Rudolf Mößbauer Colloquium with Gideon Schreiber (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Rudolf Mößbauer Colloquium with Gideon Schreiber (Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • Date: Jan 9, 2019
  • Time: 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Location: MPI for Medical Research
  • Room: Seminar Room A/B
  • Host: MPI for Medical Research
Normal and Attenuated Diffusion in the Cell and its effect on protein Activity: Biochemistry traditionally determines protein-activity in dilute solutions, while their native environment is the densely populated cytoplasm of the living cell. The environment of the cytoplasm is very different from the test tube in its composition and crowding. This results in potential hard and soft interactions, which may affect diffusion and binding. In my talk I will provide experimental evidence on how these interactions affect catalytic activity and protein-protein interactions. For catalytic activity we found that in vivo catalytic efficiency varied between cells and was much lower than in vitro. Simulations and experiments showed that the attenuated diffusion of the substrate related to the reduced apparent enzyme activity in the cell. For protein-protein interactions we followed both structured and natively unfolded proteins in the cell. Here, we found the cellular environment to have a more limited effect on binding. We suggest that this is a result of proteins having evolved to balance between binding desired partners while rejecting others, achieving fast and specific interactions. Indeed, we show that very few mutations are required to evolve new bind partners, which may effect homeostasis in the cell.
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