Postdoctoral Researcher UW Madison Madison, Wisconsin
Body of Abstract: TARGET OF RAPAMYCIN (TOR) is a conserved protein kinase that coordinates eukaryotic growth and metabolism with nutrient availability. When sufficient nutrients are available, TOR promotes key biological processes including translation, nucleotide biosynthesis, ribosome biogenesis, and cell division. TOR has been well-studied in biomedical contexts due to its central roles in metabolic diseases and cancers but has only recently gained attention in plant biology. In an effort to explore TOR signaling in maize, I first developed a nutrient-limiting assay to precisely toggle TOR activity in developing maize embryos. Then, I performed global profiling experiments including transcriptomics, proteomics, phosphoproteomics, metabolomics, and polysome profiling using these embryos grown in TOR-activating and -inactivating conditions. Combined with phenotypic and targeted molecular analyses, these experiments have comprehensively mapped the maize TOR signaling network. This map reveals that key signaling axes are conserved in Arabidopsis and maize, while identifying new players in TOR-dependent gene regulatory networks that are specific to maize. Long-term, I seek to understand how we can leverage the TOR signaling network to improve maize yields and resiliency.