Jacques Bouvier

I am a JRF here at Trinity College where I undertake my research in the Department of Biology. Before this role, I completed a DPhil in Interdisciplinary Bioscience at The University of Oxford as recipient of the Lorna Casselton Memorial Scholarship at St Cross College. Previously, I have also worked as a Research Assistant at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Germany, and hold an undergraduate degree (MSci) in Biological Sciences from The University of Sheffield. 

My teaching is currently limited within college. However, I offer a broad range of tutorials to undergraduates in the Department of Biology. In general, my teaching centres around photosynthesis, biotechnology, and molecular evolution. I am always keen to supervise or co-supervise students in areas relevant to my interests – so please do get in touch!

Photosynthesis is the engine of life. It shaped the conditions on Earth which enabled us to evolve, and it continues to sustain us by producing the oxygen that we breathe as well as the food that we consume. In brief, my work advances our understanding of this vital biological process through two complementary approaches. The first objective of my research seeks to answer fundamental questions concerning the mechanisms of how photosynthesis functions, how it has evolved over time, and how it is adapted across diverse species and environmental conditions. The second aim of my work applies this knowledge to engineer enhanced photosynthesis. Together, these insights improve our understanding of how plants respond to climate change and may be informative for the future development of higher yielding crop varieties.

For an up-to-date list of all publications, please see my Google Scholar page (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aTsNiOEAAAAJ&hl=enf). 

Bouvier, J.W. and Kelly, S. (2024) ‘Metabolic engineering of stomatal precursor cells enhances photosynthetic water-use efficiency and vegetative growth under water-deficit conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana’. bioRxiv, doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.29.610053

Bouvier, J.W., Emms, D.M. and Kelly, S. (2024) ‘Rubisco is evolving for improved catalytic efficiency and CO2 assimilation in plants’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2321050121

Bouvier, J.W., Emms, D.M., Rhodes, T., Bolton, J.S., Brasnett, A., et al., (2021) ‘Rubisco adaptation is more limited by phylogenetic constraint than by catalytic trade-off’. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38(7), 2880-2896