Joshua Kaste

New Article: "Metabolic flux analysis in leaf metabolism quantifies the link between photorespiration and one carbon metabolism" rdcu.be/eDWLH

C flux quantification between two major plant metabolisms—photorespiration and C1 metabolism—using 13CO2 labelling and...

Metabolic flux analysis in leaf metabolism quantifies the link between photorespiration and one carbon metabolism - Nature Plants This paper quantified carbon flux between two major plant metabolisms—photorespiration and C1 metabolism—using 13CO2 labelling and isotopically non-stationary metabolic flux analysis.

New flux mapping study out in Nature Plants (doi.org/10.1038/s414...), led by Kelem Gashu, that puts some numbers on the connection between photorespiration and one carbon metabolism. I had the privilege of helping out with some of the modeling and statistics in the study.

Hi - I’m looking for roles inside and outside of academia in Canada, and would appreciate any leads or contacts y’all may have. I’m a computational and molecular biologist with a broad range of prior experience in both wet lab and dry lab work. If you or someone you know is hiring, get in touch!

In my mind, this strongly supports the idea that RL, which is mostly accounted for by the G6P shunt flux, is being used as a way of ensuring that the CBC doesn't collapse under varying light conditions.

I think this is a very nice dataset for people to reference for their own work, but for my part, I find the stability of respiration in the light (RL) and fluxes through the G6P shunt most interesting.

The effects of photosynthetic rate on respiration in light, starch/sucrose partitioning, and other metabolic fluxes within photosynthesis - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - The effects of photosynthetic rate on respiration in light, starch/sucrose partitioning, and other metabolic fluxes within photosynthesis

New article that I played a small part in, headed up by Yuan Xu, now out in Scientific Reports: doi.org/10.1038/s415.... Yuan gathered some great labeling data in Camelina sativa under high light and high CO2 conditions and compared the INST-MFA estimated central carbon fluxes to control conditions

MSU researchers glean photosynthetic insights from volcanic hot springs Expanding knowledge of the carbon concentrating mechanism in the extremophilic algae C. merolae allows scientists to better understand and possibly improve photosynthesis.

Nice article about work I collaborated on in MSU's Plant Research Laboratory newsletter: prl.natsci.msu.edu/news-and-eve...

We validate some of our model predictions with field measurements and predict substantial synergy between AMF and rhizobia under some soil nutrient conditions.

Metabolic modeling reveals synergistic growth benefits of engineering maize symbiosis with rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Engineering N2-fixing rhizobia symbiosis in cereals and enhancing association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are two strategies being pursued to improve agricultural sustainability. However, ...

🚨Preprint alert🚨We present models of real and hypothetical maize symbioses (with AMF and rhizobia, respectively) individually and in tandem to assess the costs-and-benefits of these to maize growth. Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A map of the rubisco biochemical landscape - Nature A massively parallel assay developed to map the essential photosynthetic enzyme rubisco showed that non-trivial biochemical changes and improvements in CO2 affinity are possible, signposting further e...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
They "identified many highly conserved positions that tolerate mutation and rare mutations that improve CO2 affinity. These data indicate that non-trivial biochemical changes are readily accessible"
#PlantScience

As do I! I used Calvin-Benson there because it’s what Tom uses in that article, but I think Bassham should be included (or, the cycle should be referred to by a biochemical descriptor instead of using people’s names).

I used to be a RuBisCO person, but other researchers in Plant Bio at Michigan State University (Tom Sharkey being the main one) convinced me to go with rubisco. Tom provides a succinct and convincing argument in “Discovery of the canonical Calvin-Benson cycle” in Photosynthesis Research.

Metabolic modeling suggested non-canonical algal carbon concentrating mechanism in Cyanidioschyzon merolae Maneesh Lingwan; Metabolic modeling suggested non-canonical algal carbon concentrating mechanism in Cyanidioschyzon merolae, Plant Physiology, , kiaf019, h

Very nice 'news & views' write-up about the C. merolae modeling work @anne-steensma.bsky.social, me, and our wonderful co-authors presented in Plant Phys: doi.org/10.1093/plph...

Is this the secret to having proper, dedicated paper reading time?

New paper alert 😎🔔🚨. We present a standardized protocol for the polyextremophile Cyanidioschizon merolae 🦠 transformation🧬! Together with our team at ASU AzCATI🇺🇸, and Uni Northern BC 🇨🇦 #openaccess #algae #Biotechnology

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Modeling with uncertainty quantification reveals the essentials of a non-canonical algal carbon-concentrating mechanism The thermoacidophilic red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae possesses a unique carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM), and a model illuminates the essential featu

Just realized this link doesn't work yet! Here's a working one: academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...

If that sounds interesting, give the article a read! I had a lot of fun working on the modeling for this study and think there may be some interesting methodological points for other modelers to consider even if they don't work on CCMs. Particularly the surrogate modeling approach we used.

Well, Anne, together with measurements from Doug Orr at Lancaster, provides definitive proof in this manuscript that C. merolae really is concentrating carbon. And we explore the possibility space of how it might do this sans pyrenoid using kinetic modeling exploring a huge parameter space.

This is a double head scratcher because microscopy shows that C. merolae doesn't have a pyrenoid. So, it's in a weird acid bath and it doesn't have an obvious diffusion barrier for CO2. What gives?

My colleague Anne Steensma had previously shown that C. merolae likely operates a CCM. Low pH is an interesting place for an alga to use a Carbon Concentrating Mechanism (CCM), since bicarbonate, which is a convenient charged species that has difficulty moving across membranes, is in short supply.

The red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae lives in volcanic hot springs with high temps and low, low pH. Fun fact: these little fellas were first isolated about a 30-minute drive from Lake Avernus, which is the location of the gate to the underworld in The Aeneid.

How do you effectively photosynthesize in hell (figuratively speaking)? See our new article, just published in Plant Physiology: doi.org/10.1093/plph...

A starter pack for scientists involved in developing computational algorithms, software, models, and tools to advance #plantscience.
Let me know in the comments or DM if you'd like to be added.
go.bsky.app/KcVXefi