W. David Nes

Paul Whitfield Horn Professor

Ph.D., University of Maryland, 1979

NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
 
 
 

personal web page

 

CHEM 3310 Class Notes

Phone: (806) 742-1673 

Fax: (806)742-0135 

 

Biochemistry and Natural Products

Nes Group
The Nes Group

The research of Professor Nes is concerned with the study of the biochemistry and molecular biology of phytosterols (including fungal sterols) and other natural products. Phytosterols are essential components of life. Professor Nes is interested in the evolution of sterol asymmetry and specificity in nature. The central dogma for sterol chemists is: what specific features of sterol structure are special in growth, differentiation and reproduction and what biochemical and physiological factors promote and/or limit transformations in sterol structure? To this end, Professor Nes has been studying the relationship between function and ecology of phytosterols and of protein structure and function of enzymes that control carbon flux through the phytosterol pathways of biological systems that range from the cyanobacteria to tracheophytes and in plant pests and pathogens. Multidisciplinary training of post-doctoral associates, graduate and undergraduate students is tripartate and involves:

1) bioorganic and radiotracer synthesis, natural product isolation and characterization using modern chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques;

2) cloning, sequencing, expression and purification of proteins, followed up with studies on mechanistic enzymology, and

3) structure/function studies using whole cell model systems and pulse/chase experiments to study sterol sequencing in phytosterol turnover.

Professor Nes has discovered that phytosterols differ from animal and insect sterols in that plants possess the ability to methylate the sterol side chain at carbon-24. This unique biochemical difference in phytosterol structure has been shown to be of commercial value in both the development of transgenic plants that possess broad-based insect resistance and the rational design of sterol methylation inhibitors that can function as taxa-specific antifungal agents.

 

 Selected Publications
  • "Sterol Methyltransferase: Functional Analysis of Highly Conserved Residues by Site-directed Mutagenesis", Nes, W.D.; Jayasimha, P.; Zhou, W.; Kanagasabai, R.; Jin, C.; Jaradat, T.T.; Shaw, R.W.; Bujnicki, J.M.  Biochemistry 2004, 43, 569-576.
  • "Biosynthesis of Phytosterols: Kinetic Mechanism for the Enzymatic C-methylation of  Sterols", Nes, W.D.; Song, Z.; Dennis, A.L.; Zhou, W.; Nam, J.; Miller, M.B.  J. Biol. Chem. 2003, 278, 34505-34516.
  • "Enzyme Mechanisms for Sterol C-methylations", Nes, W.D.  Phytochemistry 2003, 64, 75-95.
  • "Purification, Characterization and Catalytic Properties of Human Sterol 8-isomerase", Nes, W.D.; Zhou, W.; Dennis, A.L.; Li, H.; Jia, Z.; Keith, R.A.; Piser, T.M.; Furlong, S.T.  Biochem. J. 2002, 367, 587-599.
  • "Active Site Papping and Substrate Channeling in the Sterol Methyltransferase Pathway", Nes, W.D.; Marshall, J.A.; Jia, Z.; Jaradat, T.T.; Song, Z.; Jayasimha, P.  J. Biol. Chem. 2002, 277, 42549-42556.

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