Thomas Fox

While mitochondria are derived from eubacterial ancestors, the organellar genetic systems found today in animals, plants and fungi do not closely resemble those of modern eubacteria. To understand how these small but important genomes are expressed, one needs to study the organelles themselves.

Our research program, no longer active experimentally, has been aimed at understanding how expression of genes in mitochondrial DNA is controlled by nuclear genes, and how mitochondrially coded proteins are assembled with nuclearly coded proteins into the respiratory chain complexes. Budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a wonderful organism in which to study these interactions, since mutations in both genetic systems can be isolated and manipulated. Furthermore, genetic transformation and homologous recombination allow the replacement of wild-type by mutant, or synthetic, DNA sequences in both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes.  For a summary of our findings, see the lab webpage.

Thomas D. Fox received his B.S. degree from Cornell University in 1971 and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University in 1976. 

Publications

Bibliography at NIH