NIH VideoCast - Towards the assembly of a synthetic bacterial cell

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Towards the assembly of a synthetic bacterial cell

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Air date:	Friday, December 8, 2017, 12:00:00 PM Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local
Views:	Total views: 208 (52 Live, 156 On-demand)
Category:	NIH Director's Seminars
Runtime:	00:52:13
Closed captioning:	Check box to display CC outside of the video Note: You can drag the captioning window around and resize it
Description:	NIH Director's Seminar Series Bacterial spores, amongst the hardiest organisms on earth, are dormant cell types produced by certain species to protect the cell’s genetic material from harsh environmental conditions. Spores of Bacillus subtilis are encased in a thick protein shell, the “coat”, which participates in conferring the amazing resistance properties of spores. Using a combination of classical genetics and biochemistry, buttressed by cytological, biophysical, and computational techniques, we are studying spore coat assembly to understand how cells build and localize large static biological structures. We discovered that the basement layer of the coat contains a novel cytoskeletal protein that polymerizes irreversibly in an ATP hydrolysis-dependent manner. This protein is anchored to the surface of the developing spore by a small shape-sensing protein that we discovered preferentially embeds in convex membranes. Recently, we have reconstructed the basement layer of the spore coat in vitro around spherical lipid bilayers supported by small silica beads to create synthetic spore-like particles, the surfaces of which we can covalently modify so that they may display proteins and molecules of interest. We are currently investigating the utility of these bacteria-sized particles as vaccine display platforms and tissue-specific drug delivery vehicles.

NLM Title:	Towards the assembly of a synthetic bacterial cell / Kumaran Ramamurthi.
Author:	Ramamurthi, Kumaran. National Institutes of Health (U.S.),
Publisher:
Abstract:	(CIT): NIH Director's Seminar Series Bacterial spores, amongst the hardiest organisms on earth, are dormant cell types produced by certain species to protect the cell"s genetic material from harsh environmental conditions. Spores of Bacillus subtilis are encased in a thick protein shell, the "coat", which participates in conferring the amazing resistance properties of spores. Using a combination of classical genetics and biochemistry, buttressed by cytological, biophysical, and computational techniques, we are studying spore coat assembly to understand how cells build and localize large static biological structures. We discovered that the basement layer of the coat contains a novel cytoskeletal protein that polymerizes irreversibly in an ATP hydrolysis-dependent manner. This protein is anchored to the surface of the developing spore by a small shape-sensing protein that we discovered preferentially embeds in convex membranes. Recently, we have reconstructed the basement layer of the spore coat in vitro around spherical lipid bilayers supported by small silica beads to create synthetic spore-like particles, the surfaces of which we can covalently modify so that they may display proteins and molecules of interest. We are currently investigating the utility of these bacteria-sized particles as vaccine display platforms and tissue-specific drug delivery vehicles.
Subjects:	Artificial Cells Bacteria--ultrastructure Spores, Bacterial
Publication Types:	Lecture Webcast

NLM Classification:	QW 51
NLM ID:	101718805
CIT Live ID:	26708
Permanent link:	https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=26708

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