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Structural Mechanisms Of Glucan Phosphatase Activity In Starch Metabolism, David A. Meekins
Structural Mechanisms Of Glucan Phosphatase Activity In Starch Metabolism, David A. Meekins
Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
Starch is a water-insoluble glucose biopolymer used as an energy cache in plants and is synthesized and degraded in a diurnal cycle. Reversible phosphorylation of starch granules regulates the solubility and, consequentially, the bioavailability of starch glucans to degradative enzymes. Glucan phosphatases release phosphate from starch glucans and their activity is essential to the proper diurnal metabolism of starch. Previously, the structural basis of glucan phosphatase activity was entirely unknown. The work in this dissertation outlines the structural mechanism of activity of two plant glucan phosphatases called Starch EXcess4 (SEX4) and Like Sex Four2 (LSF2). The crystal structures of SEX4 …