The thiol redox proteome dynamics in Arabidopsis thaliana in response to light
EMSL Project ID
60307
Abstract
Plant performance relies on regulatory mechanisms that allow the rapid adaptation of their metabolism to light, the key stimulus for growth and development of photosynthetic organisms. Thus, dark-light, and light-dark transitions, as well as the unpredictable changes of light intensity that occur in nature, are accompanied by rapid and reversible post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins in response to these environmental cues. Of these PTMs, the disulfide-dithiol interchange of thiol groups of cysteines has a deep effect on protein conformation and activity, thus being the basis of redox regulation. Given the central role of redox regulation in biology, the operation of thiol-disulfide based switches constitutes a key strategy of metabolic acclimation to environmental cues, and the study of cysteine modifications in proteomes is of major interest of contemporary biology. In this regard, well-established redox-regulated enzymes of the Calvin-Benson cycle for photosynthetic carbon assimilation in plants have become model enzymes for the study of plant photosynthetic metabolism, yet the knowledge of the impact of redox regulation at the proteome level is still scarce. Thus, our main objective is to go beyond inventories of redox-sensitive proteins by monitoring the proteome-wide dynamics of the thiol redox switches in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. For this purpose, we will investigate i) the light-dependent redox proteome of Arabidopsis in response to light at different developmental stages, and ii) the impact of mutations in chloroplast redox transmitters on the redox proteome. The EMSL user program is ideally suited to our work because of the strong tradition of quantitative proteomics at PNNL, the capability to process large number of samples, and the development and optimization of a redox proteomic approach previously used in other photosynthetic, less complex organisms such as cyanobacteria and eukaryotic green algae. The project will provide predictive understanding of biological and environmental processes of plant systems, contributing to the BER’s Biological Systems Research. Particularly relevant is the knowledge of redox regulation of enzymes involved in assimilatory metabolic pathways, such as carbon and nitrogen assimilation, which is critical to generate innovative strategies for sustainable bioproduction, remarkably relevant under the current climate crisis. Furthermore, the results of this project will be used for systems biology approaches with the purpose of studying key metabolic pathways with temporal resolution in response to environmental changes. Our discoveries might contribute to the plant field via the generation of new and useful tools to develop future strategies of crop acclimation, given that climatic change is expected to have an enormous impact on Earth’s vegetation.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2022-10-01
End Date
N/A
Status
Active
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members