Studying the mechanism of DNA translocation by molecular motors in bacteria

Expositor: Diego Cattoni – Centre de Biochimie Structurale, DNA segregation and Remodeling Team, INSERM/CNRS/Université de Montpellier, France.

Fecha: Martes 27/02/2018 – 10.30 hs.

SpoIIIE is a membrane-anchored, ATP-fuelled, directional motor responsible for chromosomal segregation in bacteria. Directionality in these motors is governed by interactions between specialized sequence-recognition modules and highly skewed chromosomal sequences. In this presentation I will describe our efforts in trying to understand the principles defining and regulating the direction of translocation of DNA in sporulating Bacillus subtilis by using a combination of in vivo, in vitro and in silico approaches. We have been able to show that hexamers of the motor do not require the presence of specific sequences to assemble but that their presence fine tunes the catalytic activity of the motor and thus its direction of translocation. In turn the communication between the motor activity regulation and membrane domains of the enzyme preserves the open pore through with DNA is transported between membranes. Additionally, I will briefly describe the new approaches we are currently implementing in our laboratory to study chromosome organization and segregation both in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.