Plant Cell Wall Biotechnology at OU





Plant Cell Wall Biotechnology at OU


Transgenic tobacco cells expressing a tomato cell surface
arabinogalactan-protein (AGP) fused to the jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP)

The plant cell wall biotechnology group studies the structure and function of plant cell wall components in hopes of exploiting this knowledge for the production of valuable biological products

 


Participating Faculty

  • Jared L. DeForest - Env. & Plant Biol; Mechanisms of plant cell wall degradation
  • Ahmed Faik - Env. & Plant Biol; Plant cell wall biochemistry
  • Allan Showalter - Env. & Plant Biol; Molecular biology and biochemistry of plant cell wall proteins
  • Sarah Wyatt - Env. & Plant Biol; Plant Development, Molecular Biology
  • Marcia J. Kieliszewski - Dept. of Chem. and Biochem.; Structural analysis of plant cell wall proteins

 

Current and Past Projects

  • Arabinogalactan-proteins: structure, expression, and function (Showalter)
  • Characterization and cloning of the gps mutants of Arabidopsis (Wyatt)
  • Characterization of auxin transport in the gps mutants of Arabidopsis (Wyatt)
  • Cloning and characterization of extensin P1 (Kieliszewski and Showalter)
  • Crystallization of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins for structural determination by X-ray diffraction and three dimensional molecular modeling (Kieliszewski)
  • Effects of light on lignification and secondary cell wall production in Arabidopsis (Wyatt)
  • Effects of salt on cell wall proteins, programmed cell death, and glycine betaine production (Showalter and Ungar)
  • Gene discovery during induction of reaction wood using Arabidopsis as a model (Wyatt)
  • Glycosylation site mapping of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins (Kieliszewski)
  • Isolation and characterization of tomato arabinogalactan-protein and extensin genes (Showalter)
  • Molecular interactions and cross-linking of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins (Kieliszewski)
  • Molecular interactions and functions of LeAGP-1, a modular plasma membrane arabinogalactan-protein (Showalter and Kieliszewski)
  • Production and characterization of arabinogalactan-protein mutants in Arabidopsis and tomato using antisense and RNAi technology (Showalter)
  • Programmed cell death in plants and the role of arabinogalactan-proteins in this process (Showalter)
  • Structure and function of a novel, modular arabinogalactan-protein from tomato (Showalter and Kieliszewski)
  • Synthetic genes for de novo glycoprotein design and the elucidation of hydroxyproline-O-glycosylation codes (Kieliszewski)

 

External Funding Sources

  • American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology
  • National Science Foundation
  • Ohio Board of Regents
  • Ohio Plant Biotechnology Consortium
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture

 

Useful Links

Bioethics Case Studies
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/ubcase.htm

 


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