GTR Seminar
Date: Nov.8(Tue),2022,16:00-17:30
Venue: Room A637 in Agriculture-building A / Online with Zoom (hybrid)
Speaker: Prof. Arnold J.M. Driessen(Molecular Microbiology, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
Title: Growing membranes for synthetic cells: Building an in vitro phospholipid biosynthesis pathway
major challenge in biology is to build a synthetic cell from the bottom-up, which is the most fundamental
approach towards understanding life. Such cells need to grow and divide, requiring the formation and
expansion of a phospholipid boundary layer. A phospholipid biosynthesis pathway was developed based on
a cascade of purified (membrane) proteins that were collectively reconstituted into liposomes. Through a
feed with simple building blocks like fatty acids, glycerol-3-phosphate, cofactors and nucleotides, a variety
of phospholipid species can be generated allowing bulk membrane growth of preexisting liposomes. A
critical element is recycling of nucleotides to ensure continuous growth. Further, membranes serve as a
matrix for membrane proteins involved in energy transduction and transport, which are other critical
functions of a synthetic cell. For this purpose, the translocon, responsible for protein secretion and
insertion, is introduced in growing membranes as a first step towards synthetic cells with integrated
functions. It is the ultimate goal to develop a synthetic cell encoded by a minimal genome that can carry out
basic cellular functions autonomously.
Language:English
Contact: Hisashi Hemmi (Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, hhemmi<at>agr.nagoya-u.ac.jp (<at>→@）
★GTR international students only
This seminar is "GTR Lecture series on multidisciplinary problems (1pt.)".
Enroll in gtr e-portfolio (Dead line: Nov.1)．Grades will be judged by report. Report submission from NUCT by Nov.22.