Molecular analysis of the relatedness between adenosine, methylation and cytokinin metabolism

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Many changes in plant metabolism are associated with changes in gene expression. Furthermore many gene products act on more than one substrate. I am fascinated by the integration of these processes. For example, how do small molecules act to regulate gene expression? How does a cell utilize an enzyme for more than one substrate when these substrates may be present at the same time, in differing concentrations? My research on adenosine recycling in plants has led to the realization that adenosine kinase (ADK) is essential for maintaining the hundreds of methylation activities in cells as well as contributing to the interconversion of cytokinins, an important class of plant growth regulators. Our collective results suggest a model of how ADK and other methyl recycling enzymes move to sites of methylation in the cell. The proposed research will test this model by investigating specific protein-protein interactions for ADK's involvement in methyl recycling and cytokinin metabolism. In addition we will investigate the developmental and metabolic effects of inducible over- and under-expression of key enzyme activities participating in these processes. Finally we will integrate the results into a mathematical model of methyl recycling. The proposed experiments will provide new insight into how methylation is maintained in different subcellular compartments and how this is related to cytokinin interconversion in plants.