Rafael Palacios de la Lama, Mexican molecular biologist (Ciudad de Mexico 27 March 1944 –

Recognized as one of the world’s experts on the genetics of Rhizobium and genome dynamics

Defined the notion of amplicon

With M. Flores, S. Brom, T. Stepkowski, M.L. Girard & G. Davila. Gene amplification in Rhizobium: identification and in vivo cloning of discrete amplifiable DNA regions (amplicons) from Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. Phaseoli. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA 90: 4932-6, 1993

Demonstrated the genome of genus Rhizobium sp. as a dynamic and complex structure with a number of repeating sequences

Proposed a general scheme for designing and obtaining alternative genomic structures based on nucleotide-sequence analysis of a genome

Discovered that the human genome presents variations between cell populations of the same organism

Recurrent DNA inversions in the human genome. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences (2007)

With Jaime Mora Celis studied glutamine synthetase, obtained its purification and characterization, determination of its synthesis and degradation, characterization of its mRNA and defining its regulation at transcriptional level

With Julio Collado, G. Davila & J. Mora sequenced the genome of Rhizobium etli (2005)

With R. T. Schminke developed a general methodology using immunological isolation of specific polyssomes that permits the analysis of many genes at molecular level

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS

With X. Guo, M. Flores, P. Mavingui, S.I. Fuentes, G. Hernandez & G. Davila. Natural genomic design in Sinorhizobium milloti: novel genomic architectures. Genome Research 13:1810-7, 2003

With M. Flores, P. Mavingui, X. Perret, W.J. Broughton, D. Romero, G. Hernandez & G. Davila. Prediction, identification and artificial selection of DNA rearrangements in Rhizobium: towards a natural genomic design. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA 97: 9138-43, 2000

With C. Quinto, H. de la Vega, M. Flores, J. Leemans, M.A. Cevallos, M.A. Pardo, R. Azpiroz, M.L. Girard & E. Calva. Nitrogenase reductase: a functional multigene family in Rhizobium phaseoli. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA 82:1170-4, 1985

With C. Quinto, H. de la Vega, M. Flores, L. Fernandez, T. Ballado & G. Soberón. Reiteration of nitrogen fixation gene sequences in Rhizobium phaseoli. Nature 299:724-6, 1982