Hiroshi Maeda
Credentials: Botany Department
Position title: Amino acid homeostasis in plants
Email: maeda2@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-262-5833
Address:
B217 Birge Hall
430 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Cellular & Molecular Metabolism; Physiology; Plant Biology
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
Amino acids are central to plant metabolism and building blocks of proteins that directly support plant growth and development. In plants, amino acids are also used to make plant hormones and diverse natural products. While most plant enzymes involved in amino acid biosynthesis have been characterized, very little is known about how plants sense and respond to amino acid imbalance and how plants coordinately regulate amino acid homeostasis and overall plant physiology. Over the past 8 years, we studied biochemical, molecular, and genetic mechanisms underlying amino acid biosynthesis and its regulation in plants. Throughout this study we have also generated various mutants and transgenic lines with altered amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism, which can now be utilized to study amino acid homeostasis mechanisms that are tightly linked to plant growth and development.
ALSO A TRAINER IN THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS: Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics, Botany