International Collaboration in Chemistry: LOV Domain Signaling

有了这个国际化学合作（ICC）奖，化学部的生命过程化学（CLP）计划支持堪萨斯大学的凯里约翰逊教授和德国里根斯堡大学的伯恩哈德·迪克教授的合作工作。 该奖项是通过与德国研究共同体（DFG）的合作获得的，DFG将支持迪克实验室的研究。 国际团队将对引发向光性的光激活信号传导过程进行基础研究，向光性是植物向光生长的过程。 负责的蛋白质称为PHOT，包含两个称为LOV（光-氧-电压）结构域的蛋白质结构域。 该团队将研究PHOT传输信号的生化步骤，该信号在光激活后启动向光性。 该机制似乎涉及LOV结构域相互作用对（二聚体）的形成。 LOV结构域的相互作用将通过一系列技术进行研究，包括通过荧光光谱法检测单个二聚体。 该提案的更广泛影响范围从研究生和本科生的培训到对LOV结构域中信号传导的基本理解，LOV结构域属于参与信号传导的广泛蛋白质类，不仅在植物中，而且在其他生物王国中也是如此。 该项目的参与者将包括堪萨斯大学UKanTeach项目的本科生，该项目为堪萨斯大学的高中科学教学培训科学专业的学生。

With this International Collaboration in Chemistry (ICC) award, the Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP) Program in the Division of Chemistry is supporting collaborative work by Professor Carey Johnson of the University of Kansas and Professor Bernhard Dick of the University of Regensburg, Germany. This award is through a partnership with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), who will support the research in the Dick lab. The international team will carry out fundamental studies on the light-activated signaling process that triggers phototropism, the process by which plants grow towards light. The protein responsible is called PHOT and contains two protein domains called LOV (Light-Oxygen-Voltage) domains. The team will investigate the biochemical steps by which PHOT transmits the signal that initiates phototropism following activation by light. The mechanism appears to involve formation of interacting pairs (dimers) of LOV domains. The interaction of LOV domains will be studied by a range of techniques, including detection of single dimers by fluorescence spectroscopy. The Broader Impacts of the proposal range from the training of graduate and undergraduate students to a fundamental understanding of signaling in LOV domains, which belong to a broad class of proteins involved in signaling, not only in plants but in the other biological kingdoms as well. Participants in the project will include undergraduate students in the UKanTeach program at the University of Kansas, which trains science majors at KU for high school science teaching.