U.S.-Mexico Program: Development of Rapid Methods for Plant Membrane Transport Protein Localization Using Epitope Tags

该奖项将支持密苏里州圣路易斯市唐纳德·丹福斯植物科学中心的Daniel Schachtman博士与墨西哥莫雷洛斯库尔纳瓦卡国家自治大学(UNAM)的Bronwyn J.Barkla博士合作进行研究。研究人员打算研究几种与钾吸收和细胞平衡有关的运输蛋白(Kups)。钾是动植物营养所必需的矿物质。植物需要大量的这种矿物质，它们通过从土壤中吸收根来获得这种矿物质。有几个家族的转运蛋白参与了钾向细胞内和植物周围的运输。KUPS(钾吸收透皮)是一个主要的蛋白质家族，参与细胞对钾的吸收，这是一个驱动细胞扩张和植物发育的过程。拟议的合作将集中在KUP蛋白的膜定位方法上，这是一个重要的目标，因为人们对这些蛋白位于哪些膜上知之甚少。所获得的知识将有助于充分理解它们的功能。合作者将受益于墨西哥实验室在植物膜转运蛋白生物化学方面的专业知识，以及圣路易斯实验室在植物分子和细胞生物学方面的专业知识。一名博士后和一名学生将参加交流，并将接受膜生物化学方面的培训。

0305414SchachtmanThis U.S.-Mexico award will support Dr. Daniel Schachtman of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, in a research collaboration with Dr. Bronwyn J. Barkla of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. The researchers intend to work on several transport proteins (KUPs) that are involved in potassium uptake and cellular equilibrium. Potassium is an essential mineral for both animal and plant nutrition. Plants require large quantities of this mineral, which they acquire through root uptake from soils. Several families of transporters are involved in moving potassium into cells and around the plant. The KUPs (potassium uptake permeases) are a major family of proteins involved in potassium uptake into cells, a process that drives cell expansion and plant development. The proposed collaboration will focus on methods for the membrane localization of the KUP proteins, an important objective since little is known about which membranes these proteins are located on. The knowledge gained will help to understand their function fully. The collaborators will benefit from the Mexican lab's expertise in plant membrane transporter biochemistry and the St. Louis lab's expertise in plant molecular and cell biology. A postdoctoral fellow and a student will take part in the exchange and will be trained in membrane biochemistry.