Klaas Van Wijk
Cornell University, NY·Plant Science & Agriculture
The first amino acid at the start of a protein, its N-terminus, helps decide how long the protein survives. Under the N-degron pathway model, certain amino acids act as "destroy me" tags (degrons) when they are abnormally exposed at a protein's start.
- Fields
Plant Science & Agriculture
Biochemistry
Biology
- Topics
chloroplast
N-degron pathway
N-end rule
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Determine which N-terminal amino acids act as degrons (destruction signals) in chloroplasts, using a new in vivo quantitative reporter system and testing the roles of the recognizer ClpS1 and the Clp chaperone-protease system.
- Define how ClpS1 and ClpF choose proteins and deliver them to the Clp protease, using an in vivo ClpC1 chaperone trapping approach to capture bound proteins, then map the degrons of the proteins found.
- Determine how the N-domain of glutamate tRNA reductase, an enzyme in chlorophyll synthesis, is recognized as a conditional target by ClpS1 and ClpF, using a unique transgenic reporter in plants.
More about the research
Chloroplasts are the plant structures that carry out photosynthesis, and they descend from ancient bacteria. They have their own version of this pathway, built on a bacteria-like protein-destroying machine called the Clp chaperone-protease system. In this system, the protein ClpS1 acts as a recognizer: it spots proteins carrying degrons and delivers them to the Clp machinery. Because chloroplasts drive much of the planet's energy capture, understanding how they control protein stability matters for basic plant biology and for crop engineering.
Why it matters
Knowing which protein starts mark chloroplast proteins for destruction could help scientists design stable engineered proteins that are sent to chloroplasts. Such proteins have uses in plant-made pharmaceuticals and in biofortification, which means boosting the nutrient content of crops. The work also adds basic understanding of protein quality control in the organelle that drives photosynthesis.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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The school
Cornell University: 37 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 537 research doctorates a year.
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