# Peroxisomal impacts on cellular quality control

> **NIH NIH K99** · RICE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $100,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY – Peroxisomal impacts on cellular quality control
Career Goals: The candidate’s long-term career goal is to become a university professor, where she can
combine research in cellular quality control with educating the next generation of scientists and increasing
diversity in the academy. She has designed her postdoctoral training to complement her graduate
transcriptomics experience with experience in proteomics, biochemistry, and cell biology to address her
research questions while becoming a well-rounded biologist.
Training Environment: Rice University has an excellent training environment that supports interdisciplinary
and inter-institutional research with other Texas Medical Center institutions, including full access to shared
state-of-the-art equipment, while maintaining an intimate research setting inclusive of pedagogy,
professional communication, and job market preparedness trainings. Dr. Bonnie Bartel, the project mentor,
fosters a supportive environment that promotes scientific and professional development. She has an
extensive publication and training record at the forefront of discoveries in phytohormones, microRNAs, and
peroxisomes.
Research: The goal of this project is to leverage the recent finding that functional peroxisomes are targeted
for destruction by overzealous autophagy machinery when the peroxisomal chaperone and protease
protein, LON2, is dysfunctional. This finding suggests the hypothesis that peroxisomal signals that promote
pexophagy are degraded or refolded by LON2. The proposed experiments are designed to uncover
mechanisms controlling peroxisomal turnover, to determine how this turnover facilitates overall cellular
health, and to identify how peroxisome dysfunction signals to other organelles. Several interconnected
approaches will be employed to achieve these goals. First, LON2 substrates will be identified and
characterized, including chaperone, protease, and pexophagy-promoting substrates. Second, the proteomic
landscape of cells housing dysfunctional peroxisomes will be surveyed to identify differentially accumulated
proteins and associated alterations in other essential organelles. Third, transcriptomes will be analyzed to
identify retrograde signaling from the peroxisomes to the nucleus, including the transcriptional responses
that are induced when peroxisomes are compromised. These studies will incorporate predictive modeling
and provide insight into the signaling components regulating pexophagy and cellular signaling responses
that ensue when pexophagy is heightened or prevented. As many aspects of peroxisomal function are
widely conserved, these experiments exploiting the advantages of the Arabidopsis model will likely provide
insights useful for understanding the etiology of human peroxisome biogenesis disorders.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10429191
- **Project number:** 1K99GM146026-01
- **Recipient organization:** RICE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DurreShahwar Muhammad
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $100,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10429191

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10429191, Peroxisomal impacts on cellular quality control (1K99GM146026-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10429191. Licensed CC0.

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