Joe Lynch, August 30
Please join the department of Biology in welcoming Dr. Joe Lynch, Assistant Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences at West Virginia University, for his talk. The talk will be held in Life Sciences Building, room G21 and via livestream on August 30, 2021 at 4pm EST. For information on how to access the livestream, please contact Dr. Sarah Farris at sarah.farris@mail.wvu.edu.More on the talk:
In plants, phenylalanine is a precursor not just of proteins, but also
of thousands of aromatic primary and secondary metabolites with
broad physiological functions. It has long been known that
synthesis of phenylalanine occurs predominantly via the arogenate
pathway in plastids. Here Dr Lynch will present the elucidation of
an alternative “phenylpyruvate pathway” present in the cytosol. A
cytosolic chorismate mutase is responsible for directing carbon flux
towards cytosolic phenylalanine production to initiate this
pathway. An alternative transcription start site of a known
plastidial enzyme produces a functional cytosolic prephenate
dehydratase that catalyzes the conversion of prephenate to
phenylpyruvate, the intermediate step between chorismate mutase
and a previously reported phenylpyruvate aminotransferase.
Unexpectedly, the phenylpyruvate intermediate produced in this
pathway can serve as a co-substrate in tryptophan-dependent auxin
biosynthesis, creating a metabolic cross-talk between the two
pathways with implications for metabolic engineering.