The functional organization and control of plant carbohydrate and phosphate metabolism

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Metabolism refers to all of the enzyme-catalyzed chemical reactions occurring in a cell at any given time. Understanding the organization and control of cellular metabolism is of great importance as it has crucial applications to: i) elucidating and ultimately solving many problems in human health and disease arising from metabolic disorders', bon dioxide into renewable biofuels and energy sources, and a host of industrial feed-stocks. My research program seeks to identify the organization and control of plant carbohydrate and phosphorus (P) metabolism. This is approached by characterizing the molecular, regulatory, and functional properties of key enzymes (protein catalysts) that control: i) carbon partitioning to important storage end-products (starch, oil, P is an essential but environmentally limiting macronutrient needed for crop growth and development. My HQP and I are particularly interested in identifying and characterizing covalent modifications (i.e. so-called post-translational modifications' or PTMs') that occur to enzyme proteins after they have been synthesized by living cells. This is because PTMs can function to regulate an enzyme's activity, subcellular location, interactions with other proteins, &/or degradation in response to various extra- or intracellular signals. There is indisputable evidence for the critical importance of reversible protein PTMs as a major mechanism that integrates signaling, development, metabolism, and stress responses in plant cells. Our studies have significant applications to problems in Canadian and worldwide agriculture and environmental protection including the: i) targeted modification of storage oil versus protein levels in major oilseed crops such as canola and soybeans, and ii) development of P-use efficient crops, urgently needed to reduce mankind's rampant but highly inefficient use of non-renewable, unsustainable, polluting, and expensive phosphate fertilizers. During this granting period my HQP will continue to integrate innovative proteomic, genomic, and cell biology tools into their research. These advances require constant retooling, training, and optimization, but provide quantitative improvements in the types of hypotheses that we can test, and a solid foundation for HQP training and careers in modern plant sciences.