The Structure and Mechanics of the Bacterial Cell Wall The cell wall functions as the 'cytoskeleton' in bacteria and protects cells from mechanical stress. The enormous osmotic pressure across the cell wall (>1 atm) requires that cell growth be tightly regulated, as small defects in the cell wall are catastrophic. A molecular understanding of the assembly, properties, and mechanisms for localizing essential proteins to the cell wall will provide fundamental insight into the inner working of this essential structure. The identification of proteins that are localized to the cell wall and regulate and remodel it will open the door to a new chapter in antibiotic development by rebooting an interest in this cellular material as a drug target. Our laboratory is using a multidisciplinary approach to study the bacterial cell wall by drawing on our experience in chemical biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and materials science and engineering. In this talk I describe two projects that we are working on in this area of microbiology.

1. We are developing a high-throughput, materials science-based technique for measuring the mechanical properties of bacterial cell walls. Using this capability we will analyze the entire genome-wide collection of Escherichia coli single gene mutants to identify proteins that modulate cell wall assembly and remodeling.

2. We are developing a suite of materials science-based approaches for controlling cell wall curvature in bacteria and are studying how the shape of the membrane influences the formation and positioning of lipid ordered phases, which participate in the intracellular localization of cytoplasmic proteins.


Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 11:45. Seminar Room

Hosted by Prof. Melike Lakadamyali