Identification and Absolute Quantitation of Protein Phosphorylation Networks in Oilseeds

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IDENTIFICATION AND ABSOLUTE QUANTITATION OF PROTEIN PHOSPHORYLATION NETWORKS IN OILSEEDSPI: Jay J. Thelen, Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri-ColumbiaCollaborator: Dong Xu, Computer Science Department, University of Missouri ColumbiaPlant seeds are important, renewable sources of natural products such as oil, protein, starch and fiber. Though the biosynthetic pathways for these storage compounds are mostly known, it is not clear how these pathways are regulated in oilseeds which produce higher quantities of oil and protein. Protein phosphorylation is an important regulatory mechanism for many metabolic enzymes and preliminary data reveal hundreds of phosphoproteins in developing oilseed rape and soybean. Identification and quantification of phosphoprotein control mechanisms in developing seed of three different oilseeds will provide the basis for understanding the regulatory networks involved in oilseed development and will help in designing new strategies for crop improvement. This proposal aims to unravel networks of phosphoproteins and protein kinases primarily involved in the regulation of metabolic processes during the oil and protein accumulation phase of seed development in three different oilseed plants, oilseed rape, soybean, and Arabidopsis thaliana. In addition to this fundamental scientific objective, the broader impacts of this proposal include: (1) organizing proteomics-themed workshops and developing web-based proteomics tutorials targeting High School teachers and students, respectively; (2) training plant scientists at the undergraduate through post-doctoral levels in the emerging discipline of proteomics; (3) recruiting under-represented students through University-sponsored undergraduate research programs and fellowships; (4) developing techniques for phosphopeptide identification and quantification using the emerging technology of absolute quantification (AQUA) peptides; (5) generating synthetic AQUA peptide tools for the plant protein phosphorylation community; and (6) public dissemination of phosphoproteomics data in multiple, user-intuitive formats to provide new directions for the scientific community to modify seed metabolism for the benefit of health and environment. For website see http://oilseedproteomics.missouri.edu