Palmer, 35, has been studying the structure and evolution of the chloroplast genome since he was a doctoral candidate at Stanford. A chloroplast is the organelle in plant cells in which photosynthesis takes place. Palmer's work has provided insights into the evolutionary relationships of plants, including the development of land plants from algae.
Palmer's most recent work has focused on introns, those portions of a gene, sometimes called "junk DNA," that are not translated. Palmer and his colleagues have recently found introns in the genome of cyanobacteria. These introns closely correspond to the sequence, gene, and location of introns found in chloroplasts. This is the first time that introns have been identified in eubacteria, and, Palmer says, they may be the oldest known introns (M. Kuhsel, R. Strickland, J.D. Palmer, Science, 250:1570-3, Dec. 14, 1990).
Palmer says that his recent discovery of bacterial introns may mean that "most introns are ...
