Carl Johnson
Stevenson Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Research Interests: For a biological oscillator to function as a circadian pacemaker that confers a fitness advantage, its timing functions must be stable to environmental and metabolic fluctuations. We are extending our studies on the adaptive value of circadian rhythms in cyanobacteria to other bacteria such as purple non-sulfur bacteria that have KaiB and KaiC genes (but not the KaiA gene) to illuminate the steps by which biological clocks may have evolved, as well as to bacteria that do not have Kai gene homologs such as the bacteria of the microbiome and to an experimental evolution project in E. coli.
Keywords: circadian, Kai clock genes, cyanobacteria, Rhodopseudomonas, adaptive fitness, competition assays, experimental evolution, biological clock, temperature compensation