Biochemistry

Brian Mooney

Research Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
Associate Director, Charles W. Gehrke Proteomics Center

E-mail:mooneyb@missouri.edu

Office: 214 Bond Life Sciences Center

Mail: Charles W. Gehrke Proteomics Center
214 LSC, 1201 E. Rollins St.
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211

Phone: (573) 884-7374

Fax: (573) 884-9676

Lab site: http://proteomics.missouri.edu

Educational background

Curriculum vitae

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Research description

Production of Biodegradable Plastics in Plants - The polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) copolymer, P(3HB-co-3HV), is a type of biodegradable plastic demonstrated to be useful in the manufacture of bottles, bags, disposable razors, flatware, etc. Additionally, medical uses for PHA, e.g. implants, drug delivery, have been proposed. We (and others) are working to produce this biodegradable plastic within plants. Using molecular techniques, transgenic plants have been generated that are altered in their targeting of an enzyme (branched-chain E1) to allow production of plastic precursor molecules – acetyl-CoA and propionyl-CoA within the chloroplasts. Increasing the levels of this building blocks will ultimately facilitate increased plastic accumulation within the plant to levels considered commercially viable (>10% dry weight). We have just begun using the model plant Camolina as a source of plastics and are in the process of generating transgenic plants exhibiting increased biodegradable plastic precursor production. This project is being conducted in collaboration with Elizabeth Hoyos and Doug Randall, MU Biochemistry.

Quantitative proteomics of hybrid vigor in maize (NSF PGR Award DBI-0922769) - Hybrid plants are often more vigorous and higher yielding than their inbred parents. Despite widespread exploitation of the phenomenon of heterosis in plant breeding, and many investigations of the potential genes and processes underlying heterosis, the molecular basis remains a mystery. There is no single unifying explanation that is universally accepted. Most previous studies have focused on the levels of transcript abundance, comparing the inbred parents to the F1 hybrids. Transcripts from many genes change in hybrids. But what are the important targets? To increase vigor and yield, photosynthesis and respiration must be optimized. Are specific proteins involved in these processes affected? Moreover, if the magnitude of heterosis is increased, is there a corresponding increase in the levels of the proteins that participate in, or that regulate the cellular bioenergetic machinery? We propose to study the proteins that are changed in hybrids that show low, moderate and high heterosis in order to discover the molecules and machinery that underlie heterosis. This will be achieved using high-coverage, accurate mass, quantitative proteomics. We should be able to identify reliable markers for heterosis, using multiple biological replicates of each condition to yield statistically valid markers. We also propose a genetic test of the hypothesis that mitochondrial respiration plays an important role in heterosis. (PI: K. Newton, Biological Sciences; Co-PI: B.P. Mooney, Biochemistry).

Selected Publications

Mooney B.P., Krishnan H.B., and Thelen J.J. (2004) High-throughput peptide mass fingerprinting of soybean seed proteins: automated workflow and utility of UniGene expressed sequence tag databases for protein identification. Phytochemistry 65:1733-44

Wan J, Torres M, Ganapathy A, Thelen J, DaGue BB, Mooney B, Xu D, Stacey G (2005) Proteomic analysis of soybean root hairs after infection by Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Mol Plant Microbe Interact 18: 458-67

Mooney B.P., Miernyk J.A., Greenlief C.M., Thelen, J.J. (2006) Using quantitative proteomics of Arabidopsis roots and leaves to predict metabolic activity. Physiologia Plantarum 128: 237-250.

McCaw DL, Chan AS, Stegner AL, Mooney B, Bryan JN, Turnquist SE, Henry CJ, Alexander H, and Alexander S (2007) Proteomics of Canine Lymphoma Identifies Potential Cancer-Specific Protein Markers. Clin Cancer Res 13:2496-2503

M.L. Katz, D.N. Sanders, B.P. Mooney, G.S. Johnson (2007) Accumulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein and histone H4 in brain storage bodies of Tibetan terriers with hereditary neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. J Inherit Metab Dis 30: 952-63.

Chen M., Mooney B.P., Hajduch M., Joshi T., Zhou M., Xu D., Thelen J.J. (2009) System analysis of an Arabidopsis mutant altered in de novo fatty acid synthesis reveals diverse changes in seed composition and metabolism. Plant Physiol. 150: 27-41

Mooney B.P. (2009) The second green revolution? Production of plant-based biodegradable plastics. Biochem. J. 418(2): 219-32