Molecular dissection of factors controlling flux through the glucosinolate pathway

There is a growing appreciation of the importance of new levels of metabolic regulatory networks. This project takes advantage of recent breakthroughs in identification of the factors controlling flux through the biosynthetic pathway of the natural products glucosinolates in the model plant Arabidopsis. Recent advances in glucosinolate research have shown that flux through the pathway is controlled by not only transcription factors, but also by biosynthetic genes in the glucosinolate pathway.

 

The biosynthesis of glucosinolates is a very good model system for studying regulation of flux through a pathway based on the availability of systems biology approaches, genomics tools, knockout mutant collections as well as natural variation amongst accessions for Arabidopsis. In collaboration with Prof. Daniel Kliebenstein, UCDavis, we are currently investigating the underlying molecular mechanisms controlling flux through the glucosinolate pathway at the molecular level.