KiC assay- manuscript data analysis and writing
As a writing side project, I contributed to a draft manuscript on a large kinase-client phosphorylation study that was in a “holding pattern” in the lab for a while.
Investigating possible regulators of de novo FAS
I initiated a molecular genetics approach to understand the function of a large non-catalytic domain found on a subunit to the heteromeric acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) in plants. This is an important enzyme complex that catalyzes the first step in de novo fatty acid biosynthesis and is therefore highly regulated. As part of this side project, I expressed both full-length, catalytic and non-catalytic regions only (with two different affinity tags) in Arabidopsis, to discover any interacting proteins towards this plastid-encoded subunit to the complex. I also made stable transgenic Arabidopsis plants and confirmed plastid targeting (via fluorescent fusion tags). Finally, as another side project I began the analysis of strongly co-expressed genes to the heteromeric ACCase. I isolated T-DNA homozygous plants from 9 different lines, isolated fatty acid methyl esters and analyzed them by gas chromatography.
Investigation differentiated key-players of de Novo FAS
I also completed the first round of Omics (Proteomics and Transcriptomics) analyses on the high-oil Arabidopsis plants by coordinating the RNAseq and large-scale proteomic analyses with two Mizzou Core Facilities.