SFB 740: From Molecules to Modules: Organisation and Dynamics of Functional Units in Cells

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Our collaborative research project deals with the fundamental question how biological function, organization and complexity arise from interacting biological macromolecules. It has become increasingly clear during the past years that major reaction pathways in the living cell are carried out by macromolecules that work in a concerted manner and form interaction networks with a modular character. Accordingly, defined subsets of the macromolecules designated as "functional modules" (Hartwell et al., 1999) are responsible for specific cellular tasks. Time-ordered interactions and complex formation within these ensembles of macromolecules facilitate an autonomous function. Functional modules comprise two general types of entities, i.e. macromolecular machines, which are organized as compact structures, such as the ribosome or the proteasome, and more dynamic ensembles, which change their composition and/or organization during function, i.e. during vesicular transport or signal transduction. The SFB 740 is a concerted multidisciplinary effort devoted to an analysis of functional modules from a bottom-up perspective. Selected functional modules are studied with the tools of biophysics, biochemistry, and/or molecular and cell biology to obtain specific insights into the organization and functional mechanism of the various functional modules. Our analysis starts from the single macromolecules and their interactions to exemplify how modular function arises from macromolecular interactions and to yield the ¿design principles¿ of functional module. Our approach is complementary to top-down approaches from proteomics and systems biology and is thought to close the gap between the mere molecular point of view and the holistic systems view.