The Dictyostelium discoideum cellulose synthase: Structure/function analysis and identification of interacting proteins

Technical Report · Thu Feb 19 04:00:00 EST 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/821393· OSTI ID:821393

Blanton, Richard L ^[1]

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1. North Carolina State University

OAK-B135 The major accomplishments of this project were: (1) the initial characterization of dcsA, the gene for the putative catalytic subunit of cellulose synthase in the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum; (2) the detection of a developmentally regulated event (unidentified, but perhaps a protein modification or association with a protein partner) that is required for cellulose synthase activity (i.e., the dcsA product is necessary, but not sufficient for cellulose synthesis); (3) the continued exploration of the developmental context of cellulose synthesis and DcsA; (4) the isolation of a GFP-DcsA-expressing strain (work in progress); and (5) the identification of Dictyostelium homologues for plant genes whose products play roles in cellulose biosynthesis. Although our progress was slow and many of our results negative, we did develop a number of promising avenues of investigation that can serve as the foundation for future projects.

• Research Organization: Texas Tech University (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER); Office of Basic Energy Sciences; Division of Energy Biosciences (US)
• DOE Contract Number: FG03-99ER20335
• OSTI ID: 821393
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
BIOSYNTHESIS
CELLULOSE
CELLULOSE SYNTHASE
CELLULOSE SYNTHESIS
DETECTION
DICTYOSTELIUM DISCOIDEUM
EXPLORATION
GENES
MODIFICATIONS
PROTEINS
STRAINS
SYNTHESIS