Scientific question

The cellular roles of many plant proteins are often unknown, challenging the interpretation of systems biology experiments and our understanding of plant proteomes. The interaction of proteins with co-factors and small proteins can provide information on the classification of important enzymatic classes and thus elucidate functional aspects of poorly studied plant proteins.

Approach

We will use chemical proteomic affinity matrices to study the interactomes of small molecules in a competitive binding assay. Here we will focus on the small protein ubiquitin, kinase/HDAC inhibitors, but also nucleotide-derived co-factors such as ATP, FAD, NADPH or coenzyme A.

Expected results

In this project we will assign functionally unknown proteins to enzymatic families such as deubiquitinylases, protein kinases and many more. These data will benefit genome annotation (Frishman, Wilhelm) and further projects e.g. in the context of plant development (Schwechheimer) or microbe/pesticide interaction (Gutjahr, Hückelhoven, Küster).