex in the Light of Evolution. In Organism Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders (99-115). Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2250-5_4

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a multisystem disorder usually caused by a mutation in either the TSC1 or TSC2 genes. Approximately 50 % of individuals with TSC develop an autism spectrum disorder. Between 1 and 4 % of autism is attributable to t... Read More about Viewing Animal Models for Tuberous Sclerosis Complex in the Light of Evolution.