Institute Colloquium: Regulation of dynamic cell polarity in bacteria
Date
Monday, March 17, 2014 16:30 - 17:30
Speaker
Lotte Søgaard-Andersen (Max Planck Institute)
Location
Raiffeisen Lecture Hall, Central Building
Series
Colloquium
Tags
Institute Colloquium
Contact
Url
The function of cells critically depends on the proper spatial organization of their components with proteins and other macromolecules targeted to defined subcellular locations. In eukaryotes as well as in bacteria this organization, i.e. cell polarity, forms the basis for key cellular processes, such as cell shape determination, differentiation, regulation of chromosome dynamics and cytokinesis as well as motility. Despite the immense importance of cell polarity, the mechanisms responsible for its establishment are still poorly understood. Using the rod-shaped cells of the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus we are investigating how bacteria establish and maintain cell polarity to regulate motility. I will present data demonstrating how two small Ras-like GTPases function together with the cytoskeleton in these processes