Dean Appling

Appling, Dean
Professor in Chemistry & Biochemistry
Lester J. Reed Professor In Biochemistry

E-mail: dappling@mail.utexas.edu

Website: http://research.cm.utexas.edu/dappling/

Main Office: WEL 4.230D
Phone: 471-5842

Alternate Office: WEL 4.244
Phone: 471-6836

Mailing Address:
Dept of Chemistry & Biochemistry
1 University Station A5300
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1167

Graduate Students:

  • Bolusani, Swetha

    • Post Doc Students:

  • Tibbetts, Anne

    • Research Summary:
       My laboratory studies the organization and regulation of metabolic pathways in eukaryotes. Eukaryotic cells are composed of many different compartments, such as cytoplasm, mitochondria, and nuclei. Although each of these compartments exhibits a distinct set of metabolic processes, they must all communicate with each other for the cell to function properly. Understanding how these processes are organized and controlled represents the next frontier in the study of metabolism. We have focused our efforts on folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism. This set of pathways is found in all cells and organisms, is central to fundamental processes such as nucleic acid and protein synthesis, and occurs in multiple compartments. We are particularly interested in understanding how one-carbon metabolism is organized in mitochondria, as these organelles are central players in many human diseases. We utilize a wide variety of biochemical and molecular genetic techniques, including metabolic engineering, to study the organization of these pathways in both mammalian and fungal systems.
     
    Research Images:

    Searching for mitochondrial translation factors - Mitochondrial respiration requires a functional mitochondrial protein synthesis system. Tetrazolium indicator plates are used to identify respiration-deficient yeast mutants that are defective in mitochondrial translation (white colonies on left plate). The red color of the colonies on the right plate indicates actively respiring mitochondria. These cells contain a plasmid with a gene that complements the mutation, and may represent a new mitochondrial translation factor. From graduate student David Lee in the Appling laboratory.

    Developmental expression of mitochondrial C1-THF synthase - Whole-mount in situ hybridization of mitochondrial C1-THF synthase in 9.5 day mouse embryo. Tissues that stain specifically are neural tube, vasculature of heart, limb bud, first brachial arch, cranialfacial region, umbilicus, inner ear. From graduate students Sky Pike (Appling lab) and Rashmi Rajendra (Artzt lab).

     
    Publications:
    Human Mitochondrial C1-Tetrahydrofolate Synthase: SubMitochondrial localization of the full-length enzyme and characterization of a short isoform (2009) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 481, 86-93.
    The gene for cobalamin-independent methionine synthase is essential in Candida albicans (2007) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 467, 218-226.
    Yeast Mitochondrial Initiator tRNA Is Methylated at Guanosine 37 by the Trm5-encoded tRNA (Guanine-N1-)-methyltransferase (2007) J. Biol. Chem. 282, 27744-27753.
    Global metabolic changes following loss of a feedback loop reveal dynamic steady states of the yeast metabolome (2007) Metabolic Engineering 9, 8-20.
    Kinetic and structural analysis of active site mutants of monofunctional NAD-dependent 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (2005) Biochemistry 44, 13163-13171.

     
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