 | ||
Carl Bergmann
Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Dr. Bergmann is a Research Scientist at the UGA Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Co-Director of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Ohio State University, and joined the CCRC in 1986. Dr. Bergmann has served as director of SREL since 2007.
Research Interests: The research pursued by my laboratory focuses on the structure and function of the proteins that interact with anionic extracellular matrix polysaccharides in plants and animals. Early research focused exclusively on proteins interacting with the (mammalian) glycosaminoglycans. In the last 15 years most of my work has centered on the degradation of pectins by fungal enzymes during pathogenesis and plant mechanisms to alter the rate at which that degradation occurs. The interaction of plant and fungal proteins during pathogenesis may have a profound effect on the success of the attempted fungal invasion, due in part to the structure of the cell wall oligosaccharides produced as a result of those interactions. Investigating such interactions requires the ability to characterize both the proteins and the oligosaccharides produced. While much of this has been performed using traditional biochemical approaches, over the last several years my laboratory has moved toward a heavy involvement in mass spectrometry, done in collaboration with Ron Orlando and Lance Wells, and the use of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectrometry. Currently our work is focusing on combining biochemistry, SPR and mass spectrometry to investigate the mechanism of both hydrolysis and inhibition. I am interested in applying this powerful set of tools to the study of mammalian matrix polysaccharides, as this work has served to highlight similarities between the mammalian and plant matrix polysaccharides and the enzymes that metabolize them. There is substantial evidence as to the roles of pectins in medicine including potentiation of human colonic adenocarcinoma cells, immunostimulating activity, anti- ulcer activity, anti-metastasis activity, anti-mutagenic activity, anti-nephrosis, and cholesterol decreasing activity. Our lab has been actively looking at the relationships between pectins and glycosaminoglycans, as well as between the microbial pectin degrading enzymes (PDEs) and microbial GAG degrading enzymes. It is a reasonable assumption that the receptors for GAGs involved in such activities as neural development and angiogenesis could act as potential targets for pectins and that the role of the GAGs themselves in neural development or angiogenesis may be altered by pectin degrading enzymes. Based on this hypothesis and our compelling in vitro data, we are currently investigating the in vivo role of pectins and PDE in modulating GAG function.
Selected publications: Stotz, H.U., J. Bishop, C.W. Bergmann, M. Koch, P. Albersheim, A.G. Darvill, and J.M. Labavitch. 2000. Identification of target amino acids that affect interactions of fungal polygalaturonases and their plant inhibitors. Physiol. Mol. Plant Pathol. 56: 117-130. Kester, H.C.M., J.A.E. Benen, J. Visser, M.E. Warren, R. Orlando, C. Bergmann, D. Anker, and A. Doutheau. 2000. Tandem mass spectrometric analysis of Aspergillus niger pectin methylesterase; mode of action on fully methylesterified oligogalacturonides. Biochem. J. 346: 469-474. Blumer, J.M., R.P. Clay, C.W. Bergmann, P. Albersheim, and A. Darvill. 2000. Temporal and spatial expression of pectin methylesterase in ripening tomato fruit and its correlation to the degree of pectin esterification in exopericarp cell walls. Can. J. Botany 78: 607-618. Balandrán-Quintana, R.R., A.M. Mendoza-Wilson, C.W. Bergmann, I. Vargas-Arispuro, and M.A. Martínez-Téllez. 2002. Effect of pectic oligomers on physiological responses of chilling injury in discs excised from zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.). Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 290: 577-584. Warren, M.E., H. Kester, J. Benen, J. Colangelo, J. Visser, C. Bergmann, and R. Orlando. 2002. Studies on the glycosylation of wild-type and mutant forms of Aspergillus niger pectin methylesterase. Carbohydr. Res. 337: 803-812. King, D., M. Lumpkin, C. Bergmann, and R. Orlando. 2002. Studying protein-carbohydrate interactions by amide hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 16: 1569-1574. King, D., C. Bergmann, R. Orlando, J.A.E. Benen, H.C.M. Kester, and J. Visser. 2002. The use of amide exchange-mass spectrometry to study conformational changes within the endopolygalacturonase II/homogalacturonans/polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein system. Biochemistry 41: 10225-10233. Qin, Q., C.W. Bergmann, J.K.C. Rose, M. Saladie, V.S. Kumar Kolli, P. Albersheim, A.G. Darvill and W.S. York. 2003. Characterization of a tomato protein that inhibits a xyloglucan-specific endoglucanase. The Plant J. 34: 327-338. Bergmann, C.W., L. Stanton, D. King, R.P. Clay, G. Kemp, R. Orlando, A. Darvill, and P. Albersheim. 2003. Recent observations on the specificity and structural conformation of the polygalacturonase-polygalacturonase inhibiting protein system. In: Pectins and Pectinases (F. Voragen, H. Schols, and R. Visser, eds.), pp. 277-291. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. Kemp, G., C.W. Bergmann, R. Clay, A.J. Van der Wethuizen, and Z.A. Pretorius. 2003. Isolation of a polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein (PGIP) from wheat. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 16: 955-961. Kemp, G., Stanton, L., C.W. Bergmann, R.P. Clay, A. Darvill, and P. Albersheim. 2004. Polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins can function as activators of polygalacturonse. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 17: 888-894. Xie, M., C. Bergmann, J. Benen, and R. Orlando. 2005. Post-translational modifications of recombinant B. cinerea EPG 6. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 19: 3389-3397. Woosley, B., M. Xie, L. Wells, R. Orlando, D. Garrison, D. King, and C. Bergmann. 2006. Comprehensive glycan analysis of recombinant Aspergillus niger endopolygalacturonase C. Anal. Biochem. In press. Joubert, D.A., A.R. Slaughter, G. Kemp, C. Bergmann, G. Krooshoff, J. Benen, I.S. Pretorius, and M.A. Vivier. 2006. The grapevine polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein (VvPGIP1) reduces Botrytis cinerea susceptibility in transgenic tobacco and differentially inhibits fungal polygalacturonases. Transgenic Res. In press. |
||
