Dr Michael Ginger
Royal Society University Research Fellow
Office C19
Biomedical Sciences Unit
Department of Biological Sciences
Lancaster University
Lancaster
LA1 4YQ
UK
Tel: +44 1524 593922
Fax: +44 1524 593192
E-mail: m.ginger@lancaster.ac.uk
Research Interests
Biochemistry and cell biology of metabolism in protozoa. Current research themes include:
- Flagellum-associated metabolism in African trypanosomes and other flagellate protozoa
- Protein targeting to eukaryotic flagella
- Pathways of amino acid and lipid metabolism in the human pathogens Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania
- Unusual biochemistry associated with the mitochondrial inter-membrane space in trypanosomes – cytochrome c maturation and protein import mechanisms
- Environmental influences and metabolic diversity in microbial eukaryotes
Information about the biology and the tropical diseases caused by the protozoan parasites on which we do most of our experimental work can be found on the WHO website.
Education
- Ph.D. (Biochemistry) University of Liverpool
- BSc (Hons) Biochemistry, University of Liverpool
Academic Posts
- 2007 – present Royal Society University Research Fellow (Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University)
- 2003-2007 Royal Society University Research Fellow (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford)
- 2001-2003 Postdoctoral Research Associate (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford/Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester)
- 1998-2001 Postdoctoral Research Associate (Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology, University of Glasgow)
- 1997-1998 Postdoctoral Research Associate (Department of Earth and Ocean Science, University of Liverpool)
Publications
Primary Research Papers
Olego-Fernandez S., Vaughan S., Shaw M. K., Gull K.*, & Ginger, M. L.* (2009) “Cell morphogenesis of Trypanosoma brucei requires the paralogous, differentially expressed calpain-related proteins CAP5.5 and CAP5.5V.” Protist, in press. *co-corresponding authors
Rigden D. J., Michels P. A. & Ginger, M. L. (2009) “Autophagy in protists: examples of secondary loss, lineage-specific innovations, and the conundrum of re-modelling a single mitochondrion.” Autophagy 5, 784-794
Fülöp V., Sam K. A., Ferguson S. J., Ginger, M. L., & Allen J. W. A. (2009) “Structure of a trypanosomatid mitochondrial cytochrome c with heme attached via only one thioether bond and implications for the substrate recognition requirements of heme lyase.” FEBS Journal 276, 2822-32
Allen J. W. A., Sawyer E. B., Ginger, M. L., Barker P. D., & Ferguson S. J. (2009) “Variant c-type cytochromes as probes of the substrate specificity of the E. coli cytochrome c maturation (Ccm) apparatus.” Biochemical Journal 419,177-84
Allen J. W. A.*, Ferguson S. J., & Ginger, M.L.* (2008) “Distinctive biochemistry in the trypanosome mitochondrial intermembrane space suggests a model for stepwise evolution of the MIA pathway for import of cysteine-rich proteins.” FEBS Letters 582, 2817-2825 *co-corresponding authors
Allen J. W. A., Jackson A. P., Rigden D. J., Willis A. C., Ferguson S. J., & Ginger, M.L. (2008) “Order within a mosaic distribution of mitochondrial c-type cytochrome biogenesis systems?” FEBS Journal 275, 2385-2402
Long S., Jirku M., Mach J., Ginger, M.L., Sutak R., Richardson D., Tachezy J., & Lukeš J. (2008) “Ancestral roles of eukaryotic frataxin: mitochondrial frataxin function and heterologous expression of hydrogenosomal Trichomonas homologs in trypanosomes.” Molecular Microbiology 69, 94-109
Griffiths S., Portman N., Taylor P. R., Gordon S., Ginger M. L., & Gull K. (2007) “RNAi mutant induction in vivo demonstrates the essential nature of trypanosome flagellar function during mammalian infection” Eukaryotic Cell 6 1248-1250
Davidge J. A., Chambers E., Dickinson H. A., Towers K., Ginger, M. L., McKean P. G. & Gull K. (2006) “Trypanosome IFT mutants provide insight into the motor location for mobility of the flagella connector and flagellar membrane formation” J. Cell Sci. 119 3935-3943
Broadhead, R., Dawe, H. R., Farr, H., Griffiths, S., Hart, S. R., Portman, N., Shaw, M. K., Ginger, M. L., Gaskell, S. J., McKean, P. G. & Gull K. (2006) “Flagellar motility is required for the viability of the bloodstream trypanosome” Nature 440 224-227
Ginger M. L., Ngazoa E., Pereira C. A., Pullen T. J., Kabiri M., Becker K., Gull K., & Steverding D. (2005) “Intracellular positioning of isoforms explains an unusually large adenylate kinase gene family in the parasite Trypanosoma brucei” J. Biol. Chem. 280 11781-11789
Allen, J. W. A.*, Ginger, M. L.*, & Ferguson, S. J. (2004) “Maturation of the unusual single-cysteine (XXXCH) mitochondrial c-type cytochromes found in trypanosomatids must occur through a novel biogenesis pathway” Biochem. J. 383 537-542 *co-corresponding authors
Briggs, L. J., Davidge, J. A., Wickstead, B., Ginger, M. L., & Gull, K. (2004) “More than one way to build a flagellum: comparative genomics of parasitic protozoa” Current Biology 14 R611-R612
Pullen, T. J., Ginger, M. L., Gaskell, S. J., & Gull, K. (2004) “Protein targeting of a unusual, evolutionarily conserved adenylate kinase to a eukaryotic flagellum” Mol. Biol. Cell 15 3257-3265
Ginger, M. L., Blundell, P. A., Lewis, A. M., Browitt, A., Günzl, A., & Barry, J. D. (2002) “Ex vivo and in vitro identification of a consensus promoter for VSG genes expressed by metacyclic stage trypanosomes in the tsetse” Eukaryotic Cell 1 1000-1009
Conway, C., McCulloch, R., Ginger, M. L., Robinson, N. P., Browitt, A., & Barry, J. D. (2002) “Ku is important for telomere maintenance, but not for differential expression of telomeric VSG genes in African trypanosomes” J. Biol. Chem. 277 21269-21277
Ginger, M. L., Chance, M. L., Sadler, I. H., & Goad, L. J. (2001) “The biosynthetic incorporation of the intact leucine skeleton into sterol by the trypanosomatid Leishmania mexicana” J. Biol. Chem. 276 11674-11682
Ginger, M. L., Billett, D. S. M., Mackenzie, K. M., Kiriakoulakis, K., Neto, R. R., Boardman, D. K., Santos, V. L. C. S., Horsfall, I. M., & Wolff, G. A. (2001) “Organic matter assimilation and selective feeding by holothurians in the deep sea: some observations and comments” Prog. Oceanog. 50 407-421
Ginger, M. L., Prescott, M. C., Reynolds, D. G., Chance, M. L., & Goad, L. J. (2000) “Utilisation of leucine and acetate as carbon sources for sterol and fatty acid biosynthesis by Old and New World Leishmania species, Endotrypanum monterogeii and Trypanosoma cruzi” Eur. J. Biochem. 267 2555-2566
Ginger, M. L., Santos, V. L. C. S., & Wolff, G. A. (2000) “A preliminary investigation of the lipids of abyssal holothurians from the north-east Atlantic Ocean” The Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 80 139-146
Ginger M. L., Chance, M. L., & Goad, L. J. (1999) “Elucidation of carbon sources used for the biosynthesis of fatty acids and sterols in the trypanosomatid Leishmania mexicana” Biochem J. 342 397-405
Review Articles
Ginger M. L., Portman N., & McKean P. G. (2008) “Swimming with protists: perception, motility and flagellum assembly.” Nature Reviews Microbiology 6, 838-850
Ginger M. L., Fairlamb A. H. & Opperdoes F. R. (2007) “Comparative genomics of trypanosome metabolism, in Trypanosomes – after the genome” (Ed. J.D. Barry, J.C. Mottram, R. McCulloch & A. Acosta-Serrano) published by Horizon Bioscience (United Kingdom), pp373-417
Ginger, M. L. (2006) “Niche metabolism in parasitic protozoa” Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. B 361 101-118.
Ginger, M. L. (2005) “Trypanosomatid biology and euglenozoan evolution: new insights and shifting paradigms revealed through genome sequencing” Protist 156 377-392
Roberts, C. W, Mcleod, R., Rice, D. W., Ginger, M., Chance, M. L., & Goad, L. J. (2003) “Fatty acid and sterol metabolism: potential antimicrobial targets in apicomplexan and trypanosomatid parasitic protozoa” Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 126 129-142
Barry, J. D., Ginger, M. L., Burton P., & McCulloch, R. (2003) “Why are parasite contingency genes often associated with telomeres?” Int. J. Parasitol. 33 29-45