Mechanism of lipid-packing sensing in Bacteria

LARISA E. CYBULSKI; ARIEL FERNANDEZ; J. ANTOINETTE KILLIAN, DIEGO DE MENDOZA.

Spoorwegmuseum, Utrecht, Holanda

Simposio; Bijvoet Anniversary Symposium,; 2008

Chemistry Department, University of Utrecht

Membrane proteins have a major role in transmitting signals across membranes and are essential to communicate with the environment. In our work we focus on regulation of membrane fluidity by the molecular thermosensor DesK in Bacillus subtilis. We now have discovered that both sensing and transmission of DesK (which has five TMs), can be captured into one single chimerical TM segment, the so-called ‘minimal sensor’. This opens up the way to elucidate for the first time in molecular detail how transmembrane domains (TM) sense and transmit information to the transcriptional system.