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Comments or Questions Contact: Webmaster
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Andrew J. Mort |  |
| Oklahoma State University | ||
 Regents
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology |
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| Address:
246 Noble Research
Center, OSU, Stillwater OK 74078
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| Phone:
405 744-6197
Fax: 405
744-7799
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| Email:
amort@biochem.okstate.edu |
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| URL:
http://opbs.okstate.edu/~mort/homepage.html |
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| Ph.D.,
Biochemistry, 1978, MSU/ERDA
Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University |
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| Postdoctoral: 1977-1981,
C.F. Kettering Research Laboratory, Yellow Springs, Ohio.
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| Research
Emphasis: Structure
and function of plant cell walls;
Plant cell wall degradation by fungi |
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| Related
Activities: Chairman
of the Oklahoma State Wide NMR Facility oversight Committee |
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| Research
Description: My laboratory’s emphasis is on structural biology of polysaccharides, especially plant cell wall polysaccharides. We are trying to determine enough about the structure of cell walls and their interactions with enzymes to be able to explain how plant cells can expand without bursting because of loss of structural integrity during cell wall enlargement. We are presently working on the detailed structure of various regions of pectins, how they are linked to each other, and how and if they are covalently linked to other cell wall polysaccharides such as xyloglucans. We are particularly interested in the application of NMR and mass spectrometry to the determination of the structure of oligosaccharides derived from polysaccharides by specific chemical or enzymic degradations. We also develop methods for separations of oligosaccharides. In the past we have developed various chemical methods for specifically degrading polysaccharides at particular sugars. Presently, with the help of Rolf Prade, we are trying to express individual fungal cell wall degrading enzymes in a yeast to enable us to specifically degrade cell walls. |
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| Recent
Publications: Van den Bulck, Swennen KK, Loosveld AMA, Courti CM, Brijs K, Proost P, Van Damme J, Campenhout V, Mort A. Delcour JA (2005) Isolation of Cereal Arabinogalactan-Peptides and Structural Comparison of Their Carbohydrate and Peptide Moieties. J Cereal Sc. 41(1), 59-67. Mort AJ, Gao S, Wu X, Prade R (2005) The Need for Pure Enzymes that Degrade Cell Wall Polysaccharides and How To Get Them. Plant Biosystems 139(1), 84-87. Thirumalapural NR, Goad DW, Mort A, Morton R, Clarke J, Malayer J (2005) Structural Analysis of the O-antigen of Francisella tularensis Subspecies tularensis Strain. J Med Micro, in press. Birgisson H, Hreggvidsson GÓ, Frijónsson OH, Mort A, Kristjánsson JK, Mattiasson B (2004) Two New Thermostable a-L-rhamnosidases from a Novel thermophilic bacterium. Enzyme and Microbial Tech 34, 561-571. Ray A, Macwana S, Ayoubi P, Hall L, Prade RA, Mort AJ (2004) Negative Subtraction Hybridization: An Efficient Method to Isolate Large Numbers of Condition-Specific cDNAs. BMC Genomes 5(1), 22. Willats WGT, McCartney L, Steele-King CG, Marcus SE, Mort A, Huisman M, van Alebeek GJ, Schols HA, Voragen AGJ, LeGoff A, Bonnin E, Thibault JF, Knox, JP (2004) A Xylogalacturonan Eitope is Specifically Associated with Plant Cell Detachment. Planta 218, 673-681. . |
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| Selected
Additional Publications: Wiethölter N, Graebner B, Mierau M, Mort AJ, Moerschbacher BM (2003) Differences in the Methyl Ester Distribution of Pectins from Near-Isogenic Wheat Lines Resistant and Susceptible to the Wheat Stem Rust Fungus. Molec. Plant-Microbe Int. 16, 945-952. Mort AJ, Qiu
F , Maness NO (1993) Determination of the pattern of methyl esterification
in pectins. Distribution of contiguous non-esterified residues. Carbohydr
Res 247: 21-35. |
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