Teamwork of DEG Proteases in Protein Degradation on Both Sides of the Thylakoid Membrane

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Iwona Adamska
• Co-Applicant: Professor Dr. Zach Adam
• Subject Area: Plant Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Term: from 2011 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 200450095

The protein quality control is especially important in organisms that perform oxygenic photosynthesis and generate large amounts of reactive oxygen species as byproducts that might lead to oxidative damage of proteins. The main target of photooxidative damage in green plant tissues exposed to light is the chloroplast and its photosynthetic apparatus. We demonstrated in the past that photodamaged D1 protein from photosystem II reaction center is cleaved by teamwork of serine DEG proteases located at stromal and lumenal sides of the thylakoid membrane. We intend to study the degradation of photodamaged photosynthetic proteins by a combined action of DEG proteases located at both sides of the thylakoid membrane. In a joint effort we plan to search for individual (stroma and thylakoid lumen proteins) and shared (thylakoid membrane proteins with termini at both membrane sides) DEG degradomes (a set of substrates) and investigate the role of post-translational modifications in the regulation of proteolytic activity at substrate and DEG protease levels.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel