MSU Research Foundation Professor Is Unraveling the Mysteries of Metabolism

MSU Research Foundation Professor, Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee, aims to advance research in plant metabolism through a $3 million NSF grant at Michigan State University.

Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee, Ph.D. is a MSU Research Foundation Professor in the departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Plant Biology, and Plant, Soil, and Microbiology and Director of MSU’s Plant Resilience Institute.

EAST LANSING, Mich. –– Metabolism encompasses all the various life-sustaining chemical reactions the occur within an organism. However, despite its importance, metabolism remains an understudied area, as noted by Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee, an MSU Research Foundation Professor in the College of Natural Science and Director of the Plant Resilience Institute.

Rhee, who started at MSU on July 1, brings with her an idea of how to correct this, and a newly approved $3 million National Science Foundation grant to make it happen. Rhee says that the project’s goal is to “get more scientists involved in studying plant metabolism,” and how this complex system of reactions relates to other realms of plant biology.

The grant, awarded through the National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Program, will help grow the Plant Metabolic Network (PMN), a repository of essential genomic information aimed at connecting and accelerating worldwide research on plant metabolism. The objective is to expand the PMN, currently annotating 126 species, to annotate over 1,000 species. Annotating genomes serves to categorize the functions of specific sections of genetic code. If researchers discover that an organism produces certain compounds in response to a stressor, such as when a pest feeds on a plant, they could then use the PMN to identify which of the plant’s genes are involved in producing that compound. By working to understand metabolism, scientists can identify how plants achieve important qualities like pest resistance, drought tolerance, and more.

Rhee, who serves as the project’s principal investigator, describes the project as “a radical departure” from previous approaches to studying metabolism, and even to the original concept of the PMN itself. The project began as a computational experiment, focused on indexing information, but, as Rhee explains, “we’ve sort of stretched the limit of what we can accomplish with computational prediction.”

The grant is a collaborative effort between MSU, the University of California, Davis and the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Philipp Zerbe from UC Davis and Hiroshi Maeda from UW—Madison will serve as co-principal investigators on the project. The PIs hope that the PMN can connect the efforts of plant researchers worldwide to build and refine a robust resource for biochemists.

Rhee is a MSU Research Foundation Professor, a title granted to highly accomplished current or incoming faculty members recommended by their college or dean. These distinguished researchers excel in their fields, furthering scholarly, disciplinary, or research areas crucial to MSU. Recipients retain the title throughout their tenure and typically receive scholarly support for the first five years after recognition. More than 60 professors have been honored with the MSU Research Foundation Professor title.

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