Research Interests

Our research seeks to broadly understand how environmental changes re-model biochemical pathways in plants at the molecular, cellular, and organism levels with the aim of engineering these systems to address agricultural and environmental problems.  Current work in the lab employs a combination of x-ray crystallography, enzymology, molecular biology, proteomics, and plant biology.  Three areas of research in the lab focus on metabolic regulation and environmental responses in plants, enzymatic control of plant hormone responses, and using C. elegans to explore new metabolic pathways in nematodes.

Photo caption: Some recent research projects in the Jez lab have examined how protein-protein interactions modulate the synthesis of cysteine in plants (a), the evolutionary basis of methionine biosynthesis in bacteria (b), engineering plants for improved heavy metal detoxification properties (c), redox-regulation of glutathione synthesis in plants (d), and the chemcial and kinetic mechanisms of multiple enzymes from plants and nematodes (e).

Selected Publications

Ravilious GE, Jez JM (2012) Nucleotide binding site communication in Arabidopsis thaliana adenosine 5'-phosphosulfate kinase.  J Biol Chem 287, 30385-94.

Yi H, Juergens M, Jez JM (2012) Structure of soybean β-cyanoalanine synthase and the molecular basis for cyanide detoxification in plants. Plant Cell 24, 2696-706.

Westfall CS, Zubieta C, Herrmann J, Kapp U, Nanao M, Jez JM (2012) Structural basis for pre-receptor modulation of plant hormones by GH3 family proteins.  Science 336, 1708-11.

Galant A, Koester RP, Ainsworth EA, Hicks LM, Jez JM (2012)  From climate change to molecular response:  redox-proteomics of ozone-induced responses in soybean.  New Phytologist 194, 220-9.

Lee SG, Kim YC, Alpert TD, Nagata A, Jez JM (2012) Structure and reaction mechanism of phosphoethanolamine methyltransferase from the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum - an anti-parastic drug target.  J Biol Chem 287, 1426-34.

Ravilious GE, Nguyen A, Francois JA, Jez JM (2012) Structural basis and evolution of redox regulation in plant adenosine-5'-phosphosulfate kinase.  Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109, 309-14.