Dissecting the Dynamic Landscape of TCA-Cycle Enzyme Interactions in Plant Mitochondria

• Applicant: Dr. Holger Eubel
• Subject Area: Plant Physiology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 525132279

The tricarboxylic acid cycle is an important metabolic hub of cellular metabolism and essential for mitochondrial ATP production. In plants, it is subject to a functional oscillation caused by photosynthetic activity during the day and its absence during the night. It is currently not fully understood how this functional oscillation is regulated. The aim of this project is to clarify whether changing interactions of enzymes in the tricarboxylic acid cycle have a regulatory influence on the tricarboxylic acid cycle. For this purpose, the interactions of tricarboxylic acid cycle proteins are analyzed using gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry based methods, which enables insight into abundance and composition of assemblies of these enzymes. In a first step, two already existing approaches for the analysis of protein:protein interactions will be combined. This will not only reduce artificial degradation of protein assemblies during the procedure, but also provide structural insights. In a second step, the differences between the protein interactions of tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes during the day and during the night are investigated quantitatively. The third part of the project then aims at identifying the mechanisms that cause the changes in the protein-protein interactions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants