Gerald
Reeck
Gerald
Reeck
Professor of Biochemistry
Heat shock proteins in development and disease; salivary proteins of insects; inhibitors of human Factor XIIa of the plasma contact system.
B.A. 1967, Seattle Pacific College
Ph.D. 1971, University of Washington
Phone: 785-532-6117
Fax: 785-532-7278
Email: reeck@ksu.edu
Office: 407 Chem/Biochem
My research interests are a bit diverse but they all deal with proteins, either structural or enzymatic or inhibitory, and their involvement in key physiological processes. In many cases, we approach these proteins – that is, we discover and work with them initially – through their encoding genes (or transcripts).
Heat shock proteins We are studying the family of hsp70 proteins in an increasingly important model organism, the zebrafish. Using two dimensional western analysis and proteomics, we are working to establish a one-to-one relationship between the numerous proteins in this family and individual genes. This is feasible since the zebrafish genome project is in the final stages of completion. We are examining hsp70s in skeletal muscle and heart, under unshocked and shocked conditions and hope to expand these studies soon into disease states in one or both of these organs. We are also beginning to examine hsp70s in mosquitoes and aphids (see below).
Mosquito and aphid salivary proteins These two very different types of insects both rely on proteins and enzymes of salivary glands in their attack on hosts (animal in one case and plant in the other). We are examining salivary proteins and enzyme both through EST sequencing and expression of particular cDNAs of interest and by two-dimensional electrophoresis and proteomics. We are now moving in the direction of studying virus transmission by these insects, a process that in each case directly involved the salivary glands. We are well along in aphids in developing RNAi methods to study the effects of individual salivary transcripts on the attack on plant tissue.
Inhibitors of Factor XIIa The so-called “contact system” of plasma activates several physiological processes, including the complement system, fibrinolysis, and coagulation. We continue to study a highly selective inhibitor of Factor XIIa (or activated Hageman factor), one of the four protein components of the contact system. We have cloned and expressed the cDNA for this protein and have produced, through site-directed mutagenesis, numerous mutant forms of the inhibitor. We are about to undertake a collaborative study in which we will express the protein in the blood plasma of mice, by creating transgenic mice with the cDNA for the inhibitor.
Selected Publications
N.S. Mutti, G.R. Reeck et al. A Novel Secreted Protein of Aphid Salivary Glands. (in preparation)
Shen, Z., Denton, M., Mutti, N., Pappan, K., Kanost, M.R., Reese, J.C., Reeck, G.R., Polygalacturonase from Sitophilus oryzae: Possible horizontal transfer of a pectinase gene from fungi to weevils. 9pp. Journal of Insect Science, 3:24 (2003). Available online: insectscience.org/3.24
M. Hazegh-Azam, S. Kim, S. Masoud, L. Andersson, F. White, L. Johnson, S. Muthukrishnan, G.R. Reeck. The corn inhibitor of activated Hageman factor: Purification and properties of two recombinant forms of the protein. Protein Expression and Purification. 13:143-149 (1998).
L.C. Garg, G.R. Reeck. Isolation and separation of HMG proteins and histones H1 and H5 and core histones by column chromatography on phosphocellulose. Prot. Exp. and Purif. 14:155-159 (1998).