U.S.-Mexico Program: Development of Rapid Methods for Plant Membrane Transport Protein Localization Using Epitope Tags

这份美国-墨西哥奖将支持密苏里州圣路易斯市唐纳德·丹福斯植物科学中心的Daniel Schachtman博士与墨西哥莫雷洛斯州库埃纳瓦卡市墨西哥国立自治大学（UNAM）的Bronwyn J. Barkla博士的一项研究合作。研究人员打算研究几种与钾摄取和细胞平衡有关的转运蛋白（up）。钾是动物和植物营养所必需的矿物质。植物需要大量的这种矿物质，它们通过根系从土壤中吸收。几个转运蛋白家族参与了钾元素进入细胞和植物周围的运输。up（钾摄取透膜）是一个主要的蛋白质家族，参与钾摄取到细胞中，这是一个驱动细胞扩张和植物发育的过程。拟议的合作将集中在KUP蛋白的膜定位方法上，这是一个重要的目标，因为人们对这些蛋白位于哪些膜知之甚少。所获得的知识将有助于充分理解它们的功能。合作伙伴将受益于墨西哥实验室在植物膜转运体生物化学方面的专业知识和圣路易斯实验室在植物分子和细胞生物学方面的专业知识。一名博士后和一名学生将参加交流，并接受膜生物化学方面的培训。

0305414SchachtmanThis U.S.-Mexico award will support Dr. Daniel Schachtman of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, in a research collaboration with Dr. Bronwyn J. Barkla of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. The researchers intend to work on several transport proteins (KUPs) that are involved in potassium uptake and cellular equilibrium. Potassium is an essential mineral for both animal and plant nutrition. Plants require large quantities of this mineral, which they acquire through root uptake from soils. Several families of transporters are involved in moving potassium into cells and around the plant. The KUPs (potassium uptake permeases) are a major family of proteins involved in potassium uptake into cells, a process that drives cell expansion and plant development. The proposed collaboration will focus on methods for the membrane localization of the KUP proteins, an important objective since little is known about which membranes these proteins are located on. The knowledge gained will help to understand their function fully. The collaborators will benefit from the Mexican lab's expertise in plant membrane transporter biochemistry and the St. Louis lab's expertise in plant molecular and cell biology. A postdoctoral fellow and a student will take part in the exchange and will be trained in membrane biochemistry.