Structural biochemistry

In our group we have a passion for understanding fundamental aspects of the structure-function relationship in proteins and nucleic acids. We’re interested in elucidating how organellar replisomes work, using the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana and yeast as models. As engineers, we study protein properties to modify them and use them as biotechnological tools. Finally, we're convinced that protein and nucleic acid evolution is studied in three dimensions and not as a linear sequence, for this we use the triosephosphate isomerase and proteins that have suffered duplication events as models.

Research lines:

• "Protein structure-function and evolution.
• "Nucleic acid metabolism (transcription, replication and repair) in plant and yeast organelles.
• "Protein engineering and crystallography.

Recent projects:

• "Proteins with new assembly mechanisms: Protein engineering, selection methods and drug design". CONACYT-Frontiers in Science no. 13 (2017-2018).
• "Structural Studies of Iron-sulphur cluster-less MutYs". UC-MEXUS-CONACYT (2017-2018).
• "Biochemical studies of the mitochondrial replisome". Howard-Hughes Medical Institute (2007-2013).

Most relevant publications:

• 1. Mimicking a p53-MDM2 interaction based on a stable immunoglobulin-like domain scaffold. Proteins. 2018 Apr 26. doi: 10.1002/prot.2551.
• 2. Plant organellar DNA polymerases are replicative and translesion DNA synthesis polymerases. Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Oct 13;45(18):10751-10763.
• 3. Plant organellar DNA primase-helicase synthesizes RNA primers for organellar DNA polymerases using a unique recognition sequence. Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Oct 13;45(18):10764-10774.
• 4. Structural Basis for Redox Regulation of Cytoplasmic and Chloroplastic Triosephosphate Isomerases from Arabidopsis thaliana. Front Plant Sci. 2016 Dec 6;7:1817.
• 5. Dispensability of the [4Fe-4S] cluster in novel homologues of adenine glycosylase MutY. FEBS J. 2016 Feb;283(3):521-40. doi: 10.1111/febs.13608. Epub 2016 Jan 4.

Recent publications:

To access all publications, click the following links: