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Courses:
Human Physiology lab (BIO 270), Cell and Molecular Biology (BIO
214), and Animal Physiology (BIO 370)
Research Interests: Biochemistry
and molecular biology of
glucose transport across
membranes.
How do organisms use glucose? The hexose
transporters of Arabidopsis
thaliana belong to a super-family of proteins called major
facilitator proteins, which have been identified in humans, plants and
yeast. So far, of the 30 genes identified as being putative hexose
transporters, 4 have been experimentally characterized. Much work is
yet to be done on this large and prevalent class of proteins. Their
functional diversity is thought to contribute to the metabolism of
sugars under the various internal and external environmental conditions
experienced by the organism. There are two main projects going on in my
lab. The first is to determine the function of the conserved amino acid
sequences found in the Arabidopsis hexose transporter,
STP1. To do
this we are
using a mutant yeast strain and current molecular biology methods to
generate transgenic yeast strains. The second project is to isolate and
characterize Arabidopsis knock-outs for STP1 and a highly conserved
STP1-like protein (STP12) to
further characterize the role that hexose
transporters play in the metabolism of plants.
Selected
Publications:
Burant, C.F., Flink, S., DePaoli, A.M., Chen, J.,
Lee, W.S., Hediger, M., Buse, J.B. and Chang, E.B. (1994). Small
intestine hexose transport in experimental diabetes: increased
transporter mRNA and protein expression in enterocytes. J. Clin.
Invest. 93:578-585.
Musch MW, Bookstein C, Rocha F, Lucioni A, Ren H,
Daniel J, Xie Y, McSwine RL, Rao MC, Alverdy J, Chang EB. (2002).
Region-specific adaptation of apical Na/H exchangers after extensive
proximal small bowel resection. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver
Physiol Oct; 283(4):G975-85.
Neel, N., Creasy, B.M., Rankin, J.N., Pierce E.M,.
McCoy, M.E., Daner, R.H., Fowler, J.A., Daniel, J.C., and Lantz,
C.S. (2004). Absence of interleukin-3 does not affect the
severity of local and systemic anaphylaxis but does enhance eosinophil
infiltration in a mouse model of allergic peritonitis. Imm. Lett.
95(1) 37-44.
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