NSF Award Abstract - #0332418

AWSFL008-DS3

YIA-PGR: Proteomics of Seed-Filling in Oilseeds

Abstract

Plant seeds are important, renewable sources of natural products such as oil, protein, starch and fiber. Though the biosynthetic pathways for these storage compounds are mostly known it is not clear how these pathways are regulated in oilseeds which produce higher quantities of oil and protein. Quantitation and identification of proteins expressed at multiple stages during embryo development of four diverse oilseeds will systematically reveal the dynamics of protein networks responsible for oil and protein accumulation in four diverse oilseeds. Public dissemination of these data in multiple, user-intuitive formats will provide new directions for the scientific community to engineer seed metabolism for the benefit of health and environment.

The website will be open for viewing within the first year of the proposal and will include both one- and two-dimensional gels of membrane and total proteins, respectively, from various stages of oilseed development (within first two-three years of the proposal). Identification of proteins will commence with the purchase of a tandem mass spectrometer in the third year of funding. Identities of the first 300 protein spots (project goal of 500-600) of Arabidopsis and oilseed rape will be posted to the website by the end of the third year support and prior to publication. Identification of 450-500 castor and soybean proteins will also commence in the third year of funding with a projected release date to begin in year four. Manual de novo sequencing of unidentified proteins and potential post-translationally modified proteins will be the subject of research for year five.