From: Department of Computational and Quantitative Biology (UMR 7238), Jussieu site, Sorbonne Université

Will give a seminar entitled:

What can we learn from bacteria (about aging) and teach bacteria (about organelles)? 

Phenotypic variability, the distribution of a given trait under constant genetic and environmental conditions, often rises from stochastic asymmetry at cell division. In the talk, I will focus on how such variability drives bacterial senescence patterns, leading to ageing dynamics as an exponential increase of mortality rate (Gompertz law), akin to higher order life forms (e.g. humans). I will then describe how functional asymmetry can be achieved in E. coli by exploiting RNA-driven liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), borrowed from humans, to engineer modular Transcriptionally Engineered Addressable RNA Solvent droplets (TEARS). Such TEARS may be exploited for isolation of biochemical pathways, controlling metabolic branch points, buffering mRNA translation rates and scaffolding protein-protein interactions. We anticipate TEARS to be a simple and versatile tool for spatially controlling E. coli biochemistry.

H. Guoet al(2022) Cell 10.1016/j.cell.2022.09.016;  Y. Yang et al (203) Nat Commun. 10.1038/s41467-023-37930-x; Y. Yang et al (2019) 10.1126/sciadv.aaw2069. PMID: 31149637; AS Coquel AS et al(2013) PLoS Comput Biol. 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003038; Lindner AB rt al (2008) 10.1073/pnas.0708931105, H. Guo et al (2022) Cell. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.09.016.

Speaker website