Project description
Coming out of the darkness: understanding metabolic fluxes in phototrophic eukaryotes
Most of us are familiar with circadian rhythms, oscillatory internal timing conforming to the 24-hour rotation of the Earth. Metabolic processes are strongly linked to them to optimise energy use across the light-dark cycle. Similarly, dark-light transitions are very important to phototrophs, which get their energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. Dark-light transitions provoke changes in the redox state of photosynthetic components that modulate metabolic fluxes. The EU-funded CHLARABIDOX project studies the proteome-wide dynamics in response to light in two phototrophic species (the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the plant Arabidopsis thaliana). High temporal resolution of light-induced redox-related metabolic changes could help manipulate energy processes for biofuels production and identify modifications that help plants adjust to climate change.
Objective
Most organisms exhibit a diurnal metabolic cycle, especially phototrophs, whose metabolism is strictly dependent on light. Dark-light transitions are accompanied by dramatic changes in the redox state of photosynthetic components, which drives redox-based post-translational modification of protein cysteines, whose oxidation state can considerably impact protein activity, and thus regulate metabolism. Given the central role of redox metabolism in biology, the operation of thiol-disulphide based switches are well-appreciated as a metabolic acclimation strategy, and the study of cysteine modifications in proteomes is a major interest of contemporary biology. The objective of CHLARABIDOX is to go beyond inventories of redox modified proteins by monitoring the proteome-wide dynamics of disulphide-dithiol status in the context of a diurnal metabolic cycle in phototrophic eukaryotes, specifically, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the land plant Arabidopsis thaliana. An innovative chemoproteomic isoTOP-ABPP approach will be used in an experimental design with deep temporal resolution to capture a good fraction of the proteome with site specificity and quantitative information about reactivity. The discoveries will be made in the context of a body of literature on thioredoxin-dependent redox regulation of central carbon metabolism, which will serve as a priori validation. The outcome of the project is a proteome-wide view of the operation of regulatory redox sensors, anchored to accompanying rich datasets on physiology, metabolic potential, transcriptomics, proteomics and central metabolites, which would inform the operation of light-driven metabolic networks. Both systems are compatible with downstream modelling of diurnal metabolic fluxes and validation by reverse genetics approaches. A long term impact on strategies for manipulating metabolism for biofuels production, or manipulating photosynthesis for better acclimation to climate change is also envisioned.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsproteomics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyphycology
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistryelectrolysis
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbotany
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
41004 Sevilla
Spain