All animals are exquisitely sensitive to thiols, an aversive response that might have a strong evolutionary basis for avoidance of decaying, infective matter. However, the thiol receptor has yet to be characterised. In this project, you would use targeted proteomics to label and recover putative receptor molecules prior to identification of the proteins by proteomics methods. This project is funded by RAM Research. Characterisation of urinary lipocalins.
Rodents release large amounts of protein in their urine as a normal physiological process.
We have shown, biochemically and behaviourally, that these proteins, termed lipocalins, act as a timed-release mechanism for pheromones that bind in the central cavity of the proteins. Our attention has now been directed to the marked polymorphism that these proteins exhibit, and which we believe may provide for a subtle mechanisms of protein-mediated communication. You will analyse lipocalins from several rodent species, map polymorphic states by cDNA sequencing and mass spectrometry. There will be an opportunity to test hypothesis about the sensory information carried by these proteins in behavioural tests, conducted in collaboration with Prof Jane Hurst in the Animal Behaviour Group Analysis of the skeletal muscle proteome. Proteomics as a technology runs into problems when a tissue shows a marked predominance of a few proteins, such as in skeletal muscle.