Daniel Brock

Baylor College of Medicine | BCM · Department of Molecular & Human Genetics

Background Functional complexity of the eukaryotic mitochondrial proteome is augmented by independent gene acquisition from bacteria since its endosymbiotic origins. Mammalian homologs of many ancestral mitochondrial proteins have uncharacterized catalytic activities. Recent forward genetic approaches attributed functions to proteins in established...

Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is a key regulatory enzyme in the de novo synthesis of the purine base guanine. Dominant mutations in human IMPDH1 cause photoreceptor degeneration for reasons that are unknown. Here we sought to provide some foundational information on Impdh1a in the zebrafish retina. We found that in zebrafish, gene sub...

Significance Mitochondria are organelles that make cellular energy. In the retina, mitochondrial health is important for photoreceptor cell function and normal vision. Photoreceptors need more energy at night, but it is unclear how their mitochondria adapt to changing energy demands. We investigated zebrafish cone photoreceptor mitochondria through...

Photoreceptors are specialized neurons that rely on Ca2+ to regulate phototransduction and neurotransmission. Photoreceptor dysfunction and degeneration occur when intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis is disrupted. Ca2+ homeostasis is maintained partly by mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake through the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU), which can influence cytoso...