Physical Chemistry Seminar – Eric Jacobo, Chemistry Graduate Student

About the event

Speaker:  Eric Jacobo, chemistry graduate student

               Brozik Group

Talk title: Protein Interactions in the Monolignol Pathway in Sorghum Bicolor

Abstract: Sorghum is a potential biofuel crop, and it all begins with the first few proteins in the monolignol pathway. A better understanding of how these proteins interact may lead to possible modulation in their biomass composition. The first proteins include phenylalanine lyase (PAL), cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H), and cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR). PAL converts phenylalanine to trans-cinnamic acid, then converts to p-coumaric acid. C4H does this with the aid of an NADPH-dependent CPR, which hydrolyzes the trans-cinnamic acid. Through fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), we can determine the changes and interactions of each protein with each other and their substrates.