International Collaboration in Chemistry: LOV Domain Signaling

通过国际化学合作奖（ICC），化学学部的生命过程化学（CLP）项目支持堪萨斯大学的Carey Johnson教授和德国雷根斯堡大学的Bernhard Dick教授的合作工作。该奖项是通过与德意志研究机构（DFG）的合作获得的，DFG将支持迪克实验室的研究。这个国际团队将对引发向光性的光激活信号过程进行基础研究，向光性是植物向光生长的过程。负责的蛋白质被称为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传递信号的生化步骤，该信号在被光激活后启动向光性。其机制似乎涉及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，包括用荧光光谱检测单二聚体。该提案的广泛影响范围从研究生和本科生的培训到对LOV结构域信号传导的基本理解，LOV结构域属于广泛的蛋白质类，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理科专业学生提供高中科学教学培训。

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.