A major theme of research in our laboratory is the import of proteins into chloroplasts. More than 2000 plastidic proteins are synthesized as precursor proteins in the cytosol and have to be imported in plastids to fulfill their functions. We use molecular genetic and biochemical methods to study the components of the chloroplast protein import machinery

Chloroplasts contain lipoprotein bodies known as plastoglobules .Proteins, which we termed plastoglobulines (PGLs), are found associated with these structures. We are studying the role of plastoglobules and PGLs in plastid metabolism.

A third research project aims at the study of the processes allowing the acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus to changes in the environmental conditions.