Regulation of Arabidopsis shikimate pathway

这一应用涉及莽草酸途径酶的功能注释。莽草酸途径产生合成芳香族氨基酸苯丙氨酸(Phe)、酪氨酸(Tyr)和色氨酸(Trp)的前体。它们被植物用来合成许多芳香化合物，包括植物防御素、类黄酮类、苯丙类、吲哚激素和木质素。在植物中，这些分子在细胞信号、病原体防御、紫外线防护和结构支持方面具有重要的生物学作用。此外，莽草酸途径还具有重要的治疗和生物技术应用。该途径在动物中不存在，但在植物和微生物中存在，这使得它成为除草剂和抗微生物药物的理想靶点。多种莽草酸途径衍生的黄酮类和苯丙类化合物也被证明具有广泛的健康益处，因为它们具有抗氧化特性。因此，我们研究计划的总体目标是了解莽草酸途径是如何调控的，以便我们能够调节其性质以获得理想的最终产品。我们将重点介绍三种酶，莽草酸激酶、莽草酸脱氢酶和DAHP合成酶，因为它们被发现参与了莽草酸途径的调节。在拟南芥中，DAHP合成酶有三种酶形式，并被发现受芳香氨基酸的不同调控。在拟南芥中发现了四个莽草酸激酶基因的重复，并被证明具有不同的生物学功能。类似地，在微生物中发现了五类莽草酸脱氢酶，每一类都有特定的生物学作用。

This application involves the functional annotation of enzymes of the shikimate pathway. The shikimate pathway produces precursors for the synthesis of the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine (Phe), tyrosine (Tyr) and tryptophan (Trp). They are used by plants to synthesize many aromatic compounds; including phytoalexins, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, indole hormones and lignin. In plants, these molecules have important biological roles in cellular signaling, pathogen defense, UV protection, and structural support. In addition the shikimate pathway has important therapeutic and biotechnological applications. The pathway is absent in animals, but present in plants and microbes, which makes it an ideal target for herbicides and anti-microbial agents. A variety of shikimate pathway-derived flavonoids and phenylpropanoids have also been shown to have a wide range of health benefits because of their antioxidant properties. Therefore, the overall goal of our research program is to understand how the shikimate pathway is regulated so that we can modulate its properties to achieve desirable end products. We will be focusing on three enzymes, shikimate kinase, shikimate dehydrogenase and DAHP synthase, because they are found to participate in the regulation of the shikimate pathway. There are three enzyme forms of DAHP synthase in Arabidopsis and are found to be differentially regulated by the aromatic amino acids. Four shikimate kinase gene duplicates are found in Arabidopsis and are shown to have evolved distinct biological functions. Similarly, five classes of shikimate dehydrogenases are found in microbes, each of which has a specific biological role.