A5101796842- Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis
- Lipid metabolism and biosynthesis
- Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Plant Gene Expression Analysis
- Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
- Biofuel production and bioconversion
- Lignin and Wood Chemistry
- SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Enzyme Catalysis and Immobilization
- Research in Cotton Cultivation
- Enzyme Structure and Function
- Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
- Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis
- Amino Acid Enzymes and Metabolism
- Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism
- GABA and Rice Research
- Enzyme Production and Characterization
- Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
- Postharvest Quality and Shelf Life Management
- Microbial Metabolism and Applications
- Plant Reproductive Biology
- Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications
- Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Disease
- Toxin Mechanisms and Immunotoxins
- Plant Surface Properties and Treatments
Stony Brook University
2017-2024
Brookhaven National Laboratory
2013-2024
Brookhaven College
2014
Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences
2007-2009
Chinese Academy of Sciences
2007-2009
Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences
2007-2009
Cornell University
2008
Suberin, a lipophilic polymer deposited in the outer integument of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seed coat, represents an essential sealing component controlling water and solute movement protecting from pathogenic infection. Although many genes responsible for suberin synthesis are identified, regulatory components its biosynthesis have not been definitively determined. Here, we show that MYB107 transcription factor acts as positive regulator biosynthetic gene expression coat....
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has created global health and economic emergencies. viruses promote their own spread virulence hijacking human proteins, which occurs through viral protein recognition of targets. To understand structural basis for viral-host recognition, here we use cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine a complex structure cell junction PALS1 envelope (E) protein. Our reported shows that E C-terminal DLLV motif recognizes pocket...
Abstract Producing cellulosic biofuels and bio-based chemicals from woody biomass is impeded by the presence of lignin polymer in plant cell wall. Manipulating monolignol biosynthetic pathway offers a promising approach to improved processability, but often impairs growth development. Here, we show that expressing an engineered 4- O -methyltransferase chemically modifies phenolic moiety monomeric precursors, thus preventing their incorporation into polymer, substantially alters hybrid...
Summary Duckweeds are amongst the fastest growing of higher plants, making them attractive high‐biomass targets for biofuel feedstock production. Their fronds have high rates fatty acid synthesis to meet demand new membranes, but triacylglycerols (TAG) only accumulate very low levels. Here we report on engineering Lemna japonica and accumulation TAG in its fronds. This was achieved by expression an estradiol‐inducible cyan fluorescent protein‐ Arabidopsis WRINKLED1 fusion protein (...
Summary Triacylglycerols (TAG), accumulate within lipid droplets (LD), predominantly surrounded by OLEOSINs (OLE), that protect TAG from hydrolysis. We tested the hypothesis identifying and removing degradation signals OLE would promote its abundance, preventing enhancing accumulation. whether mutating potential ubiquitin‐conjugation sites in a previously reported improved Sesamum indicum ( SiO ) variant, o3‐3 Cys‐OLE SiCO herein), stabilize it increase lipogenic potential. SiCOv1 was...
Camelina (Camelina sativa L.), a hexaploid member of the Brassicaceae family, is an emerging oilseed crop being developed to meet increasing demand for plant oils as biofuel feedstocks. In other Brassicas, high oil content can be associated with yellow seed phenotype, which unknown camelina. We sought create camelina using CRISPR/Cas9 technology disrupt its Transparent Testa 8 (TT8) transcription factor genes and evaluate resulting phenotype. identified three TT8 genes, one in each...
Summary Modified fatty acids ( mFA ) have diverse uses; for example, cyclopropane CPA are feedstocks producing coatings, lubricants, plastics and cosmetics. The expression of ‐producing enzymes in crop model plants generally results lower levels accumulation than their natural‐occurring source plants. Thus, to further our understanding metabolic bottlenecks that limit accumulation, we generated transgenic Camelina sativa lines co‐expressing Escherichia coli synthase (Ec CPS Sterculia foetida...
Cyclopropane fatty acids (CPAs) are useful feedstocks for biofuels and bioproducts such as lubricants biodiesel. Our goal is to identify factors that can facilitate the accumulation of CPA in seed triacylglycerol (TAG) storage oil. We hypothesized poor metabolism through TAG biosynthetic network could be overcome by addition enzymes from species naturally accumulate their oil, lychee (Litchi chinensis), which contains approximately 40% TAG. previous work on engineering crop model plants...
One of the greatest bottlenecks in producing recombinant proteins Escherichia coli is that over-expressed target are mostly present an insoluble form without any biological activity. DCase (N-carbamoyl-D-amino acid amidohydrolase) important enzyme involved semi-synthesis β-lactam antibiotics industry. In study, order to determine amino sites responsible for solubility DCase, error-prone PCR and DNA shuffling techniques were applied randomly mutate its coding sequence, followed by efficient...
Abstract Hundreds of naturally occurring specialized fatty acids (FAs) have potential as desirable chemical feedstocks if they could be produced at large scale by crop plants; however, transgenic expression their biosynthetic genes has generally been accompanied dramatic reductions in oil yield. For example, castor (Ricinus communis) FA hydroxylase (FAH) the Arabidopsis thaliana elongation mutant fae1 resulted a 50% reduction synthesis rate that was attributed to inhibition acetyl-CoA...
Hydantoinases (HYDs) are important enzymes for industrial production of optically pure amino acids, which widely used as precursors various semi-synthetic antibiotics. By a process coupling genomic data mining with activity screening, new hydantoinase, tentatively designated HYD(Js), was identified from Jannaschia sp. CCS1 and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The specific HYD(Js) on D,L-p-hydroxyphenylhydantoin the substrate three times higher than that hydantoinase originating...
Alkenal double bond reductases (DBRs) catalyze the NADPH‐dependent reduction of α,β‐unsaturated many secondary metabolites. Two alkenal reductase genes PaDBR1 and PaDBR2 were isolated from liverwort species Plagiochasma appendiculatum . Recombinant protein had a higher catalytic activity than with respect to present in hydroxycinnamyl aldehydes. The residue at position 56 appeared be responsible for this difference enzyme activity. functionality C56 Y56 mutation was similar that PaDBR2....
Metabolic extremes provide opportunities to understand enzymatic and metabolic plasticity biotechnological tools for novel biomaterial production. We discovered that seed oils of many Thunbergia species contain up 92% the unusual monounsaturated petroselinic acid (18:1Δ6), one highest reported levels a single fatty in plants. Supporting biosynthetic origin acid, we identified Δ6-stearoyl-acyl carrier protein (18:0-ACP) desaturase from laurifolia , closely related previously Δ6-palmitoyl-ACP...
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have important industrial, physiological, and nutritional properties. Plants use the sequential activities of FAD2 FAD3 desaturases to convert 18:1Δ9 PUFA 18:3Δ9,12,15, whereas fungus Fusarium verticillioides 7600 uses bifunctional desaturase Fm1 for both reactions. Here, we used a combination sequence comparisons, structural modeling, mutagenesis experiments investigate Fm1's regioselectivity identified two functionally relevant clusters residues that...
In previous work, we identified a triple mutant of the castor (Ricinus communis) stearoyl-Acyl Carrier Protein desaturase (T117R/G188L/D280K) that, in addition to introducing double bond into stearate produce oleate, performed an additional round oxidation convert oleate trans allylic alcohol acid. To determine contributions each mutation, this work generated individual mutants carrying residue changes corresponding those and investigated their catalytic activities. We observed that T117R,...
Rhodoxanthin is a vibrant red carotenoid found across the plant kingdom and in certain birds fish. It member of atypical retro class carotenoids, which contain an additional double bond concerted shift conjugated bonds relative to more widely occurring pigments, whose biosynthetic origins have long remained elusive. Here, we identify LHRS (Lonicera hydroxylase rhodoxanthin synthase), variant β-carotene (BCH)-type integral membrane diiron enzyme that mediates conversion into rhodoxanthin. We...
Viridicatumtoxins are a rare class of tetracycline-like antibiotics that strongly inhibit drug-resistant Gram-positive bacteria. Although reported to exhibit in vitro inhibition activity undecaprenyl pyrophosphate synthase (UPPS), an essential enzyme bacterial cell wall synthesis, the biological targets and mechanism action viridicatumtoxins, especially drug–target interactions, remain largely unknown. In this study, structure Enterococcus faecalis UPPS (EfaUPPS) was first determined,...
Δ9 fatty acyl desaturases introduce a cis–double bond between C9 and C10 of saturated chains. From the crystal structure mouse stearoyl-CoA desaturase (mSCD1) it was proposed that Tyr-104, surface residue located at distal end binding pocket plays key role in specifying 18C selectivity. We created mSCD1-Y104G to test hypothesis eliminating this bulky side chain would create an opening permit substrate's methyl protrude through enzyme into lipid bilayer, facilitating desaturation...
The transcription repressor of D-galactonate metabolism, DgoR, from Escherichia coli belongs to the FadR family GntR superfamily. In presence D-galactonate, DgoR binds two inverted repeats overlapping dgo cis-acting promoter repressing expression genes involved in metabolism. To further understand structural and molecular details ligand effector interactions between this member, herein we solved crystal structure C-terminal domain (DgoR_C), which revealed a unique divalent metal-containing...
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has created a global health and economic emergency. viruses hijack human proteins to promote their spread virulence including interactions involving viral envelope (E) protein proteins. To understand structural basis for viral-host recognition, we used cryo-electron microscopy determine structure cell junction PALS1 E complex. shows that C-terminal DLLV motif recognizes pocket formed exclusively hydrophobic residues from PDZ SH3...
Abstract Plant plastidial acyl–acyl carrier protein (ACP) desaturases are a soluble class of diiron-containing enzymes that distinct from the integral membrane found in plants and other organisms. The archetype this is stearoyl-ACP desaturase which converts into oleoyl (18:1Δ9cis)-ACP. Several variants expressing regioselectivity have been described including Δ6-16:0-ACP black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata). We solved crystal structure T. alata at 2.05 Å resolution. Using molecular...