SGER: Yeast as an Enzyme Source for Thioredoxin Biotechnology

这是探索性研究项目小额资助下的一个奖项。该项目的直接目标是测试酵母NADP/硫氧还蛋白系统在激活种子蛋白质方面的有效性，特别是面粉和大豆的蛋白质。长期目标是为烘焙和其他使用小麦、大豆和其他种子制成的面粉的行业开发一种安全、廉价的加工技术。在PI实验室与法国小组合作进行的初步研究产生了一个有趣的发现，即各种蛋白质的分子内二硫基团，包括许多商业上重要的蛋白质，被本地NADP/硫氧还蛋白系统还原（激活），由NADPH， NADP-硫氧还蛋白还原酶和硫氧还蛋白组成。NADP/硫氧还蛋白系统的潜在应用范围从基础生物学研究到谷物技术，再到医学和营养学。具体来说，通过SGER奖，Buchanan博士将确定基于酵母的NADP/硫氧还蛋白系统是否可以发展成为探索硫氧还蛋白技术应用潜力的有效工具。到目前为止，所有的工作都是使用大肠杆菌系统完成的，该系统已被证明不适合谷物技术和营养应用。

This is an award under the Small Grant for Exploratory Research program. The immediate objective of the project is to test the effectiveness of the yeast NADP/thioredoxin system in activating seed proteins, notably the proteins of flour and soybean. The long term objective is to develop a safe and inexpensive processing technology for baking and other industry that uses flour from wheat, soybean and other seeds. Preliminary studies carried out in the PI's laboratory in collaboration with the French group yielded an interesting discovery that the intramolecular disulfide groups of diverse proteins including a number of commercially important proteins, are reduced (activated) by the indigenous NADP/thioredoxin system, consisting of NADPH, NADP-thioredoxin reductase and thioredoxin. Potential application of the NADP/thioredoxin system ranges from basic biology research to cereal technology to medicine and nutrition. Specifically with the SGER award, Dr. Buchanan will determine if the yeast-based NADP/thioredoxin system can be developed into an efficient tool to explore application potential of the thioredoxin technology. All work up to this point has been done using E. coli system which has proven not appropriate for cereal technology and nutrition applications.