Hamburg Life Science Seminar Series - BEN ENGEL
On September 16, Ben Engel from the Biozentrum, University of Basel will give a seminar as part of the new Hamburg Life Science Seminar Series.
This new seminar series,hosted by EMBL and CSSB, looks to strengthen Hamburg’s growing life science community and provide our PhD students and postdoctoral researchers with exciting new networking opportunities.
Everyone is welcome to attend!
Abstract:
Cells accomplish the biochemical reactions of life by concentrating their proteins into a variety of subcellular compartments called organelles. Our group explores the relationship between the form of the organelle and the function of its resident macromolecules. How does organelle architecture direct molecular function, and reciprocally, how do macromolecules sculpt and shape organelles? To investigate these questions, we use focused ion beam (FIB) milling of frozen cells followed by cryo-electron tomography to image macromolecules within their native cellular environment. Through a combination of nanometer-precision localization and high-resolution structural analysis, we aim to chart the molecular landscapes of organelles.
In this talk, we will explore the molecular architecture of light-harvesting thylakoid membranes in cyanobacteria, green algae, and plants (Rast et al., 2019; Wietrzynski et al., 2020). I will also describe our recent work on Vesicle-Inducing Protein in Plastids (VIPP1), a conserved membrane-remodeling protein that is required for thylakoid biogenesis and maintenance (Gupta et al., 2021). We will then journey through to the pyrenoid, a carbon-fixing subcompartment of the chloroplast that is formed by liquid-liquid phase separation (Freeman Rosenzweig et al., 2017; He et al., 2020).
Freeman Rosenzweig ES, Xu B, Kuhn Cuellar L, Martinez-Sanchez A, Schaffer M, Strauss M, Cartwright HN, Ronceray P, Plitzko JM, Förster F, Wingreen NS*, Engel BD*, Mackinder LCM, Jonikas MC* (2017). The Eukaryotic CO2-Concentrating Organelle Is Liquid-like and Exhibits Dynamic Reorganization. Cell. 171: 148-162.e19.
Gupta TK, Klumpe S, Gries K, Heinz S, Wietrzynski W, Ohnishi N, Niemeyer J, Spaniol B, Schaffer M, Rast A, Ostermeier M, Strauss M, Plitzko JM, Baumeister W, Rudack T, Sakamoto W, Nickelsen J, Schuller JM*, Schroda M*, Engel BD* (2021). Structural basis for VIPP1 oligomerization and maintenance of thylakoid membrane integrity. Cell. 184: 3643-3659.e23.
He S, Chou H-T, Matthies D, Wunder T, Meyer MT, Atkinson N, Martinez-Sanchez A, Jeffrey PD, Port SA, Patena W, He G, Chen VK, Hughson FM, McCormick AJ, Mueller-Cajar O, Engel BD, Yu Z, Jonikas MC* (2020). The structural basis of Rubisco phase separation in the pyrenoid. Nature Plants. 6: 1480–1490.
Rast A, Schaffer M, Albert S, Wan W, Pfeffer S, Beck F, Plitzko JM, Nickelsen J*, Engel BD* (2019). Biogenic regions of cyanobacterial thylakoids form contact sites with the plasma membrane. Nature Plants. 5: 436-446.
Wietrzynski W, Schaffer M, Tegunov D, Albert S, Kanazawa A, Plitzko JM, Baumeister W, Engel BD* (2020). Charting the native architecture of Chlamydomonas thylakoid membranes with single-molecule precision. eLife. 9: e53740.
Join the seminar via Zoom:
https://desy.zoom.us/j/64139032902
Meeting ID: 641 3903 2902
Passcode: 925186
