This award will provide partial support for Dr. Jon Takemoto of Utah State University to conduct collaborative research for eleven months in Japan with Dr. Tokichi Miyakawa of Hiroshima University. Their research will be on the mechanisms of toxin - cellular membrane interaction. They will study the mode of action of the phytotoxin, syringomycin on the yeast, Rhodosporodium toluroides, focusing on the phosphorylation of plasmamembrane proteins and the regulation of cellular calcium concentration. An understanding of and ability to regulate enzymes associated with cellular plasma membranes would have broad implications regarding the mechanisms of plant growth and development, as well as plant pathogenic phenomena. Dr. Miyakawa is an authority on the molecular mechanisms in the yeast R. toluroides. His laboratory in the Department of Fermentation Technology at Hiroshima University has the facilities to grow and handle this organism, together with expertise in the procedures for purifying plasma membranes and kinases, and assaying protein phosphorylation. Dr. Takemoto has been investigating the structure and mode of action of syringomycin for the past five years. Collaboration with Dr. Miyakawa will enable integration of techniques and a testing of hypothesis across different organisms.
