1985 — 1990 |
Welti, Ruth |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Characterization of Membrane Lipid Domains @ Kansas State University
membrane structure; membrane lipids; phospholipids; crosslink; intracellular membranes; acyl group; high performance liquid chromatography; liver; Escherichia coli; fluorescence polarization;
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1 |
1992 — 1994 |
Welti, Ruth |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Fluorescence Microscopic Visualization of Lipid Domains @ Kansas State University
This proposal is to determine the relative importance of acyl chains and phospholipid head groups in the formation of lipid domains in erythrocyte membranes and model membranes. Fluorescence digital imaging microscopy and steady state fluorescence polari- zation techniques will be used. Fluorescently labeled phospholipids which differ in head groups and acyl chains will be synthesized or purchased, and the distribution of pairs differing in either head groups or acyl chains will be determined by both techniques. Three results are possible, and should allow resolution of disparate results obtained by the two techniques. %%% All cellular membranes contain compounds known as phospholipids, which have two distinct components: groups which prefer water, because they have charged parts, and groups which are components of fats. It is not clear whether the two components are equally impor- tant, or whether one is very important and the other is less so. Experiments are planned using two quite different techniques. Both measure the environment of specially labeled phospholipids. Mixtures of these lipids will be used with model membranes and membranes from red blood cells, to see if both components contribute equally to positioning in the membranes or not.
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2001 — 2005 |
Welti, Ruth Williams, Todd Wang, Xuemin [⬀] Shah, Jyoti (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Metabolomic Profiling of Membrane Lipids and Their Compositional Dynamics in Plant Stress Responses @ Kansas State University
Membrane lipids comprise diverse molecular species, and their composition differs from membrane to membrane. In addition, membrane lipid composition changes in response to internal and external cues. Furthermore, within a membrane, there may be microdomains with distinct lipid constituents and particular functions. However, it is not understood how these distinct compositions and their dynamics are generated and what their functions are in the cell. The objectives of this project are to use a metabolomic approach to determine cellular membrane lipid composition and to understand the regulation and role of membrane lipid compositional dynamics in plant responses to stresses. A highly sensitive approach based on electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) will be established. ESI-MS/MS will be employed to profile membrane lipid molecular species and to determine the compositional dynamics in Arabidopsis plants undergoing temperature and drought stresses. To understand how lipid changes are regulated, this project will investigate enzymes involved in generating the membrane lipid compositional dynamics. Arabidopsis lines, abrogated of various isoforms of phospholipase D, the major lipolytic enzyme family, will be instrumental in the analysis. In addition, lipid molecular species of the defense mutant ssi2 that is defective in stearoyl-ACP desaturase and its suppressor lines will be profiled to determine the relationship between lipid composition and alterations in defense responses. The capability to combine full lipid profiling with cellular analysis of the machinery that generates compositional changes should yield new information on how cellular machinery and metabolites interact in a dynamic manner in the cellular response to changing environments. Membrane lipids are vital biological constituents, providing structural backbones for biological membranes and crucial resources for producing second messengers in regulating cellular and organismal functions. Membrane lipids comprise diverse molecular species, and the composition differs from membrane to membrane. The lipid composition changes in response to internal and external cues. However, it is not understood how these distinct compositions and their dynamics are generated and what their functions are in the cell. This project will establish a highly effective approach based on electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry and use it to determine cellular membrane lipid composition and the role of membrane lipid compositional changes in plant responses to stresses. Extensive profiling of membrane lipids and their metabolites will yield unprecedented information on how cellular machinery and metabolites interact in a dynamic manner in the cellular response to changing environments.
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2004 |
Williams, Todd Welti, Ruth Wang, Xuemin [⬀] Shah, Jyoti (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Metabolomic Profiling of Lipids and Their Compositional Dynamics in Plant Stress Responses @ Kansas State University
This project assembles researchers with complementary expertise to develop the metabolomic capacity to quantitatively profile lipid molecular species and their changes in plants. The long-term goal of this project is to understand how cellular lipids and their metabolites interact to produce and maintain complex cell membranes and to regulate cell functions. The goal of this project is two-fold: One is to develop a comprehensive capacity to fully profile cellular lipid species, using a mass spectrometry-based, common platform. The other is to use the profiling capability to determine the metabolic function of enigmatic, patatin-like acyl hydrolases and several putative lipases involved in plant stress responses. The specific objectives of this application are to: (1) profile and quantify regulatory lipids: free fatty acids, selected fatty acid derivatives, lysolipid species, and phosphoinositides; (2) profile and quantify neutral glycerides: diacylglycerol and triacylglycerol; (3) profile and quantify sphingolipid molecular species; (4) discover new lipid species and metabolites; (5) use the profiling capability to determine the metabolic functions of putative lipolytic enzymes: the patatin-like proteins, RL-PLA, AAM10310, AtSABP2, PRLIP1, PAD4, and EDS1. Sensitive and efficient lipid profiling by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) has the potential to achieve full characterization of cellular lipids. The development of this capability will contribute greatly to the emerging, comprehensive research strategy, and metabolomics. Lipid profiling will provide a powerful strategy to address biological questions that involve the function of lipids. The functional studies will produce insights into in vivo substrates and products of Arabidopsis lipid-hydrolyzing enzymes, the conditions under which the enzymes are activated, and the spatial distribution of the activity.
The project will have broader impacts. In addition to training graduate students through research activities, this project will bring current knowledge of metabolic profiling and functional genomics to the classroom. It will also provide an opportunity to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in the plant sciences. The capability and service provided by the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center will be important to many researchers. The project will identify important metabolic and regulatory steps mediating plant growth and stress responses. Manipulation of these steps may lead to production of crop plants with enhanced stress tolerance and increased product quality and/or productivity.
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2005 — 2008 |
Welti, Ruth Tomich, John (co-PI) [⬀] Kanost, Michael (co-PI) [⬀] Blecha, Frank (co-PI) [⬀] Hulbert, Scot (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Acquisition of Mass Spectrometers For the Kansas State University Functional Genomics Laboratories @ Kansas State University
A grant has been awarded to Kansas State University under the direction of Dr. Ruth Welti for partial support of acquisition of analytical instruments that will be utilized by scientists working in the areas of plant metabolism and signaling systems in animals. While, in the past decade the complete sequences of many plant and animal genomes have been elucidated, the function of many genes and their protein products are not fully understood. Two approaches to understanding gene function (functional genomics) are (1) proteomics, in which the protein gene products carrying out specific cellular functions are identified and characterized, and (2) metabolomics, in which metabolites, formed by the action of the protein gene products, are identified and quantified. Two branches of metabolomics are glycomics, which deals with analysis of carbohydrate metabolites, and lipidomics, which deals with lipid metabolite analysis. The characterization of both protein gene products and most metabolites can be best accomplished by mass spectrometry, a technique in which biomolecules are ionized and identified by the masses of molecular ions and their derivative ions. The goal of this project is to acquire four mass spectrometers at Kansas State University with which to accomplish this research. These instruments will be utilized for functional genomics by users at Kansas State University and elsewhere.
The users of the requested instrumentation work in two major areas of functional genomics, plant metabolism and signaling systems in animals. The plant scientists are investigating gene expression and function during plant abiotic and biotic stress and during development. The animal scientists are utilizing mass spectrometric strategies to understand the interplay and roles of proteins and lipids in lipoprotein complexes, membrane lipid rafts, membrane channel function, and immune responses. Acquisition of the mass spectrometers will open doors for new ways of determining the functions of biomolecules, enhancing both scientific and technical training. Formal and informal training on the utility and use of the new instrumentation will be offered to instrument users, including technical staff, undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty at all levels.
Acquisition of these mass spectrometers will broaden and improve the training and research capabilities of undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral students, and faculty. The availability of these instruments will enhance and strengthen the research programs of life scientists in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture, Human Ecology, and Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, and scientists at other institutions in the United States and around the world. Use of the instruments should lead to greater understanding of gene product functions, of the roles of lipids, and of interactions between proteins and lipids in plants and animals. Making mass spectrometry instrumentation available for fundamental research in chemistry and biology will lead to practical applications in industry, medicine, and agriculture.
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2005 — 2014 |
Nikolau, Basil [⬀] Nikolau, Basil [⬀] Nikolau, Basil [⬀] Welti, Ruth Sumner, Lloyd Rhee, Seung Fiehn, Oliver (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Arabidopsis 2010: Metabolomics: a Functional Genomics Tool For Deciphering Functions of Arabidopsis Genes in the Context of Metabolic and Regulatory Networks
The functions of over 1/3 of the annotated protein-coding genes of the Arabidopsis genome are still unknown, and the annotation of an even larger portion of the genome is not sufficiently accurate for unambiguous assignment of function at the biochemical and physiological levels. This project will bring together a consortium of multidisciplinary collaborators to establish pipelines for generating metabolomics data-streams and to provide statistical and computational interpretation of the resulting integrated datasets. The goal is to develop metabolite-profiling capabilities that will enhance the research community's ability to formulate testable hypotheses concerning Arabidopsis gene functions. The consortium has developed metabolomic platforms that together detect approximately 1,800 metabolites, of which 900 are chemically defined. The aim of the project is to apply these established metabolite-profiling platforms to reveal changes in the metabolome associated with knockout mutations in up to 200 Arabidopsis genes of unknown function and compare these to similar mutants in 50 genes of known function. The consortium will disseminate these data via the existing multi-functional metabolomics database: www.plantmetabolomics.org. Enhancement of this database and associated statistical and visualization toolsets will enable researchers to formulate testable computational models of the metabolic network of Arabidopsis. The successful completion of these goals and integration with other NSF-sponsored functional genomics and cyber infrastructure developments will generate transformational resources for ultimately modeling the complex metabolism of Arabidopsis.
Broader Impacts The project will develop new resources for the research community that will enhance the capability to globally profile genome expression at the metabolite level. These metabolite resources, in collaboration with other NSF-funded resource development projects, will enable researchers in the community to formulate credible, testable hypotheses concerning gene function. The project will foster the development of the science of metabolomics as a functional genomics tool through workshops, internships and organization of national and international meetings. The project will also develop new activities to enhance the impact of science education and training in the community, by conducting workshops for researchers at consortium labs and at international biological meetings. In addition, research internships will be offered to undergraduate students, eight of whom will have the opportunity to experience international science training in a European genomics laboratory. These research-based training internships will illustrate to the students the synergy that accompanies the integrated applications of chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, bioinformatics and computational sciences to solving complex biological problems.
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0.979 |
2006 — 2008 |
Welti, Ruth Shah, Jyoti [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Role of Arabidopsis Sfd1 in Systemic Acquired Resistance @ Kansas State University
Systemic acquired resistance is an inducible defense mechanism in plants that confers enhanced resistance against a broad-spectrum of pathogens. The activation of SAR requires the translocation of an unknown factor through the phloem. The Arabidopsis thaliana SFD1 gene, which encodes a dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) reductase, is required for SAR. DHAP reductases catalyze the interconversion of DHAP and glycerol-3-phosphate, which provides the glycerol backbone for glycerolipid biosynthesis. Lipid metabolism is altered in the sfd1 mutant, suggesting that a lipid(s) has an important role in SAR. The long-term objectives of this proposal are to study the role of SFD1 in SAR, thereby testing the above hypothesis. To achieve these objectives, a combination of genetic, molecular and biochemical approaches will be pursued to characterize the biochemical function of SFD1. In addition, the role of a SFD1-derived factor in the phloem during the activation of SAR will be addressed with a novel bioassay in combination with highly sensitive mass-spectrometric approaches. The proposed research will contribute greatly to the understanding of long-distance signaling in SAR. The project will provide an excellent opportunity to integrate state-of-the-art research and education by bringing current knowledge of lipid metabolism and the genetic, molecular and biochemical basis of plant stress responses into the classroom. In addition to providing training to graduate students and post doctoral fellows, this project will engage undergraduates in research in the biological sciences and broaden the participation of underrepresented groups. In particular, an undergraduate student from a non-Ph.D.-granting institution will be recruited to work on the project each summer. Results from this project will have potential benefits to society at large. The lipid(s) identified by the proposed study could provide new targets for enhancing disease resistance in plants, thus limiting the utilization of toxic chemicals to protect plants, thereby improving the quality of our environment and health.
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2009 — 2014 |
Welti, Ruth Gadbury, Gary (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Metabolomic Profiling and Functions of Oxidized Membrane Lipids in Plant Stress Responses @ Kansas State University
Metabolomic profiling and functions of oxidized membrane lipids in plant stress responses
Ruth Welti and Gary L. Gadbury, Kansas State University Jyoti Shah, University of North Texas Xuemin (Sam) Wang, University of Missouri, St. Louis and Danforth Plant Science Center
Increasing evidence indicates that environmental stresses, such as freezing, high salinity, and pathogen infection, lead to oxidative modification of plant membrane lipids to produce "ox-lipids". In contrast to oxylipins, such as jasmonic acid and its derivatives, whose significance in plant growth and defense against stress has been well documented, little is known about the functions of ox-lipids in plants. Ox-lipids may function as mediators signaling stress responses, they may represent damage that could serve as a protective buffer against oxidative damage elsewhere in the cell, or they may be long-term modifications that might function as stress "memory". Thus, ox-lipids have the potential to be essential mediators of plant response to the environment. The goals of the research project are to understand the role of ox-lipids in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses and to determine the function of members of two enzyme families, lipoxygenases and acyl hydrolases, which are likely to play important roles in the metabolism of oxidized lipids. The project will test the hypotheses that patterns of ox-lipids are fingerprints of individual stresses and that production and/or removal of specific ox-lipids by lipoxygenases and acyl hydrolases contributes to plant adaptation to stress. Under freezing and high salinity stress (abiotic stress) and infection by a fungal pathogen, Botrytis cinerea, and a bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae (biotic stresses), the stress-response phenotype and production of ox-lipids by wild-type plants and lipoxygenase- and acyl hydrolase-deficient mutant plants will be documented. The data will shed light on the roles of lipoxygenases and acyl hydrolases in stress responses and in production of specific ox-lipid patterns. Analysis of the stress-phenotype and ox-lipid profiles will lead to identification of ox-lipids that are candidates for mediating plant stress responses. The function of candidate lipid mediators will be tested by lipid analysis and phenotypic analysis of plants overexpressing enzymes that produce the candidate lipids and by supplementing mutant and wild-type plants with the putative mediators. The results have the potential to fill critical gaps in understanding of how lipid metabolic enzymes, cellular lipids, and their metabolites interact to influence plant performance.
Broader Impacts: Carrying out the proposed work will provide training for multiple students and postdoctoral trainees at four institutions and bring current knowledge of metabolic profiling, functional genomics, and stress biology to the classroom. It will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in research through the McNair Program at the University of North Texas, the Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at Kansas State University, the Des Lee Collaborative Scholarships at the University of Missouri, and the Danforth Plant Science Center NSF REU-Site program, which has achieved over 30% participation by underrepresented minority groups in the past several years. It will involve high school students in the research through the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at University of North Texas and through the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program in St. Louis. Organization of mass spectral data on plant lipids, and particularly on stress-induced lipids, into a web-accessible database will provide a foundation for further investigation of the structure and function of lipids, and particularly novel lipids, and will facilitate integration of lipidomics data with other metabolomics and functional genomics data. Analytical capabilities developed in this work will become enabling technologies available to researchers worldwide via the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center. This work also will provide insight into the identity of metabolic steps with potential to enhance stress tolerance in plants and improve agricultural productivity and quality.
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2012 — 2015 |
Welti, Ruth Schrick, Kathrin (co-PI) [⬀] Durrett, Timothy |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of a High-Sensitivity Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer For the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center @ Kansas State University
A high-sensitivity electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with an ultra-performance liquid chromatography system will be acquired for the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center (KLRC), an analytical laboratory performing mass spectrometry-based lipid analysis for scientists from all over the world. Accessories required for lipid profiling (analysis) include a robotic autosampler and a high-volume syringe pump for sample introduction and a server to provide mass spectral data processing capabilities. A coordinator/operator will schedule and maintain the instrument and coordinate its use to ensure access, giving priority to scientists whose projects require analytical sensitivity or the high throughput that a high-sensitivity mass spectrometer can provide. The requested instrument, a Waters Xevo TQ-S, is at least 40-fold more sensitive than triple quadrupole mass spectrometers acquired by KLRC in 2003 and 2006. Acquisition of a high-sensitivity electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometer will dramatically increase KLRC?s ability to detect and develop analyses for scarce compounds, including previously undescribed lipids, and will provide capability to separate and detect isomeric compounds. Planned projects investigate the functions of lipids and lipid metabolizing, transporting, and signaling genes and gene products in plants, animals, and/or protozoa. Mass spectrometry-based lipid analysis, or lipidomics, has not reached its ultimate potential as an analytical tool, because the methods, materials, and computational resources to effectively carry out lipid profiling are not conveniently available. As part of this project, KLRC personnel will aid scientists who wish to implement lipidomics analyses at their institutions. In particular, KLRC will provide protocols for sample preparation, mass spectral methods, and use of an online data processing system. KLRC will share standard compounds, as feasible, and deliver web-based training and consultation to those setting up lipidomics analytical protocols at their institutions.
Acquisition of the high-sensitivity triple quadrupole mass spectrometer and accessories by the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center will enhance or enable proposed and ongoing scientific plans of researchers from fifteen laboratories in eight U.S. states and three countries. The high-sensitivity instrument also will be made available to new users and over 200 past and current KLRC analytical users. Use of the much-needed, high-sensitivity electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometer will directly impact and advance the scientific training of 20 postdoctoral trainees, 32 graduate students, and 47 undergraduates in 15 research programs. The benefited undergraduates will include nine students from historically Black Langston University who are analyzing lipids during light stress responses in an ongoing project. Trainees from Massachusetts and China will visit KLRC for hands-on training. A new lecture and laboratory course on lipidomic technologies, suitable for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students, will be offered at Kansas State University. Using the high-sensitivity triple quadrupole mass spectrometer and accessories, functions of lipids and lipid-related metabolism and signaling will be investigated in animals, plants, and other organisms. Several plant biologists will use the instrument to delineate and functionally characterize the lipid metabolic events that occur during plant responses to environmental stress and during development, including events that regulate the production of seed oils. The new instrument also will aid scientists identifying mediators of tissue injury and defining "substrates" for transport proteins. The ability, provided by the instrumentation, to discover and quantify low-concentration lipids will consistently add value to ongoing and future projects by revealing information that will be transformative in understanding metabolic and signaling pathways.
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2014 — 2016 |
Wurtele, Eve Nikolau, Basil Welti, Ruth Gadbury, Gary (co-PI) [⬀] Naidoo, Gnanambal |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Lipidomic Profiling, Dynamics, and Functions of Head-Group Acylation of Membrane Lipids in Plant Stress Responses @ Kansas State University
Membranes separate the cell from its environment and compartments within the cell from one another. In the cells of a plant, membranes are composed of lipids. These lipids also have other crucial metabolic and cellular functions that are only now being established. These lipids also have crucial metabolic and signaling functions that are only now being established. As plants develop and are exposed to environmental signals, membrane lipids are extensively chemically modified. Recent advances in lipid analysis have revealed that addition of a fatty acid to a membrane lipid, called polar lipid head-group acylation, is a major modification process, but relatively little is known about this process or its physiological significance. This project will address the hypothesis that head-group acylation of lipids functions to improve plant adaptation to environmental stress. To identify the role of head-group acylation when plants are under stress, genes encoding enzymes responsible for head-group-acylated lipid metabolism will be identified. By examining plants that are missing these genes and enzymes, in comparison to plants that contain them, the functions of membrane lipid head-group acylation in plant stress responses will be determined. These activities will identify metabolic steps with potential to enhance stress tolerance in plants and improve agricultural productivity and quality. Relevant data will be integrated into a plant functional genomic knowledge base. Further, the work will provide interdisciplinary training in biostatistics, chemistry, and biology to postdoctoral trainees, and it will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in research through collaboration with a faculty mentor and undergraduate student at historically black Langston University.
This project aims to improve current understanding of the role of membrane lipid modification in producing and maintaining complex cell membranes, and influencing organismal performance. In the context of whole glycerolipidomes, new mass spectrometry-based approaches will be used to identify and characterize changes in lipid head-group acylation in response to a biotic stress, Pseudomonas syringae infection, and an abiotic stress, phosphate deficiency. To identify the gene product(s) responsible for head-group acylation, the lipid profiles of knockout mutants of candidate genes will be obtained and compared to the lipid profiles of wild-type plants. Data from functional analysis of the knockout mutants under stress will be correlated with lipid levels, providing additional information about the roles of head-group acylation in plant function. The effects of application of acylated head groups or head-group acylated lipids to plants also will be tested. Lipid profiling and functional data will be integrated into a novel metabolic database to expand knowledge of metabolic networks.
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2017 — 2020 |
Morris, Geoffrey (co-PI) [⬀] Welti, Ruth Sv, Krishnajagadish Schrick, Kathrin (co-PI) [⬀] Durrett, Timothy |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of An Electrospray Ionization Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer With Ion Mobility Spectrometry For Improved Plant Lipidomics @ Kansas State University
An award is made to Kansas State University to acquire a Sciex 6500+ electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with a linear ion trap, SelexION ion mobility spectrometry, a binary pump, and an autosampler for sample introduction, to be used in analysis of lipids from plants. The instrument is to be housed at the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center, an established analytical laboratory performing mass spectrometry-based lipid analysis at Kansas State University. The mass spectrometer acquisition will directly impact and advance the training of postdoctoral trainees, graduate students, and undergraduates. Early-career faculty and faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions will benefit from access to state-of-the-art lipid analysis. Undergraduates learning and using mass spectrometry will include students at Kansas State University, including participants in the McNair and other undergraduate scholars? programs, and from historically black Fayetteville State University. Training will include an annual workshop on mass spectrometry-based lipid analysis (lipidomics) for faculty and trainees and a research club focused on analysis and interpretation of lipidomics data on crop species. Lipidomics has not reached its ultimate potential as an analytical tool, because the methods, materials, and computational resources to effectively carry out lipid profiling, particularly for plant lipids, are not conveniently available. Thus, Kansas Lipidomics Research Center personnel will aid scientists who wish to implement lipidomics analyses at their institutions by providing consultation, protocols for sample preparation, plug-and-play mass spectral methods, internal standards, and data processing systems, resulting in data suitable for upload to and analysis at a publicly available database. Knowledge obtained through use of the acquired mass spectrometer will be applied to improve food, industry, and energy applications in major crops including sorghum, camelina, and wheat.
The acquired Sciex 6500+ mass spectrometer with accessories will provide improved definition of lipid structure while maintaining high sample throughput. The ion mobility spectrometry accessory will improve ability to specify lipid structural features without slowing the analytical work flow, compared to current technologies. The improved lipid structural specificity will provide scientists with the ability to unambiguously assign specific lipids to metabolic maps, connecting quantitative and structural information on plant lipids directly with genes and enzymes, thus transforming our understanding of lipid metabolic pathways in model and crop plants. The mass spectrometer acquisition will deliver critical capabilities for the projects of researchers from fifteen laboratories. Additionally, the mass spectrometer will be made available to new users as well as past and current Kansas Lipidomics Research Center analytical users. Projects will use the high structural definition provided by the Sciex 6500+ with ion mobility spectrometry to link the lipidome accurately with plant genomes and phenomes, while investigating the roles of lipids and the functions of lipid metabolizing and signaling gene products in plants. Lipids will be analyzed in genome wide association studies, and other large-scale studies of genetically variant plant populations, identifying candidate genes putatively functioning in lipid metabolism and signaling during plant stress responses. Other projects will biochemically and functionally characterize lipid metabolic events that occur during plant responses to stress and during growth and development. The new instrument also will advance the work of scientists modifying plant seed oil composition for increased yield and quality. Thus, the acquired mass spectrometer will facilitate food, industrial, and energy crop improvement.
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