Objective
Plants synthesize a vast array of natural products that serve crucial functions in protection against pests, as attractants for pollinators, as structural components and as signalling molecules. Such natural products offer a great potential for the development of new phyto-pharmaceuticals, biomaterials, and to enhance crop properties. But a fundamental pre-requisite for such biotechnological developments is a thorough understanding of the underlying biosynthetic pathways. Recent genome sequencing projects have revealed the existence of large gene families likely to encode the enzymes forming these pathways. The largest among them is the super-family of cytochrome P450 (CYP450) monooxygenases.
The size of this family reflects the complexity of plant secondary metabolism, and demonstrates that most of it is still unexplored. CYP450s often constitute rate-limiting steps and points-of-no-return in metabolic networks. They are thus under tight developmental control, and frequently respond transcriptionally to environmental cues. Here we propose a new integrative approach for the functional characterization of the orphan CYP450s in Arabidopsis. It combines bioinformatics with reverse genetics, metabolic profiling and reverse biochemistry. Based on large-scale expression data, co-expression analysis with known and putative metabolic genes will be exploited to place CYP450s onto existing metabolic pathways, and to identify novel metabolic networks.
Based on these results, selected CYP450 genes will be characterized u sing reverse genetics (over-expressers, knock out mutants) combined with targeted metabolic profiling. Employing an available collection of recombinant enzymes, biochemical functions will be identified, either directly or by using medium throughput enzymatic screening methods. We thereby hope to promote the field of natural product biosynthesis, and to develop a widely applicable strategy for characterizing large gene families and secondary pathways in plants.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry metabolomes
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology biomaterials
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2004-MOBILITY-12
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
IRG - Marie Curie actions-International re-integration grants
Coordinator
STRASBOURG
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.