Dr. Youjun Zhang

Position: Project Leader

Department: Plant metabolomics

Protein interactions of sequential enzymes, so-called metabolons, have been demonstrated to play an essential role in metabolic regulation. Metabolon studies focusing on the dynamic assembly of enzyme complexes are also underway in the laboratory. Dr. Zhang’s research proved the physical arrangement of TCA cycle enzymes, the glycolytic pathway, flavonoid pathway and photorespiration to form metabolite channels. He also participated in the development of several protein interaction methods to detect metabolon formation. In addition, Dr. Zhang uses synthetic metabolons (protein engineering) to improve the efficiency of metabolites production.

Selected publications:

Zhang, Y., Sampathkumar, A., Kerber, S. M.-L., Swart, C., Hille, C., Seerangan, K., … Fernie, A. R. (2020). A moonlighting role for enzymes of glycolysis in the co-localization of mitochondria and chloroplasts. Nature Communications, 11(1), 4509. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18234-w

Zhang, Y., Beard, K. F. M., Swart, C., Bergmann, S., Krahnert, I., Nikoloski, Z.,…  Obata, T. (2017). Protein-protein interactions and metabolite channelling in the plant tricarboxylic acid cycle. Nature Communications, 8(1), 15212. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15212

Zhang, Y., Giese, J., Mae-Lin Kerbler, S., Siemiatkowska, B., Perez de Souza, L., Alpers, J., … Fernie, A. R. (2021). Two mitochondrial phosphatases, PP2c63 and Sal2, are required for posttranslational regulation of the TCA cycle in Arabidopsis. Molecular Plant. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2021.03.023

Zhang, W., Zhang, Y., Qiu, H., Guo, Y., Wan, H., Zhang, X., Scossa, F., Alseekh, S., Zhang, Q., Wang, P., Xu, L., Schmidt, M. H., Jia, X., Li, D., Zhu, A., Guo, F., Chen, W., Ni, D., Usadel, B., Fernie, A. R., … Wen, W. (2020). Genome assembly of wild tea tree DASZ reveals pedigree and selection history of tea varieties. Nature communications, 11(1), 3719. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17498-6

Zhang, Y., Skirycz, A., & Fernie, A. R. (2020). An Abundance and Interaction Encyclopedia of Plant Protein Function. Trends in plant science, 25(7), 627–630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2020.04.006