Regulation of the shikimate pathways in Arabidopsis

本项目主要研究植物莽草酸代谢途径。莽草酸途径对芳香族氨基酸、某些维生素、类黄酮、异黄酮和苯丙素的生物合成具有重要意义。在植物中，超过30%的固定碳通过莽草酸途径进行这些芳香族化合物的生物合成。这些化合物对植物防御和环境反应、维持植物结构完整性和生长发育都很重要。此外，芳香氨基酸在我们的饮食中是必不可少的，类黄酮和异类黄酮具有已知的植物特性；例如，一些异黄酮可以作为植物雌激素。其中一些化合物还具有化学治疗特性。在真菌、微生物和顶复合体寄生虫中也发现了莽草酸途径，但在人类中没有，因此，人们正在积极研究它，以开发新药和除草剂。本文研究了拟南芥中脱氢奎宁酸脱氢酶、莽草酸脱氢酶和莽草酸激酶的生化表征和结构测定。

This project focuses on the plant shikimate metabolic pathway.  The shikimate pathway is important for the biosynthesis of the aromatic amino acids, some vitamins, flavonoids, isoflavonoids and phenylpropanoids.  In plants, more than 30 % of fixed carbon flows through the shikimate pathway for the biosynthesis of these aromatic compounds.  These compounds are important for plant defence and environmental responses, in maintaining plant structural integrity and in their growth and development.   Furthermore, the aromatic amino acids are essential in our diet and flavonoids and isoflavonoids have known phyto properties; for example some isoflavonoids serves as phyto-estrogen.  Some of these compounds also have chemo-therapeutic properties.  The shikimate pathway is also found in fungi, microbes and apicomplexan parasites, but not in humans, as such it is actively being studied for the development of novel drugs and herbicides.  This proposal deals with the biochemical characterization and structure determination of the enzymes dehydroquinate dehydratease, shikimate dehydrogenase and shikimate kinase in Arabidopsis thaliana.