BBMB Bulletin

May 1998
Volume 37, No. 1

SYMPOSIA
Minisymposium on Carbohydrate Chemistry and Enzymology (January 7, 1998)
The semester started with a minisymposium on carbohydrate chemistry and enzymology. The symposium was sponsored by The Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Enzymology, ISU and The Research Center for New Biomaterials in Agriculture, Seoul National University, Korea. It was organized by Prof. John Robyt and Prof. Kwan Hwa Park of the two laboratories. There were fifteen presentations made by various faculty and students at ISU from seven different departments or programs. Outside participants included scientists from Pioneer Hybrid, Grain Processing Corporation, Penford Products, and DuPont. The topics were wide ranging from the characterization of maize starches and enzymes, carbohydrate nutrition, crystallography, enzyme kinetics and mechanisms. This was an energetic way to start off the semester, especially on a cold, wintry day in January. Comments ranged from "great" to "are you going to do it next year?".

Spring Symposium (March 27-28, 1998)
The fourth annual spring symposium was held in the middle of the semester on March 27-28. There were many registrants from 14 colleges and universities. The focus of the symposium this year was enzymes. Invited speakers were Prof. Vern Schramm, Patrick Casey, Jack Saari, Bryce Plapp, and Paul Schimmel. The lectures were of high quality and there were some outstanding student presentations and posters. Three awards, given for outstanding presentations, went to John Stickney, Andrea Gorrell, and Michelle Booden. Outstanding poster awards went to Mary Beatty, Rob Bellin, and Kaljo Khan. Special thanks and congratulations to Prof. Herb Fromm, the chairperson, and to his student committee of Andrea Gorrell, Bob Mallis, and Jamillah Zamoon.

Summer Symposia:
Prof. Janice Buss will be co-chairing a FASEB Summer Research Symposium on Lipid Modification of Proteins in Snowmass, CO on August 8-14.

Prof. Martha James will chair a minisymposium on starch metabolism at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Physiologists entitled "Plant Biology 98" at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, June 27-July 1.

MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
John Robyt, Rup Mukerjea, and Nam Soo Han attended the American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas on March 29-April 1 and presented four papers in the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry.

Nam Soo Han and John F. Robyt, "Biosynthesis of Acetobacter xylinum Cellulose: Mechanism of Cellulose Chain Elongation."

Rupendra Mukerjea and John F. Robyt, "Synthesis of Sucrose-dicarboxylic Acid Products by Two Phase Reactions."

Kwan H. Park, Myo J. Kim, Hee S. Lee, Nam Soo Han, Doman Kim, and John F. Robyt, "Synthesis of Acarbose Transfer Products by the Action of Bacillus stearothermophilus Maltogenic Amylase with Various Acceptors."

Pahn S. Chan and John F. Robyt, "Controlled Reactions and Specificity in the Oxidation of the Primary Alcohol Groups of Cyclomaltodextrins with 2,2,6,6-Tetramethyl-1-Piperidine Oxoammonium Ion."

At the meeting, Prof. Robyt was given the Wolfrom Award by the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry for his contributions to carbohydrate chemistry and enzymology. At the awards banquet, Prof. Bernie White and Dr. Margaret Clarke of the USDA Southern Regional Research Center gave presentations on John's career and contributions to carbohydrate chemistry.

Three poster papers were presented by the Graves Protein Group at a national meeting of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology:

Alyssa C. Biorn and Donald J. Graves, "Probing the Specificity of the Glycogen Phosphorylase/Phosphorylase Kinase Interaction Through Site-directed Mutagenesis."

Cheryl Suitt Bartleson and Donald J. Graves, "Expression and Analysis of PHK86, the Autoinhibitory Calmodulin Binding C-Terminus of Phosphorylase Kinase."

Donald J. Graves, R. J. Young, and K. J. Jarvill-Taylor, "Use of Peptide Substrates in Characterizing the Binding Characteristics of Pertussis Toxin."

A platform talk at the symposium on Integration of Signaling Pathways was given by the Buss Group:

Michelle Booden, Steven Punke, Tara Baker, and Janice Buss, "Non-farnesylated H-Ras Can be Palmitoylated and Trigger Potent Differentiation and Transformation."

In December 1997, Prof. Jim Olson participated in a workshop in Lyon, France on carotenoids in cancer prevention. The workshop was sponsored by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization. He apparently made suitable contributions, as he was invited back to participate in another workshop in May - this time on vitamin A in cancer prevention.

Prof. Olson was selected to give the keynote address, entitled "Carotenoids through the Millennia", at the third Gordon Conference on Carotenoids held in January 1998 in Ventura, CA. This spring, Prof. Olson also participated in a workshop at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, MD on the potential effect of lutein and zeaxanthin on health.

ACTIVITIES OF FACULTY AND STAFF
Our newest faculty member, Prof. Amy Andreotti, presented seminars at two Iowa schools to meet faculty and talk with students about graduate study in B&B. She visited the Chemistry Department at Grinnell College on March 4th and in April the Chemistry Department at the University of Northern Iowa. Both seminars focused on the protein structural studies she completed as a postdoctoral fellow with future studies she plans to carry out at ISU. Amy has also been busy giving seminars on campus. She made research presentations to the Physical Chemistry Group, the Solid State Physics Group, and to the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Preventive Medicine.

Prof. Dave Metzler retired in September 1997. Dave says he is not retired, just emeritus. We see Dave every day on the 4th floor of the Molecular Biology Building working diligently on his second magnum opus biochemistry text with his faithful helpers Carol Metzler and Elitza Markova.

Prof. Bernie White has a new adventure this summer. Instead of chasing 7th and 8th graders in the "Molecular Biology for Youth" program around the Molecular Biology Building, as he has done for the last ten years, he will be chasing 23 ISU undergraduate students around Beijing, China. The students will be spending six weeks at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The program is jointly sponsored by Iowa State and Cargill Co. The students will be taking classes and visiting agricultural sites in and around Beijing. Bernie left May 17th for China and will be the on-site coordinator for the program. Good luck, Bernie!!!

Prof. John Robyt's text/reference book on carbohydrates, "Essentials of Carbohydrate Chemistry" came out in January 1998. It is published by Springer-Verlag and contains 400 pages full of carbohydrate structures, references, and chemical and biochemical information on carbohydrates that John thinks are essential. John will be using his book as a text for a short course (20 hours of lecture and 5 hours of discussion) he will be giving June 8-12 at the Holiday Inn Gateway Center in Ames.

Profs. Martha James and Alan Myers continue genetic studies on the biochemical aspects of starch in different maize mutants . In January, Martha traveled to the island of Molokai, Hawaii to personally hand pollinate 5,000 corn plants in her winter nursery. She was there about one month. More recently, she planted the seed for her summer nursery at the ISU Curtiss Farm. She grows plants that have mutations in the sugary 1 gene that codes for a starch debranching enzyme, the dull 1 gene that codes for a major starch synthase, and the sugary 3 gene that somehow participates in starch synthesis. Martha and Alan are attempting to clone mutants that they suspect are involved in starch biosynthesis. They cross these mutants into each of two separate backgrounds to better analyze the specific effects of each of the mutations. In the fall, Martha will harvest her corn. While awaiting her crops, she analyzes the products from the previous harvest.

Prof. Jim Olson's research group will again for the third year have Prof. Guiseppe Genchi of the University of Bari, Italy and Prof. Robert Bergen of the University of Central Arkansas, Conway AR in the lab conducting research. Dr. Bergen is one of Prof. Olson's former students. They will be joined by Ms. Amanda Ueltschy, an undergrad BB biochemistry major who received a RABS summer fellowship.

Prof. Alan Myers will be taking a faculty improvement leave this year to add to his expertise in maize starch mutants. Six months will be spent at the University of Lille in France, working in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Ball. During this time Alan will be determining the chemical structures of starches from a variety of maize mutants and trying to implement new technology for the quantitative determination of the chain length distribution of amylopectins. This new technology utilizes polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to detect derivatized linear maltodextrins by fluorescence on the gel. Alan will also spend part of his FIL in Ames working on a review for Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews and other manuscripts.

Prof. Seiya Chiba of Hokkaido University, Sapporo Japan will spend two weeks in Prof. Robyt's lab consulting on joint research projects. Prof. Doman Kim of Chonnam University, Korea will again join Prof. Robyt's lab for the third summer to continue collaboration on carbohydrate enzymology. Dr. Kim spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Robyt and seems to like ISU and the Molecular Biology Building to return every summer!

BB UNDERGRADUATES GRADUATE
The following received a B.S. with a major in biochemistry at the May 1998 commencement:

Vashti Bryant. Vashti has an entry level laboratory job with the Environmental Protection Agency in the Washington DC area.

Kara Carrathers. Kara is interviewing in the Chicago, Dallas, and Quad-cities areas for a job in medical technology labs that do clinical analyses for doctors, clinics, and hospitals . She is contemplating medical school for the fall 1999.

David Edwards. This summer Dave will be on an ISU-sponsored trip to study the fauna and flora of Kenya and then he will pursue a M.S. in animal science and genetics at Michigan State University.

Carol Kosmicke. Carol will begin medical studies at the University of Nebraska School of Medicine in the fall.

Lisa Taylor. Lisa has a job with Mendel Biotechnology in Hayward CA. She found the job by an internet search. She will be joining a 40-member company on May 26.

Emily Telford. Emily is looking for employment in industry or government. She is particularly interested in forensic chemistry and biochemistry.

Marcie Vaughn. Marcie will be on-campus this summer helping to train the new Cy mascots for ISU Athletics. Marcie was a mascot while at ISU. She is planning to apply to medical schools for fall 1999.

RECENT BB PUBLICATIONS
M. Gao, J. Wanat, P. S. Stinnard, M. G. James, and A. M. Myers, "Characterization of dull 1, a maize gene coding for a novel starch synthase," Plant Cell, 10 (1998) 399-412.

A. Rahman, K-s. Wong, J-l. Jane, A. M. Myers, and M. G. James, "Characterization of SU 1 isoamylase, a determinant of storage starch structure in maize," Plant Physiol. 117 (1998) 1-11.

M. J. Scanlon, and A. Myers, "Phenotypic analysis and molecular cloning of discolored-1 (dsc1), a maize gene required for early kernel development," Plant Mol. Biol. 37 (1998) 483-493.

C. Zeng, A. E. Aleshin, G. Chen, R. B. Honzatko, and H. J. Fromm, "The roles of glycine residues in the ATP-binding site of human brain hexokinase," J. Biol. Chem. 273 (1998) 700-704.

A. E. Aleshin, C. Zeng, G. P. Bourenkov, H. D. Bartunik, H. J. Fromm, and R. B. Honzatko, "Crystal structure of recombinant brain hexokinase complexed with glucose and glucose-6-phosphate," Structure, 6 (1998) 39-50.

W. Wang, A. Gorrell, Z. Hou, R. B. Honzatko, and H. J. Fromm, "Ambiguities in mapping the active site of a conformationally dynamic enzyme by directed mutation: Role of dynamics in structure-function correlations of Escherichia coli adenylosuccinate synthetase," J. Biol. Chem. 273 (1998).

F. T. Kurbanov, J.-Y. Choe, R. B. Honzatko, and H. J. Fromm, "Directed mutations in the poorly defined region of porcine liver fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase significantly affects catalysis and the mechanism of AMP inhibition," J. Biol. Chem. 273 (1998).

P. S. Chang, R. Mukerjea, J. F. Robyt, "Measurement of the activity of polyuronic acid C-5 eipmerases," Anal. Biochem. 258 (1998) 59-62.

M. Kitaoka and J. F. Robyt, "Use of a microtiter plate screening method for obtaining Leuconostoc mesenteroides mutants constitutive for glucansucrases," Enzyme Microbial Technol. 22 (1998) 527-531.

L. Yu and J. F. Robyt, "Effects of water soluble constituents of clove on the activities of glucansucrases and the potential for the inhibition of dental plaque formation," Carbohydr. Lett., 3 (1998) 9-16.

P. S. Chang and J. F. Robyt, "Oxidation of the primary alcohol groups of cyclomaltodextrins with 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidine oxoammonium ion," Carbohydr. Lett., 3 (1998) 31-38.

OPPORTUNITIES
Prof. Parag Chitnis (B & B) and Prof. David Oliver (Botany) received a grant from NSF to support 10 undergraduate students for eight weeks of summer research for the next 3 years. The program is intended to provide a state-of-the art research experience to undergraduate students from small colleges in the Midwest and from historically black land-grant universities. Projects will involve formation of recombinant DNAs, genome analysis, overexpression of foreign genes in bacteria and plants, molecular genetics, and transgenic animals. For more information, contact Prof. Chitnis, BB Department, Molecular Biology Building, Iowa State University (phone: 515-294-1657 or 515-294-6116).

CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Professors Alan Myers and Basil Nikolau on their recent promotions from Associate Professor to Professor.

Congratulations to Prof. Rich Robson who received the Iowa State University Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research.

Congratulations to Rob Bellin who received the Iowa State University Teaching Excellence Award from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Advanced Studies this spring.

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