Distinguished for his contributions to unravelling the role of
nucleic acids in the development of
higher plants. Leaver was the first person to isolate nucleic acids from higher plants in 1964, and produced the first description of the
pathway of
cytoplasmicribosomalRNA synthesis. He discovered a novel species of
4.5S RNA in
chloroplast ribosomes, and with W, Bottomley developed the coupled
transcription-
translation system now used in the analysis of
chloroplast DNA. He established that the synthesis of
glyoxysomal enzymes in
cucumber seedlings is under transcriptional control. His more recent and innovative work concerns the structure, information content and expression of the plant
mitochondrial genome, a field he has pioneered. He was the first to isolate plant mitochondrial ribosomes, establish their unique RNA composition, and develop the standard system now used for
protein synthesis by isolated plant
mitochondria. His work has produced strong evidence linking the agriculturally important trait of
cytoplasmic male sterility in
maize and
sorghum with
mutations in the mitochondrial genome which lead to the production of variant
polypeptides. As well as isolating several protein-encoding plant mitochondrial
genes, he has identified, cloned and sequenced the first
nuclear gene for a plant mitochondrial protein.[18]
^Chris J. Leaver publications indexed by the
Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
^Balk, J.; Leaver, C.; McCabe, P. (1999). "Translocation of cytochrome c from the mitochondria to the cytosol occurs during heat-induced programmed cell death in cucumber plants". FEBS Letters. 463 (1–2): 151–154.
doi:
10.1016/S0014-5793(99)01611-7.
PMID10601657.
S2CID6087038.
^Alpi, A.; Amrhein, N.; Bertl, A.; Blatt, M.; Blumwald, E.; Cervone, F.; Dainty, J.; De Michelis, M.; Epstein, E.; Galston, A. W.; Goldsmith, M. H. M.; Hawes, C.; Hell, R. D.; Hetherington, A.; Hofte, H.; Juergens, G.; Leaver, C. J.; Moroni, A.; Murphy, A.; Oparka, K.; Perata, P.; Quader, H.; Rausch, T.; Ritzenthaler, C.; Rivetta, A.; Robinson, D. G.; Sanders, D.; Scheres, B.; Schumacher, K.; Sentenac, H. (2007). "Plant neurobiology: no brain, no gain?". Trends in Plant Science. 12 (4): 135–136.
doi:
10.1016/j.tplants.2007.03.002.
PMID17368081.
^Fox, T. D.; Leaver, C. J. (1981). "The zea mays mitochondrial gene coding cytochrome oxidase subunit II has an intervening sequence and does not contain TGA codons". Cell. 26 (3): 315–323.
doi:
10.1016/0092-8674(81)90200-2.
PMID6276012.
S2CID41661616.